Within 3 months after 9/11 legislation had already been passed and executive orders signed that established secret military tribunals to try non-US citizens; imposed guilt by association on immigrants; authorised the attorney-general to lock up indefinitely aliens on mere suspicion; expanded the use of wiretaps and secret searches; allowed the use of secret evidence in immigration proceedings that aliens cannot confront or rebut; destroyed the secrecy of the client-lawyer relationship by allowing the government to listen in; and institutionalised racial and ethnic profiling.
Here's a list of some of the more interesting executive orders (not subject to congressional review) granting FEMA and presumably any new "national security police" draconian police state powers in an emergency.
This country has been in such an emergency since 9-11-01 as proclaimed by the current occupant of the white house:
EXECUTIVE ORDER 10990 allows the government to take over all modes of transportation and control of highways and seaports.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 10995 allows the government to seize and control the communication media.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 10997 allows the government to take over all electrical power, gas, petroleum, fuels and minerals.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 10998 allows the government to take over all food resources and farms.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11000 allows the government to mobilize civilians into work brigades under government supervision.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11001 allows the government to take over all health, education and welfare functions.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11002 designates the Postmaster General to operate a national registration of all persons.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11003 allows the government to take over all airports and aircraft, including commercial aircraft.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11004 allows the Housing and Finance Authority to relocate communities, build new housing with public funds, designate areas to be abandoned, and establish new locations for populations.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11005 allows the government to take over railroads, inland waterways and public storage facilities.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11051 specifies the responsibility of the Office of Emergency Planning and gives authorization to put all Executive Orders into effect in times of increased international tensions and economic or financial crisis.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11310 grants authority to the Department of Justice to enforce the plans set out in Executive Orders, to institute industrial support, to establish judicial and legislative liaison, to control all aliens, to operate penal and correctional institutions, and to advise and assist the President.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11049 assigns emergency preparedness function to federal departments and agencies, consolidating 21 operative Executive Orders issued over a fifteen year period.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11921 allows the Federal Emergency Preparedness Agency
to develop plans to establish control over the mechanisms of production and
distribution, of energy sources, wages, salaries, credit and the flow of
money in U.S. financial institution in any undefined national emergency. It
also provides that when a state of emergency is declared by the President,
Congress cannot review the action for six months.
On Sept. 5, 2002 the Associated Press distributed without comment a brief, chilling list of "some of the fundamental changes to [U.S.] legal rights by the Bush administration and the USA Patriot Act following the terror attacks." The list follows [with a few bracketed additions by the editor]:
"FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION: Government may monitor religious and political institutions without suspecting criminal activity to assist terror investigation. [Such "political institutions" include all the peace and justice groups to which many of our readers belong.]
"FREEDOM OF INFORMATION: Government has closed once-public immigration hearings, has secretly detained hundreds of people without charges [actually it is 1,200 so far], and has encouraged bureaucrats to resist public records requests.
"FREEDOM OF SPEECH: Government may prosecute librarians or keepers of any other records if they tell anyone that the government subpoenaed information related to a terror investigation. [Uncle Sam's police agencies are also able to scan the internet, Email and telephone transmissions with highly sophisticated devices capable of monitoring millions of words while looking for 'terrorists.'"]
"RIGHT TO LEGAL REPRESENTATION: Government may monitor federal prison jailhouse conversations between attorneys and clients, and deny lawyers to Americans accused of crimes.
"FREEDOM FROM UNREASONABLE SEARCHES: Government may search and seize Americans' papers and effects without probable cause to assist terror investigation.
"RIGHT TO A SPEEDY AND PUBLIC TRIAL: Government may jail Americans indefinitely without a trial.
"RIGHT TO LIBERTY: Americans may be jailed without being charged or being
able to confront witnesses against them."
In its analysis of civil liberties
today, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) observed that "The Executive
branch, by using Executive Orders and emergency interim agency regulations
as its tools of choice for combating terrorism, has
deliberately chosen methodologies that are largely outside the purview of
both the legislature and the judiciary. These Executive Orders and
agency regulations violate the U.S. Constitution, the laws of the United States,
and international and humanitarian law. As a result, the war on terror
is largely being conducted by Executive fiat and the constitutional guarantees
of both citizens and non-citizens alike have been seriously compromised.
Additionally, the actions of the government have been shrouded in a cloak
of secrecy that is incompatible with democratic government.
"Perhaps the most disturbing
aspect of the government's actions has been its attack on the Bill of Rights,
the very cornerstone of our American democracy. The war on terrorism
has seriously compromised the First, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights
of citizens and non-citizens alike. From the USA Patriot Act's over-broad
definition of domestic
terrorism [passed in haste by a panicked Congress last October], to the FBI's
new powers of search and surveillance [mandated by Attorney General John
Ashcroft May 30 when he removed restraints placed on the FBI by Congress in
1976], to the indefinite detention of both citizens and non-citizens without
formal charges, the principles of free speech,
due process and equal protection under the law have been seriously undermined."