DSEA = Dastardly Spy-Enabling Act

About I month ago I posted about John Ashcroft's radical proposed Domestic Security Enhancement Act, also known as Patriot Act II - well, it's one step closer to reality. According to AlterNet, the details of the sweeping set of nullifications to many of America's treasured liberties are chilling:

• The government would be instructed to build a mammoth database of citizen DNA information, aimed at "detecting, investigating, prosecuting, preventing or responding to terrorist activities." Samples could be collected without a court order; one need only be suspected of wrongdoing by a law enforcement officer. Those refusing the cheek-swab could be fined $200,000 and jailed for a year.
• Legal permanent residents could be deported instantaneously, without a criminal charge or even evidence, if the Attorney General considers them a threat to national security. If they commit minor, non-terrorist offenses, they can still be booted out, without so much as a day in court, because the law would exempt habeas corpus review in some cases.
• Authorities could wiretap anybody for 15 days, and snoop on anyone's Internet usage (including chat and email), all without obtaining a warrant.
• The death penalty would be expanded to cover 15 new offenses.
• Americans could have their citizenship revoked, if found to have contributed "material support" to organizations deemed by the government, even retroactively, to be "terrorist."

So, what recourse does the average joe like you and me have? I urge you to read the fine print and learn more about this frightening piece of legislation from:

• The ACLU
• The Center for Public Integrity
• The Lawyers' Committee on Human Rights [PDF]
• The Electronic Privacy Information Center

The full 87-page draft of the DSEA is available here courtesy of the Center for Public Integrity.

I don't know about you, folks, but the DSEA just isn't American, by any stretch of the imagination.

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