On Friday, President George W. Bush signed the Anti-Terrorism Bill into law. The bill greatly expands police powers to include new authority for wire taps and searches with almost no judicial review. This latest piece of legislation is geared toward helping authorities identify terrorists to prevent surprise attacks similar to Sept. 11. While the terms of the bill are questionable in and of themselves, the way that this bill was passed also raises some red flags. The anthrax scares on Capitol Hill and across the country have made it nearly impossible for members of Congress to get their mail. Even if any citizens would have sent letters to their representatives with their concerns on the bill, there is a good chance that the representative did not even receive the letter in time to factor in their constituents' concern when deciding how to vote. Both houses of Congress passed the bill convincingly and quickly, with President Bush also moving hastily in signing the bill into law the next day. The Anti-Terrorism Bill has been in the works since the attacks occurred, yet there was not much information about it in the press because of the constant news of the recovery efforts as well as the beginning of the campaign on Afghanistan by U.S. and U.K. forces. Therefore, when any news of this bill ran in the newspaper or on any of the news channels, the story was not the main issue. Instead, it was buried deep on the inside of the paper or discussed later on in the show. As a result, there is a potential that many Americans are not fully aware of all that this law entails. Taking all this into account, from the time of the attacks to the time of the signing, there were only 45 days at most in the whole process. While it is nice to see our government work so quickly, one has to wonder whether or not a bill of this magnitude should have passed in as little time as it did. This law has incredible amount of impact on Americans and all of our civil liberties; perhaps more thought should have been put into this on behalf of Congress and more awareness should have been created for the citizens. While it is important to take steps in order to prevent something like the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 from happening again, it is vital that our rights as individuals are not forsaken.
yes - no - abstain
