By Liane Casten

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." – Benjamin Franklin

Within his first year in office, Bush has managed to trash the Constitution and re-institute the fascistic COINTELPRO – an abuse of FBI power. The Wall Street Journal (12-3-01) reported on the revival of COINTELPRO: the FBI will no longer have to obey "Justice Department regulations requiring agents to show probable cause that a crime was afoot before spying on political or religious organizations."

Next, by Ashcroft decree, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has been limited, if not completely stopped, for federal agencies. Ashcroft is overriding an Act of Congress. Congress remains dormant.

Bush wants no dissent, not even on college campuses where good debate is usually celebrated. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) – a group founded by Lynne Cheney, wife of the Vice President, and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) – issued a report, "Defending Civilization," in which at least 40 university faculty members were identified as "negligent in defending civilization."

The report quotes 117 statements and concludes, "College and university faculty have been the weak link in America's response to the attack." It also asks alumni to bring their displeasure about these views to the attention of university administrations. Translated: suppress ideas and stifle debate.

ACTA was hired last summer by Florida Governor Jeb Bush to train his handpicked trustees at state universities. After Sept. 11, his trustees at the University of South Florida fired Sami Al-Arian, a tenured Arab professor.

Bush also demands a level of secrecy virtually unprecedented. While Cheney may be forced via a lawsuit to disclose information about his secret meetings with Enron, the government refuses to give Congress the results of a survey taken after the 2000 census to calculate how many people were either missed or double-counted by the census takers – data that has nothing to do with national security, law enforcement, confidential communications or any other normal grounds for keeping data from Congress.

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