【原文题目】Twenty Examples of the Obama Administration Assault on Domestic Civil Liberties
【中文题目】奥巴马政府公然挑战国内公民自由权的20个例证
【来 源】http://dissidentvoice.org/2011/12/twenty-examples-of-the-obama-administration-assault-on-domestic-civil-liberties/
【发表日期】2011年12月1日
【原文】Bill Quigley
【译 者】立哥
【声 明】译文为原创，转载务必注明译者及出处“独家网dooo.cc”。
【摘 要】奥巴马在其任期内继续和发展了几乎所有布什当政时期政府倡导的对国内公民自由权的严重干预。以下是奥巴马公然挑战公民自由权的20个例证。自奥巴马上位之后，遭侵犯的公民权利包括言论自由权、集会自由权、自由结社权、隐私权、公平审判权、宗教自由权、信仰自由权等。看过这些，我们应该更清楚，奥巴马与布什并没有本质的区别。美国总统其实都是为利益集团存在的。
【译 文】
奥巴马政府承认，其任期内继续和发展了几乎所有布什当政时期政府倡导的对国内公民自由权的严重干预。下面将介绍奥巴马政府公然挑战公民自由权的20个例证。自奥巴马上位之后，遭侵犯的公民权利包括言论自由权、集会自由权、自由结社权、隐私权、公平审判权、宗教自由权、信仰自由权等。考虑完这些方面，然后再下结论——到底布什政府和奥巴马政府在国内公民自由权方面是否有本质的区别。
爱国者法案
2011年5月27日，奥巴马不顾两党内部广泛的反对意见，支持将本应到期失效的《爱国者法案》中有争议的几项条款的有效期延长4年。而早在2010年3月，奥巴马就曾批准了该法案延期一年的类似提议。《爱国者法案》中的条款允许政府部门，在获得某个特殊的秘密法院的批准之后，在当事人不知情的情况下获取其履历，对与恐怖组织无明显瓜葛的可疑人士实行秘密监控，并窃听嫌疑人所有的电话通信。
对持不同政见的人的刑事定罪和警队军事化
近几年参加过任何和平或正义示威的人都会发现——当地的警队先是变成了特种部队，然后又从特种部队变成全副武装的军队。不管是友好还是不友好的警官都变成了穿着统一服装警察，像士兵一样。他们手持盾牌，带着护胫，穿着加强型防弹背心，戴着军用头盔和护目镜，以及大规模升级的武器装备。对阵示威人群的警察变身成忍者神龟，还有直升机、特殊坦克为其护航，有些时候甚至连在伊拉克战场上首次出现的声波爆破装置都用上了。无线指纹扫描器（首用于伊拉克战场）被地方性警局推广到用来核查司机的身份。亚利桑那州以及其他司法辖区开始运用战区采用的面部识别软件。而在与墨西哥和加拿大交界的地方使用的无人机与科索沃、伊拉克、阿富汗战争中使用的几乎完全一样。奥巴马时期，这些行动还在继续膨胀。
窃听
由于获得联邦或州法院的批准，对私密对话、电子以及有线通信的窃听达到了前所未有的高峰。据美国法院行政管理局统计，与2009年相比，2010年窃听上升了34%。
言论罪
因他们口述或发布于网络上的煽动性言论，美国的穆斯林人士已经被奥巴马政府的司法部门注意很久了。宪法第一修正案对言论自由的保护条款指出，即使煽动性言论鼓吹暴力行为政府也无权惩罚，除非有迹象显示发言人将会煽动他人或自己制造该行动。这一条款最近一次运用是在1969年最高法院审判布兰登伯格诉俄亥俄州案时。（注：布兰登伯格是美国俄亥俄州三K党（Ku Klux Klan）的一个首领，他在1968年通过电视传媒召集地方三K党成员，在电视上辱骂黑人和犹太人，并扬言“如果我们的总统、国会和最高法院继续压制高加索白种人，我们将采取某些报复行动。我们有40万人，将于7月4日向国会进军。”他被指控违反了俄亥俄州的《组织犯罪防治法》，该法禁止任何以犯罪、破坏、暴力或其他非法恐怖手段达成政治改革的主张。据此，俄亥俄州法院判布兰登伯格1000美元罚款和10年监禁。这名三K党首领以《组织犯罪防治法》违宪为由上诉至联邦最高法院。1969年6月9日，联邦最高法院的全体一致得出裁决，推翻了州立法院的原判，并认为俄亥俄州的此项法律具有违宪性质。裁决书指出：宪法保障言论自由，不允许政法禁止或限制任何主张暴力或主张不遵守法律的言论，除非该言论是以煽动他人“即刻”地违法或产生“即刻”的非法行动为目标，而且该主张的确可能会煽动或产生这种“即刻”的违法行为，才可以对其进行限制或惩罚。联邦最高法院要求言论不但相当可能导致即刻的危害，而且危害必须相当明显和严重，政法才能采取限制言论的行动，这一裁决修正并正式确认了霍尔姆斯大法官1919年首次提出的“明显且即刻的危险”检测标准。）2011年9月，一位在美国合法居住巴基斯坦人因在YouTube上上传视频被司法部指控。司法部声称，该视频支持恐怖主义（尽管该视频不含任何暴力因素）。2011年7月，司法部指控一位原宾夕法尼亚州立大学学生，理由是，该学生上网暗示目标，提供炸药制作方法（该方法网络上早已流传）的链接。
政府对国内穆斯林团体的监控
针对纽约及其他地方的一些穆斯林团体，纽约市警察局和中央情报局联手进行了一些情报工作，这些行动侵犯了宗教自由、言论自由以及一些其他法律。 为方便监控穆斯林团体，无权监听美国人的中央情报局正与警方合作绘制“人类学图谱”（通常被看作是专门描述与种族和宗教有关的人物的简介）。 据美联社2011年8月的报道，奥巴马执政期间，代号为“清真寺爬虫”的卧底警察监视了布道者、书店以及咖啡屋。
美国的绝对机密
2010年7月，华盛顿邮报发表了题为“美国：绝对机密”系列报道，详细介绍了经过两年调查获得的结果——以“国家安全、情报工作和反恐”为名迅速扩张的秘密帝国。 该系列报道给出了一组惊人的数据：1271个政府组织，1931个反恐和保卫国家安全的私营企业，以及覆盖全美的10,000个情报机构分支。 每一天，美国国家安全局都要拦截并保存超过17亿个邮件、电话和其他通信内容。联邦调查局名为“保卫者”的秘密数据库中包含了所有联邦、州以及地方的关于可疑活动的执法报告存档。 据华盛顿邮报报道，截止2009年12月，“保卫者”数据库总计有161,948个文件档案。据联邦调查局的报告，他们根据这个数据库的资料开展了103次全面调查，至少逮捕了5名嫌疑人。 奥巴马政府丝毫没有公开这些行动。
其他国内间谍活动
据美国公民自由联盟近期发布的一份报告显示，全美至少有72个资料收集中心，它们收集当地警方信息，并将其与多辖区情报中心的信息结合。这些情报中心共享来自联邦、州以及地方的执法信息，以及一些私营承包商通过对一些美国人的秘密监控获得的信息。奥巴马执政起期间，这一切都在继续扩张和繁荣。
FBI情报业务的滥用
美国非营利机构电子前沿基金会记载了2001-2008年间的数千起美联邦调查局的违规情报操作。该机构估计，类似的违规操作每年超过4000起。奥巴马还颁布了一项行政命令加强情报监督委员会的职能。该机构本是为了监督FBI、CIA等间谍情报机构依法办事。其他变动尚未观察到。
维基解密
维基解密公开美国外交电文的行为，以及随后主流媒体的跟风报道，遭到奥巴马政府官员们的严厉谴责。官员们表示，政府文件的完全公开，其危害不亚于对美国进行军事袭击。美司法部长宣布对此进行犯罪调查，并声称“这不是武力威胁”。政府官员警告国务院工作人员不要下载这些可公开下载的文件。国务院的一位官员与哥伦比亚市的一些官员们甚至警告学生们，讨论维基解密或是在社交网站上连接其文件都将影响到他们未来的从政之路。该观点持续了数日，直到被其他哥伦比亚官员否定。在本文完成之后，奥巴马政府还在继续努力，试图起诉维基解密的发布者。
中央情报局对书籍的审查
2011年，中央情报局要求前联邦调查局探员阿里•苏凡删除其回忆录中的诸多内容，因为该书抹黑了该机构的形象。苏凡在书中详细描述了该机构虐待被逮捕罪犯具体做法，以及9•11事件发生的原委。前中央情报局特工格伦・卡尔遭遇了类似的事情。他也被要求删除其所写的关于虐囚方法一书中的大部分内容。奥巴马执政期间，中央情报局继续扩大其审查范围。
阻止美士兵虐囚照的发布
2009年5月，奥巴马总统（此前曾表示不会阻止虐囚照公开）一改三周前的态度，坚决反对公开美国士兵虐待囚犯的照片。而2009年4月，美国防部还曾告知某联邦法院，将公开这些照片。这组照片与近200个士兵虐囚事件调查有关。
技术监控
2011年8月，海湾地区交通系统听信了关于警察将示威抗议枪击死刑的谣言，因此关闭了当地4个警局的手机通信服务。一些西方国家的企业向中国、利比亚和叙利亚等专制政权出售邮件监控软件，方便他们对示威行走者和人权激进分子的监控。犯罪高发区、街角、以及其他政府大楼都装有监控摄像头以监视居民。警察局的计算机系统要求公用事业公司提交该地区每一户居民的信息（包括姓名和地址），信息列表每天更新。警车的内置计算机经过每一辆时都对其牌照进行扫描。奥巴马政府从未试图想公众公开这些新的监控技术。
以“国家机密”为由阻止政府及其他人士审查
为了将待刑讯的囚犯运送至其他国家，布什政府向某波音子公司租用了私人飞机。这件事被抓包后，布什政府成功的说服联邦初审法庭不予受理被刑讯的未判决囚犯的上诉，因为若进行公开审判将泄漏“国家机密”，并威胁国家安全。而奥巴马当选后，在一次联邦高级法院的审判中，有关保护“国家机密”的说辞再一次被搬上台面。这一说辞一直奥巴马政府的重要借口，以此来隐瞒政府当前的行动以及布什时期的一些见不得人的政府作为。
在另一个案例中，布什时期的联邦调查局试图回避宪法第四修正案的条款，并寻求法律授权直接从电信公司获得电话及网络记录。这一企图2005年逐渐浮出水面。 除其他监控方式外，政府和电信公司还建立了专门用于电话和网络通信监控的密室。 2008年，政府对电信公司涉嫌大范围侵犯其客户隐私权作出无罪赦免。 总之，客户曾起诉电信公司。但奥巴马政府以避免泄漏国家机密为由，成功地说服了地方法院拒绝受理该案件以及其他类似案件。 这一案件目前仍在上诉。
物资支持
奥巴马政府还曾向美最高法院请求不应用宪法第一修正案，并允许政府将某些合法活动定为犯罪。这些活动包括人道主义援助和向其他国外机构（在其名单上，被定为恐怖组织的机构）提供建议和支持。该请求获得了最高法院的批准。该“物质支持”法现在可用于对宣扬人权和提供人道主义援助的人定罪。现任司法部副部长曾向最高法院表示，“当你帮助黎巴嫩真主党造房子的时候，其实你是在帮他们造炸弹。”最高法院接纳了奥巴马的观点，同意在这些情形下，国家安全超越言论自由。
芝加哥反战大陪审团调查
2010年9月，联邦调查局的探员分别在芝加哥、明尼阿波利斯市和大急流城三地突袭了7个倡议和平的活动家，没收了电脑、手机、护照和其他证件。超过20个反战争积极分子遭到联邦大陪审团的传讯，而全国范围内被叫去问询的人则更多。被怀疑的人中有些是当地的工会组织成员，其他的是另一些组织（类似阿拉伯-美国行动网络、哥伦比亚行动网络、双子城反战争运动、自由之路社会主义者机构等组织）的成员。其中大多数人在国际上都小有名气，他们还经常联系在哥伦比亚和巴勒斯坦的地下反抗组织。陪审团的传讯会引导这些人交代任何与哥伦比亚、巴勒斯坦、约旦、叙利亚、以色列或中东相关的活动。2011年，洛杉矶的一位积极分子的家遭到突然袭击，他因为与2010年9月那批积极分子的联系而被怀疑。所有这些调查工作都是奥巴马政府下达的指令。
虐待揭发者
奥巴马政府依据《间谍法》起诉了五个揭发人，这比历届政府加一起都要多。 一个国家安全机构顾问向媒体透露，政府窃听人员正在一些错误的注定会失败的项目上浪费数以亿计的钱。政府因此按《间谍法》指控他十项重罪。项目失败后才批准了其改为轻罪的请求，而政府也因实施不合理项目被大法官责难。奥巴马政府还起诉了中央情报局、国务院以及联邦调查局的一些离职人员。他们甚至传讯了一个记者和为这些揭发人打官司的一位律师。
士兵布拉德利•曼宁
二等兵布拉德利•曼宁，因为将成千上万的政府文件泄露给维基解密，而受到指控。这些文件暴露了美政府官员不计其数的谎言——包括为掩饰其在伊拉克的暴行而非法杀害平民和警察、有关被关在关塔那摩的人的信息、未公开的无人机袭击、虐待儿童以及美政府胡作非为的许多其他证据。虽然丹尼奥•艾尔斯伯格和其他揭发人认为布拉德利是一个美国英雄，美国政府依然将他监禁起来，并且威胁将以间谍罪起诉他，这一罪名可能被判死刑。曼宁被独立关押了数月，并被警卫要求赤裸睡觉。而当被问及曼宁的监禁生活状况时，奥巴马总统还曾打包票说，他可以肯定监狱环境良好企且符合我们的基本标准。
独立关押
有人曾多次估算，至少有20,000人被独立关押在美国的监狱和拘留所。 尽管联邦、州及地方监狱和拘留所都没有公开具体数字，根据学术调查统计，数以外籍的人每天有23到24个小时被关在“特殊”牢房¬，包括超高度安全监狱、 一级囚犯禁闭室、独立安全房、“黑洞”、特殊管理拘留所或是行政隔离室。 根据非政府组织——人权观察的报告，三分之一到一半的被独立关押的囚犯很可能患有精神类疾病。 2006年5月，联合国反刑讯委员会认为，美国政府应该“对将拘留者关押在独立监狱——特别是长期隔离——的制度进行反思。” 奥巴马上台以后丝毫没有减少对联邦、州及地方独立监狱的使用。
特殊行政措施
特殊行政措施（SAMS）是指，对囚犯（包括未判决的被拘留者）给予额外严酷的监禁环境。美国监狱管理局对隔离关押、限制或禁止与外界联络的囚犯有明文规定，包括：除律师外不得与其他探访者见面，不得与媒体接触，不得使用手机，禁止通信，禁止与家属联络，不得与狱警交谈，24小时录像监控。2009年，美国司法部曾承认，有数十位罪犯（包括数位未判决囚犯）被以“特殊行政措施”监禁，他们大多为穆斯林人士。奥巴马上台后特殊行政措施的采用只可能有增无减。
上述20个具体的例证证明了奥巴马执政时期不断侵犯国内公民自由权。老实说，在这个方面奥巴马跟布什有什么区别呢？
Bill Quigley是新奥尔良洛约拉大学法学教授，他同时是“宪法权益中心”（总部在纽约的一个非政府组织）助理法务总监。
【原 文】
The Obama administration has affirmed, continued and expanded almost all of the draconian domestic civil liberties intrusions pioneered under the Bush administration. Here are twenty examples of serious assaults on the domestic rights to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, the right to privacy, the right to a fair trial, freedom of religion, and freedom of conscience that have occurred since the Obama administration has assumed power. Consider these and then decide if there is any fundamental difference between the Bush presidency and the Obama presidency in the area of domestic civil liberties.
Patriot Act
On May 27, 2011, President Obama, over widespread bipartisan objections, approved a Congressional four year extension of controversial parts of the Patriot Act that were set to expire. In March of 2010, Obama signed a similar extension of the Patriot Act for one year. These provisions allow the government, with permission from a special secret court, to seize records without the owner’s knowledge, conduct secret surveillance of suspicious people who have no known ties to terrorist groups and to obtain secret roving wiretaps on people.
Criminalization of Dissent and Militarization of the Police
Anyone who has gone to a peace or justice protest in recent years has seen it – local police have been turned into SWAT teams, and SWAT teams into heavily armored military. Officer Friendly or even Officer Unfriendly has given way to police uniformed like soldiers with SWAT shields, shin guards, heavy vests, military helmets, visors, and vastly increased firepower. Protest police sport ninja turtle-like outfits and are accompanied by helicopters, special tanks, and even sound blasting vehicles first used in Iraq. Wireless fingerprint scanners first used by troops in Iraq are now being utilized by local police departments to check motorists. Facial recognition software introduced in war zones is now being used in Arizona and other jurisdictions. Drones just like the ones used in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan are being used along the Mexican and Canadian borders. These activities continue to expand under the Obama administration.
Wiretaps
Wiretaps for oral, electronic or wire communications, approved by federal and state courts, are at an all-time high. Wiretaps in year 2010 were up 34% from 2009, according to the Administrative Office of the US Courts.
Criminalization of Speech
Muslims in the US have been targeted by the Obama Department of Justice for inflammatory things they said or published on the internet. First Amendment protection of freedom of speech, most recently stated in a 1969 Supreme Court decision, Brandenberg v Ohio, says the government cannot punish inflammatory speech, even if it advocates violence unless it is likely to incite or produce such action. A Pakistani resident legally living in the US was indicted by the DOJ in September 2011 for uploading a video on YouTube. The DOJ said the video was supportive of terrorists even though nothing on the video called for violence. In July 2011, the DOJ indicted a former Penn State student for going onto websites and suggesting targets and for providing a link to an explosives course already posted on the internet.
Domestic Government Spying on Muslim Communities
In activities that offend freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and several other laws, the NYPD and the CIA have partnered to conduct intelligence operations against Muslim communities in New York and elsewhere. The CIA, which is prohibited from spying on Americans, works with the police on “human mapping”, commonly known as racial and religious profiling to spy on the Muslim community. Under the Obama administration, the Associated Press reported in August 2011, informants known as “mosque crawlers,” monitor sermons, bookstores and cafes.
Top Secret America
In July 2010, the Washington Post released “Top Secret America,” a series of articles detailing the results of a two year investigation into the rapidly expanding world of homeland security, intelligence and counter-terrorism. It found 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence at about 10,000 locations across the US. Every single day, the National Security Agency intercepts and stores more than 1.7 billion emails, phone calls and other types of communications. The FBI has a secret database named Guardian that contains reports of suspicious activities filed from federal, state and local law enforcement. According to the Washington Post, Guardian contained 161,948 files as of December 2009. From that database there have been 103 full investigations and at least five arrests the FBI reported. The Obama administration has done nothing to cut back on the secrecy.
Other Domestic Spying
There are at least 72 fusion centers across the US which collect local domestic police information and merge it into multi-jurisdictional intelligence centers, according to a recent report by the ACLU. These centers share information from federal, state and local law enforcement and some private companies to secretly spy on Americans. These all continue to grow and flourish under the Obama administration.
Abusive FBI Intelligence Operations
The Electronic Frontier Foundation documented thousands of violations of the law by FBI intelligence operations from 2001 to 2008 and estimate that there are over 4000 such violations each year. President Obama issued an executive order to strengthen the Intelligence Oversight Board, an agency which is supposed to make sure the FBI, the CIA and other spy agencies are following the law. No other changes have been noticed.
Wikileaks
The publication of US diplomatic cables by Wikileaks and then by main stream news outlets sparked condemnation by the Obama administration officials who said the publication of accurate government documents was nothing less than an attack on the United States. The Attorney General announced a criminal investigation and promised “this is not saber rattling.” Government officials warned State Department employees not to download the publicly available documents. A State Department official and Columbia officials warned students that discussing Wikileaks or linking documents to social networking sites could jeopardize their chances of getting a government job, a position that lasted several days until reversed by other Columbia officials. At the time this was written, the Obama administration continued to try to find ways to prosecute the publishers of Wikileaks.
Censorship of Books by the CIA
In 2011, the CIA demanded extensive cuts from a memoir by former FBI agent Ali H. Soufan, in part because it made the agency look bad. Soufan’s book detailed the use of torture methods on captured prisoners and mistakes that led to 9-11. Similarly, a 2011 book on interrogation methods by former CIA agent Glenn Carle was subjected to extensive black outs. The CIA under the Obama administration continues its push for censorship.
Blocking Publication of Photos of U.S. Soldiers Abusing Prisoners
In May 2009, President Obama reversed his position of three weeks earlier and refused to release photos of US soldiers abusing prisoners. In April 2009, the US Department of Defense told a federal court that it would release the photos. The photos were part of nearly 200 criminal investigations into abuses by soldiers.
Technological Spying
The Bay Area Transit System, in August 2011, hearing of rumors to protest against fatal shootings by their police, shut down cell service in four stations. Western companies sell email surveillance software to repressive regimes in China, Libya and Syria to use against protestors and human rights activists. Surveillance cameras monitor residents in high crime areas, street corners and other governmental buildings. Police department computers ask for and receive daily lists from utility companies with addresses and names of every home address in their area. Computers in police cars scan every license plate of every car they drive by. The Obama administration has made no serious effort to cut back these new technologies of spying on citizens.
Use of “State Secrets” to Shield Government and Others from Review
When the Bush government was caught hiring private planes from a Boeing subsidiary to transport people for torture to other countries, the Bush administration successfully asked the federal trial court to dismiss a case by detainees tortured because having a trial would disclose “state secrets” and threaten national security. When President Obama was elected, the state secrets defense was reaffirmed in arguments before a federal appeals court. It continues to be a mainstay of the Obama administration effort to cloak their actions and the actions of the Bush administration in secrecy.
In another case, it became clear in 2005 that the Bush FBI was avoiding the Fourth Amendment requirement to seek judicial warrants to get telephone and internet records by going directly to the phone companies and asking for the records. The government and the companies, among other methods of surveillance, set up secret rooms where phone and internet traffic could be monitored. In 2008, the government granted the companies amnesty for violating the privacy rights of their customers. Customers sued anyway. But the Obama administration successfully argued to the district court, among other defenses, that disclosure would expose state secrets and should be dismissed. The case is now on appeal.
Material Support
The Obama administration successfully asked the US Supreme Court not to apply the First Amendment and to allow the government to criminalize humanitarian aid and legal activities of people providing advice or support to foreign organizations which are listed on the government list as terrorist organizations. The material support law can now be read to penalize people who provide humanitarian aid or human rights advocacy. The Obama administration Solicitor General argued to the court “when you help Hezbollah build homes, you are also helping Hezbollah build bombs.” The Court agreed with the Obama argument that national security trumps free speech in these circumstances.
Chicago Anti-war Grand Jury Investigation
In September 2010, FBI agents raided the homes of seven peace activists in Chicago, Minneapolis and Grand Rapids seizing computers, cell phones, passports, and records. More than 20 anti-war activists were issued federal grand jury subpoenas and more were questioned across the country. Some of those targeted were members of local labor unions, others members of organizations like the Arab American Action Network, the Columbia Action Network, the Twin Cities Anti-War Campaign and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. Many were active internationally and visited resistance groups in Columbia and Palestine. Subpoenas directed people to bring anything related to trips to Columbia, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Israel or the Middle East. In 2011, the home of a Los Angeles activist was raided and he was questioned about his connections with the September 2010 activists. All of these investigations are directed by the Obama administration.
Punishing Whistleblowers
The Obama administration has prosecuted five whistleblowers under the Espionage Act, more than all the other administrations in history put together. They charged a National Security Agency advisor with ten felonies under the Espionage Act for telling the press that government eavesdroppers were wasting hundreds of millions of dollars on misguided and failed projects. After their case collapsed, the government, which was chastised by the federal judge as engaging in unconscionable conduct allowed him to plead to a misdemeanor and walk. The administration has also prosecuted former members of the CIA, the State Department, and the FBI. They even tried to subpoena a journalist and one of the lawyers for the whistleblowers.
Bradley Manning
Army private Bradley Manning is accused of leaking thousands of government documents to Wikileaks. These documents expose untold numbers of lies by US government officials, wrongful killings of civilians, policies to ignore torture in Iraq, information about who is held at Guantanamo, cover ups of drone strikes and abuse of children and much more damaging information about US malfeasance. Though Daniel Ellsberg and other whistleblowers say Bradley is an American hero, the US government has jailed him and is threatening him with charges of espionage which may be punished by the death penalty. For months Manning was held in solitary confinement and forced by guards to sleep naked. When asked about how Manning was being held, President Obama personally defended the conditions of his confinement saying he had been assured they were appropriate and meeting our basic standards.
Solitary Confinement
At least 20,000 people are in solitary confinement in US jails and prisons, some estimate several times that many. Despite the fact that federal, state and local prisons and jails do not report actual numbers, academic research estimates tens of thousands are kept in cells for 23 to 24 hours a day in supermax units and prisons, in lockdown, in security housing units, in “the hole”, and in special management units or administrative segregation. Human Rights Watch reports that one-third to one-half of the prisoners in solitary are likely mentally ill. In May 2006, the UN Committee on Torture concluded that the United States should “review the regimen imposed on detainees in supermax prisons, in particular, the practice of prolonged isolation.” The Obama administration has taken no steps to cut back on the use of solitary confinement in federal, state or local jails and prisons.
Special Administrative Measures
Special Administrative Measures (SAMS) are extra harsh conditions of confinement imposed on prisoners (including pre-trial detainees) by the Attorney General. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons imposes restrictions such segregation and isolation from all other prisoners, and limitation or denial of contact with the outside world such as: no visitors except attorneys, no contact with news media, no use of phone, no correspondence, no contact with family, no communication with guards, 24 hour video surveillance and monitoring. The DOJ admitted in 2009 that several dozen prisoners, including several pre-trial detainees, mostly Muslims, were kept incommunicado under SAMS. If anything, the use of SAMS has increased under the Obama administration.
These twenty concrete examples document a sustained assault on domestic civil liberties in the United States under the Obama administration. Rhetoric aside, how different has Obama been from Bush in this area?
Bill Quigley is a professor of law at Loyola University New Orleans and Associate Legal Director at the Center for Constitutional Rights. He can be reached at: [email protected]. Read other articles by Bill.
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