ABUSE OF POWER BY OUR GOVERNMENT By Vinay Mathur

INTRODUCTION  Once someone has power, they tend to abuse it.  Our government has abused power and are still abusing power this very day.  There have been many accounts and evidence that have proven this.  We need to call out our government on these wrong doings and make sure the people remain the top priority in our nation.

WARRANTLESS WIRETAPPING  New York Times reported that National Security Agency was tapping into telephone calls of innocent American.  National Security Agency’s program to do so supported by President Bush and other top notch government officials and they deemed it legal.  Taking data with a system, violation of privacy.

KIDNAPPING, TORTURE, AND DETENTION  Government has illegally kidnapped, detained, and tortured many prisoners.  Government claims to have power to choose anyone they seem as a necessary threat and put them in their captivity.  Violation of human rights.  Flew prisoners to different countries to be abused and tortured.

GROWING SURVEILLANCE SOCIETY  Country undergoing major expansion of data collection, mining, tracking, and storing of ordinary Americans.  Great assault on privacy of ordinary Americans.  FBI’s Investigative Data Warehouse has now enlarged to 560 million records.

ABUSE OF PATRIOT ACT  Provisions of Patriot act set to expire in the ending of  Congress reauthorized the law without fixing its flawed provisions which make it irrelevant with the Constitution.  Judge of ACLU shot down the national security letter provision of Patriot Act because it violated the First Amendment and the separation of powers.

SECRECY OF GOVERNMENT  One of the most secretive and nontransparent administrations have been the Bush administration.  The Freedom of Information Act has become weak.  Used as an excuse for not letting government investigators have security clearances they needed to investigate illegal wiretapping program.

NO FLY SELECTEE LISTS  Was established to keep track of people who are threats, and they are not allowed to travel.  Government has little reason for putting most of the names on the list, unable to clarify exactly why the name was put on the list.  Lists name approximately 30,000 to 50,000 people.

POLITICAL SPYING  FBI and the Department of Defense, among other government agencies, have conducted their own spying on innocent law abiding citizens.  FBI consistently monitoring peaceful groups, such as quakers and people of the ethical treatment of animals.

MATERIAL WITNESS ABUSE  Shortly after 9/11, government collected and gathered many people, mostly Muslims.  Abused a narrow federal technicality that allows the arresting and brief detention of a material witnesses, or those that have important information of a crime supposedly.  Government has apologized for wrongly detaining 13 people.