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October 3, 2003/Tishri 7 5764, Vol. 56, No.2
Jews back curtailment of Patriot Act
MATTHEW E. BERGER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - Two years after the USA Patriot Act became law, Jewish groups are still searching for the balance between law enforcement and civil liberties.
The passage of the legislation in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks divided Jewish groups who were ambivalent about the legislation from allies in the civil-rights community that immediately sought to have the law revoked.
The central reason for the Jewish groups' hesitancy to defend civil liberties - one of the causes Jews generally champion - is that the act's provisions were designed to target groups viewed as hostile to Jews.
"We can't ignore the fact that every Jewish community is threatened by terrorism," said Michael Lieberman, Washington counsel of the Anti-Defamation League.
Now, however, Jews are among those behind new legislation that would curtail some of the expanded powers the Patriot Act granted law-enforcement authorities.
On Sept. 24, Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.), who is Jewish, joined Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), other lawmakers and civil-rights groups to introduce a new bill called the "Benjamin Franklin True Patriot Act," which would repeal many of the Patriot Act's provisions.
The new legislation, Kucinich said, balances liberty and safety.
"There is a sentiment in Congress to move to challenge this idea that we have to forsake the Bill of Rights in order to be safe," said Kucinich, a Democratic candidate for president.
He is supported by many civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Kucinich also was joined by the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism, one of the first Jewish groups to speak out against the Patriot Act.
Mark Pelavin, the RAC's associate director, said his organization does not officially endorse every provision of the proposed legislation but agrees that the bill addresses concerns the Reform movement has raised about the Patriot Act.
While Jewish law allows for the infringement of individual privacy when lives are at stake, those intrusions should be as limited as possible, Pelavin said.
"We must be vigilant in ensuring that our effort to destroy terrorism does not undermine the very liberties that make this country worth celebrating and protecting," he said.
Privately, some Jewish activists admit that had law enforcement used the tools in the original Patriot Act to target a minority other than Arabs or Muslims, Jewish opposition to the legislation might have been more pronounced.
Provisions in the bill, such as the freezing of terrorist assets and new rules for border crossing, can be used by law-enforcement authorities to protect Jews, Lieberman said.
"Every congregant who walks through a synagogue" in the Jewish holiday season "will walk past security guards and cameras," he said. "This has an impact on the analysis we do on tools we want law enforcement to have."
The law updated procedures to allow police to track new technology, such as cellular phones and e-mail. It also removed barriers that prevented information sharing between local and national law-enforcement agencies.
Post-Sept. 11, intelligence groups said those barriers hampered cooperation that might have helped anticipate the Sept. 11 attacks. Civil libertarians say the barriers, which were in place since the 1970s, prevented spying on U.S. citizens.
Proponents of the legislation say the provisions in the Patriot Act are essential for staying ahead of present-day threats of terrorism and for updating law-enforcement tools that were crafted to fight the Mafia, not terrorist networks.
Critics say the new laws reverse traditional American notions that a suspect is innocent until proven guilty and has a right to counsel.
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