Dubai, 12 April 05 (WAM) -- This US Congress? move to completelyreview the Patriot Act and possibly rewrite it to protect civil libertiescomes as a welcome reprieve, a UAE paper reported today.
''The US Congress is reviewing the Patriot Act, the contentious lawthat was passed in a tearing hurry in the aftermath of September 11 strikes. Human rights groups and many US lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans, see the Patriot Act as too rigid, too invasive and violating fundamental rights of the Americans. Even Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales, a hardliner to the core, has conceded that the PatriotAct does "need some adjustments", wrote the ''Khaleej Times'' in its daily editorial.
According to the paper, rights groups and legal experts have arguedthat the law not only allows the state to play the Orwellian Big Brotherinvading people?s privacy but it allows it to get away with serious rightsviolations.
''This is why the US Congress? move to completely review the PatriotAct and possibly rewrite it to protect civil liberties comes as a welcomereprieve. The inherent safety mechanism of the US polity that ensuresthe system, of its own accord, checks and deals with all that is not intune with the guiding principles of the US Constitution and the visionof its founding fathers is what distinguishes America from others,''it remarked.
Indeed, it added, this preoccupation with civil liberties and democraticvalues is what unquestionably makes the US the leader of the free world.
''This image of America has taken a drubbing in the post September11 world though largely because of the so-called war on terror. The terrorwar, the biggest war America ever fought at home and around the world,has seen serious rights violations,'' it said.
It went on to note that ,''While the Patriot Act targeted therights of Americans, the faceless men who people the US gulags in theGuantanamo Bay and around the world in their hundreds have largely lived in a dark world that is beyond all laws including those of America.
''This is why as the US Congress takes a hard look at the PatriotAct and its misuse, it would do well to thoroughly examine the whole issueof the war on terror and its impact on civil liberties in America andaround the world. The US Supreme Court has thankfully intervened in thecase of some Guantanamo Bay detainees declaring the ?enemy combatants?couldn?t be tried by US military tribunals,'' it added.
However, it is the US Congress, the original lawmaking body, thatis best qualified to put the issue in its right perspective and act accordingly.
Congress can ensure America, that has inspired freedom-loving people everywhere, remains on the path chosen by its founding fathers.''If laws have to be rewritten to protect people?s rights and thecherished American ideals, the Congress should not hesitate in doing so.
For no laws are above people?s rights, it concluded.
