HON. RON PAUL OF TEXAS
BEFORE THE US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
November 16, 2005
Congress Erodes Privacy
The
privacy issue has been around for a long time.
The brutal abuse of privacy and property of early Americans played a big
role in our revolt against the King.
The 1st, 4th, and 5th amendments
represented attempts to protect private property and privacy from an overzealous
federal government.
Today those attempts appear to have failed.
There
have been serious legal debates in recent decades about whether “privacy” is
protected by the Constitution.
Some argue that since the word does not appear in the text of that
document, it is not protected.
Others argue that privacy protection grants the federal government power
to dictate to all states limits or leniency in enforcing certain laws.
But the essence of liberty is privacy.
In
recent years—especially since 9-11—Congress has been totally negligent in
its duty to protect U.S. citizens from federal government encroachment on the
rights of privacy.
Even prior to 9-11, the Echelon worldwide surveillance system was well
entrenched, monitoring telephones, faxes, and emails.
From
the 1970s forward, national security letters were used sparingly in
circumventing the legal process and search warrant requirements.
Since 9-11 and the subsequent passage of the Patriot Act, however, use of
these instruments has skyrocketed, from 300 annually to over 30,000.
There is essentially no oversight nor understanding by the U.S. Congress
of the significance of this pervasive government surveillance.
It’s all shrugged off as necessary to make us safe from terrorism.
Sacrificing personal liberty and privacy, the majority feels, is not a
big deal.
We
soon will vote on the conference report reauthorizing the Patriot Act.
Though one could argue there’s been a large grass-roots effort to
discredit the Patriot Act, Congress has ignored the message.
Amazingly, over 391 communities and 7 states have passed resolutions
highly critical of the Patriot Act.
The
debate in Congress—if that’s what one wants to call it—boils down to
whether the most egregious parts of the Act will be sunsetted after 4 years or
7. The
conference report will adjust the numbers, and members will vote willingly for
the “compromise” and feel good about their effort to protect individual
privacy.
But
if we’re honest with ourselves we would admit that the 4th
amendment is essentially a dead letter.
There has been no effort to curb the abuse of national security letters
nor to comprehend the significance of Echelon.
Hard-fought liberties are rapidly slipping away from us.
Congress
is not much better when it comes to protecting against the erosion of the
centuries-old habeas corpus doctrine.
By declaring anyone an “enemy combatant”—a totally arbitrary
designation by the President— the government can deny an individual his right
to petition a judge or even speak with an attorney.
Though there has been a good debate on the insanity of our policy of
torturing prisoners, holding foreigners and Americans without charges seems
acceptable to many.
Did it never occur to those who condemn torture that unlimited detention
of individuals without a writ of habeas corpus is itself torture—especially
for those who are totally innocent?
Add this to the controversial worldwide network of secret CIA prisons now
known of for 2 years, and we should be asking ourselves what we have become as a
people. Recent
evidence that we’re using white phosphorus chemical weapons in Iraq does
nothing to improve our image.
Our
prestige in the world is slipping.
The war is going badly.
Our financial system is grossly overburdened.
And we spend hundreds of hours behind the scenes crafting a mere $5
billion spending cut while pretending no one knows we can spend tens of billions
in off-budget supplemental bills- sometimes under unanimous consent!
It’s time we reconsider the real purpose of government in a society that professes to be free—protection of liberty, peaceful commerce, and keeping itself out of our lives, our economy, our pocketbooks, and certainly out of the affairs of foreign nations.