Two weeks ago I wrote about the City Council’s debate on whether
to take away your right to smoke at a bar — the Council has yet to
make a decision, but many members are adamant about taking this
right away.

Now the Madison City Council has struck again. It has felt it
necessary to spend time debating and passing a resolution
criticizing the USA Patriot Act.

Mind you, this act was passed by the U.S. Congress 357-66, the
U.S. Senate 98-1 and signed by the president almost one year ago —
our City Council is not only going completely outside its
jurisdiction, but it is also doing so a year after the fact.

The Madison Area Peace Coalition drafted the proposal. This is
an organization that has views that are completely contradictory to
reasonable solutions.

MAPC wants an end to the sanctions on Iraq, to reduce our
dependency of foreign oil and to work with other countries to rid
the world of weapons of mass destruction. Yet, they want this all
to be done without stopping the number-one U.N. security resolution
violator and the menace trying to obtain weapons of mass
destruction. My guess is MAPC has no interest in the United States
drilling in Alaska even though this is the only immediate way to
reduce our dependency on foreign oil.

Seventeen of the 20 members of the City Council voted for the
MAPC resolution, and some of them even believe it will instruct
Madison police to abide by pre-existing law before the Patriot Act
was passed. Despite this incredible amount of arrogance shown by
these Council members, their measly resolution does not overrule
federal law — which the Patriot Act became last October.

The USA Patriot Act simply affirms the government’s right to
access and obtain records of individuals it reasonably believes may
have terrorist ties.

The sad reality is that terrorists live among us in the United
States.

In recent months, our federal government has collected evidence
and arrested over a dozen U.S. citizens that are believed to have
ties to al Qaeda. The serial sniper (or more likely, snipers) in
D.C. may not have ties to al Qaeda, but he or she is a terrorist,
and the Patriot Act gives the government authority to investigate
and collect records in all these instances.

The notion that the USA Patriot Act is taking away the civil
liberties of all Americans is just the far-left’s attempt to scare
the public and criticize the president. The far-left Madison City
Council is only attempting to hinder the war on terrorism by acting
as though it can undermine federal law.

Everything in the Patriot Act, where police have been given
expanded investigation power, is conditional on receiving a warrant
from a federal judge. This has not changed; protection mechanisms
are in place to protect the civil liberties of all citizens.

This is even explicitly stated in section 102 of the bill: “The
civil rights and liberties of all Americans, including Arab
Americans, must be protected, and every effort must be taken to
preserve their safety.”

The Patriot Act also authorizes the tripling of security on our
northern border and requires the Attorney General and the FBI to
provide the State Department and INS with access to
criminal-history extracts in order to determine whether or not a
visa or admissions applicant should be admitted. This only
strengthens our homeland security, and it can hardly be said this
takes away my civil liberties.

The Patriot Act further allows the INS to deny admission or to
deport an alien who is a representative of a political, social or
similar group whose political endorsement of terrorist acts
undermines U.S. anti-terrorist efforts. Denial or deportation can
also occur if a person has been associated with a terrorist
organization and intends to engage in threatening activities while
in the United States.

None of these measures within the USA Patriot Act violates the
law or takes away our civil liberties, as the City Council has
falsely implied. The far-left has complained about the “eruption of
civil liberties” ever since 9/11, but never can specific, truthful
examples be provided.

Our Congress — in bipartisan fashion — wrote a good bill to
help protect America from future terrorist attacks by giving police
more authority. More police authority does not equal a loss of
civil liberties.

One would hope the Madison City Council would have better, more
important issues to debate than federal law. If this non-issue is
the most important issue facing Madison –then we are lucky.

Somehow I doubt this is the case.

Matt Modell ([email protected]) is a senior majoring
in journalism and political science. He is in Washington, D.C. this
fall for an internship.