Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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49 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
America Drifts to Fascism, October 9, 2002
In this brief and lucid book, Nancy Chang exposes how the USA Patriot Act and other post September 11th responses by the Bush regime constitute a flagrant assault on American civil liberties and constitutional rights. Chang places her findings in a sharp historical context by providing a brief survey of similar events in American history, including the jailing and detention of innocent people as far back as the immediate aftermath of the Revolutionary War. Chang concludes that while the Bush regime's purported anti-terrorist measures definitely provide it with a variety of legal pretexts to persecute American citizens and non-citizens at will, (for example, the authoring of this review could constitute a threat to public safety under several of the USA Patriot Act's broad definitions of "domestic terrorism") it does little or nothing to actually protect people living in the United States from terrorist attacks.Perhaps the most disturbing part of Chang's study is its revelation that America's theocratic Attorney General, John Ashcroft has detained hundreds of Arabs and South Asians living in America for minor immigration violations. These individuals have frequently been incarcerated under highly abusive conditions and some have died in custody. Ashcroft's goal, according to Chang, is to use immigration violations as a sweeping drag net for capturing any foreign terrorists who, like many of the September 11th suicide bombers, may have violated their visa requirements. Even if one is willing to turn a blind eye to the fate of the hundreds of innocent immigrants who have already suffered under this policy, one cannot ignore its broader consequences for the American people. History has shown that in places like Stalinist Russia, Nazi Germany, and earlier situations in America, providing the government with broad, unaccountable authority generally results in global not local patterns of abuse. A government that is interested in persecuting immigrants today may go after anyone else it doesn't like tomorrow. And even if Ashcroft succeeds in rooting out all terrorists who have visa problems, this will not protect America from the likes of Timothy McVeigh. Finally, Ashcroft's policy just doesn't add up when you consider Chang's stunning revelation that the Bush administration used provisions of the USA Patriot act to quash a congressional investigation into the fact that in early 2001, the INS extended the visas of two of the September 11th terrorists including the alleged ring leader, Mohamed Atta. That's right, despite the fact that these guys were on terrorist watch lists, our government provided them with the legal means to remain in this country, but George W. Bush says that in order to protect us he can't let our elected officials publicly examine how our government could make such a catastrophic error. It seems that with these new anti terrorist measures, the government isn't interested in protecting us so much as expanding its own power and eliminating any accountability. My only complaint about this book is that it is written and structured like a tedious legal brief, which is understandable since Chang is a veteran litigation attorney. Despite this minor peccadillo, "Silencing Political Dissent" is an important book that should be read by all U.S. citizens and non-citizens.
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38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent concise summary, October 15, 2002
Nancy Chang's concise summary of post 9/11 developments is an excellent primer on how dissent has been repressed and silenced in the name of anti-terrorism and how "patriotism" has been twisted into something resembling a Mccarthyite witch-hunt. She focuses on the USA PATRIOT Act, and her legal analysis of the profound unconstitutionality of some of its provisions is chilling. Her legal analysis is acute and accurate (she is the senior litigation lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights in NYC). Among other things, attorney-client communications are now being monitored if the client is suspected or accused of "terrorist" activities. The term "terrorism" has been so expanded and amplified by this Act as to make it applicable to many activities not normally considered to be within its ambit, as Ms. Chang details. This is a timely, up-to-the-minute introduction, and urgent reading for everyone concerned with the assault on civil rights now taking place in the guise of fighting "terrorism."
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Crucial Booklet Outlines Our Situation, September 25, 2002
Nancy Chang of the Center For Constitutional Rights has prepared a concise summary and analysis of the USA PATRIOT Act and other initiatives that follow the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. This is crucial background material for any debate on the measures taken by the Bush Administration in response to terror. In addition, Chang has placed the USA PATRIOT Act in a historical context, reminding of us other cases in which our Republic has suspended common sense along with our democratic principles as a response to fear. It is important to understand that Attorney General John Ashcroft did not invent preventive detention, and that George W. Bush is not the first president to resent elements of the Constitution he is charged to defend. Dispassionately and tersely, Chang exposes the articles of the USA PATRIOT Act, the number of detainees and the treatment of non-citizens, the quest for authority to snoop on innocents and gather information on law-abiding citizens, the monitoring of conversations between client and attorney, the use of patriotism to demonize dissidents, and the unquestionable grab for power by the executive branch. The book is high on information, including good documentary footnotes and solid research; and low on rhetoric. This enhances its credibility and its strength in a time of confusion.
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