Patriot Act Sweepstakes Winner?

Politics International Politics
1

We may have a winner of the Patriot Act Sweepstakes:

"Steven Wax, the public defender who represented Mayfield, said an FBI computer likely returned a number of possible fingerprint matches, and that his client could have been singled out for investigation and subsequent arrest because he is Muslim. “It’s a major civil rights issue,” he said.

Wax said Mayfield believes he was also subjected to so-called “sneak and peek” searches where agents search a home but are under no obligation to immediately tell the owner. They are allowed under the USA Patriot Act. Mayfield may sue the government, Wax said.

Lawyers for Mayfield also said they would call for an investigation into leaks to the media in the case, as well as a probe into FBI actions, and how the fingerprint could have been misidentified.

Mayfield’s mother said the family wants an apology from the U.S. government.

“That’s what we’ve been saying all along. It’s not his fingerprint,” said AvNell Mayfield of Hutchinson, Kan. “He was falsely accused, and they still weren’t letting him go.”

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/West/05/24/spain.bombings.lawyer.ap/index.html

2

We may have another winner in the Patriot Act Sweepstakes:

The case is seen as a major test of a provision of the Patriot Act that targets “secondary” terrorists who provide “expert advice or assistance.” In January, in another case, a federal judge in California ruled the provision violates people’s First and Fifth Amendment rights.

In the Al-Hussayen case, federal prosecutors have portrayed him as a major force in the Islamic Assembly of North America. They say he served as its webmaster and posted diatribes against Jews and the United States and scholarly Islamic decrees extolling the virtues of suicide bombers.

Prosecutors have presented evidence that Al-Hussayen registered the site’s domain name, paid bills for server space, uploaded files and participated in chat-room discussions. They allege he knew his actions would bring in donations and recruits for groups affiliated with terrorist organizations, including Hamas.

Jack Van Valkenburgh of the American Civil Liberties Union argued that the actions attributed to Al-Hussayen fall short of criminal activity.

“What about the Lambs of God or those targeting abortion doctors on the Internet? Are we going to be going after their webmasters?” he said.

John Dickinson, who remains Al-Hussayen’s academic adviser, said the government has yet to make good on the promise federal agents made when they interviewed him the day Al-Hussayen was arrested.

“They said what I know about Sami was only the tip of the iceberg, that they had huge amounts of material against him,” Dickinson recalled. “But I have never seen a single piece of evidence ever to make me understand why they are proceeding with the prosecution.”


Crimes:
(1) registered domain name
(2) paid bills for server space
(3) uploaded files
(4) participated in chat-room discussions
(5) served as webmaster
(6) posted diatribes against Jews and the United States
(7) posted scholarly Islamic decrees extolling the virtues of suicide bombers

[b]“Patriot Act” penalty for these “crimes”: 15 years in prison.

Sounds like what China does to its dissidents.[/b]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/05/28/computer.terrorism.ap/index.html

3

Although not a part of the patriot act, this story is worrying as you have people running a school that don’t support freedom of speech…

news-journalonline.com/NewsJ … 051504.htm

Hard lessons from poetry class: Speech is free unless it’s critical