Conservative Voices Defending Freedom Post September 11

Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President, National Rifle Association (""Administration policies prompt some gun owners to recoil,"" Associated Press, 4/14/04)

""There's a fine line between individual rights and national security concerns and we've been watching that carefully in Washington.  So far, this administration seems to walk with those interests in mind, but we are watching every day.""

Angel Shamaya, executive director of KeepAndBearArms.com (""Gun Groups May Not Be Bush Campaign Weapon,"" Los Angeles Times, 4/13/04)

""It's not just gun rights for us, it's the Bill of Rights. A lot of gun-rights advocates are from mildly upset to livid over President Bush and his administration.""

Nelson Lund, George Mason University Law Professor and 2nd Amendment Expert (""Gun Groups May Not Be Bush Campaign Weapon,"" Los Angeles Times, 4/13/04)

""People who have a strong interest in gun rights tend to be libertarian in their thinking.  They tend to be skeptical of the government.""

Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President, National Rifle Association (""Gun Groups May Not Be Bush Campaign Weapon,"" Los Angeles Times, 4/13/04)

""I have great respect for this administration. But that doesn't mean I have to agree with confiscating nail clippers from grandmothers and poking magnetic wands up skirts"" at airports.""

""Too many are too timid to ask what these outrages are supposed to achieve. Too many are too polite to say that our Bill of Rights is too sacred to give up for homeland security or for anything else."" 

Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House (The Kojo Nnamdi Show, WAMU, 11/12/03)

""I just think we need, for our own long term protection, we need to draw very sharp distinctions between things we're prepared to do to go after terrorism for national security and things we're prepared to do for criminal reasons.""

""Look, I believe that U.S. Attorney with a compliant Grand Jury, can find an excuse to indict almost anybody, and I think it is very dangerous, I'm a conservative, I believe that the power of the State is a very frightening power but we need the State in order to protect ourselves against enemies who would kill us, but we want to be very careful about not having some future politician or some future political appointee decide that they have a giant loophole that would violate your civil rights or my civil rights and I think it could easily be misused.  I do think it's a legitimate concern.""

""[Question]:  You're a conservative, you're not concerned about being on the same side of this issue as the ACLU or other left and liberal organizations?

Gingrich: I think that when you're trying to restrict the power of the State there's a very broad coalition that shows up on same side and philosophically on that kind of an issue you've got to decide do you really want that level of power to be controlled by political figures or do you want to protect the individual's rights.""

Pat Buchanan, Editor, American Conservative Magazine and former Presidential candidate ("Bush is losing support on right," Minneapolis Star Tribune, 9/22/2003)

"The Bush administration's prosecution of the war on terror has gone terribly, terribly wrong."

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), member of the Senate Judiciary Committee ("Patriot Act at heart of Ashcroft's influence," USA Today, 9/15/2003)

"If you compare [Attorney General Ashcroft] to (former attorneys general) Janet Reno, Dick Thornburgh or Bill Barr, he comes out as a tougher prosecutor. But there has to be some concern about how (the Justice Department) addresses civil rights."

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), member of the Senate Judiciary Committee ("Specter blasts part of anti-terrorism act," Associated Press, 8/2/2003)

"I do not think we've had enough oversight of the Department of Justice."

Tom Ridge, Secretary of Homeland Security ("Ridge: U.S. should protect rights and provide security," Newsday, 07/21/2003)

"Liberty cannot exist in the absence of government restraint."

"To suggest there is a trade-off between security and individual freedoms, that we must discard one protection for the other, is a false choice. We will not, as Benjamin Franklin once warned, trade our civil liberties to purchase temporary safety."

Responding to he Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General's report that highlighted dozens of cases where Arab and Muslim detainees where physically and verbally abused:

"If these accusations prove to be true, then the strongest possible response. We are a country of laws ... Unlike other parts of the world, that kind of conduct under detention is unacceptable and should and will be punished if it proves to be true. Period." 

James Gilmore, Chair, Federal Commission on Terrorism Policy and former Virginia Governor ("Gilmore Cautious Over State Of Security And Civil Liberties," National Journal: Technology Daily, 5/12/2003)

"We have a greater obligation than just security? The truth is that we cannot be completely free from threat, even if a totalitarian society."

[On the Supreme Court 1965 case, Griswold v. Connecticut, which established the constitutional right to privacy in the "penumbra" of the Bill of Rights]

"I have been a critic of that over the years because it a strict interpretation of the Constitution. The older I get, the more glad I get that that penumbra exists."

"We are the same people that got in covered wagons, facing those snowstorms, to face the new frontiers, or set up Jamestown, and carved out a civilization out of the forests? They were seeking a freer opportunity as Americans."

David Keene, Chairman, American Conservative Union ("Taking Liberties," U.S. News and World Report, 5/12/2003)

"[Policymakers should] tread lightly when it comes to rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution."

Bob Barr, former Republican member of Congress ("Unusual coalition of left and right says civil liberties under attack," Atlanta Journal Constitution, 5/11/2003)

"We ought to be concentrating on using existing authorities to build up our intelligence and law enforcement capabilities rather than compiling data bases on American citizens."

James Gilmore, Chair, Federal Commission on Terrorism Policy and former Virginia Governor ("Gilmore: Security Must Not Come at Freedom's Expense," Daily Press, 5/9/2003)

"We could begin to shut down some of the freedoms we enjoy as Americans. Have we become so traumatized that we're prepared to change our national character as Americans and not be so concerned about freedom?"

David Keene, Chairman, American Conservative Union ("Both right and left condemn Patriot Act," The Hill, 5/6/2003)

"When creating sound antiterrorism legislation, the line should not be drawn at what is helpful for law enforcement but what is needed to protect us while preserving the proper balance between preserving civil liberties and our nation's national security needs."

Lori Waters, Executive Director, Eagle Forum ("Both right and left condemn Patriot Act," The Hill, 5/6/2003)

[On the Eagle Forum's support for the Wyden Amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations Bill, which restrict the implementation of Total Information Awareness]

"It's one of those rare occasions where we support Mr. Wyden, because this is a government system of connecting all the dots of your life and we want it stopped."

Richard Clarke, former Head of the Counterterrorism Office, Clinton and Bush Administrations ("Richard Clarke Says Color Alerts are Nonsense and Invading Iraq Created More Terrorists," Congressional Quarterly Homeland Security, 4/22/2003)

[Question: What is the country's greatest vulnerability right now, or security issue that needs to be addressed first?]

"Our greatest security issue is our lack of adequate penetration of potential terrorist groups. We could bankrupt the country trying to fix all the vulnerabilities, although we must address many of them. Where we get the best return for our dollar is by penetrating terrorist groups and then disrupting them, as we did in the plot to blow up the Lincoln Tunnel and the United Nations building in New York, and in the numerous failed attempts to attack the United States abroad. Key to such an approach is a strong intelligence capability, at home and abroad, cooperation among agencies, good use of information technology, and the development of real expertise. All of that can and must be done consistent with our values about civil liberties."

Dick Armey, former Republican member of Congress and former House Majority Leader ("Judiciary - Armey Bashes Ashcroft's Leadership On Privacy Issues," National Journal: Congress Daily, 3/14/2003)

"If you take a look at the history of John Ashcroft as a senator, the actions he is taking [as attorney general] are exactly the opposite."

[Addressing businesses being asked by law enforcement to disclose personal information about their customers.]

"Every bit of it was given to you by someone who trusted you to handle it responsibly, on a contractual basis, explicit or otherwise. I take it as your responsibility to protect data against the coercive intrusions of government."

[On the Total Information Awareness Program and other invasions of privacy]

"If I were guilty, it wouldn't bother me. Because I am innocent, it does bother me. The promise of America boils down to one sentence: 'to secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and posterity.' If we fall down on that promise, then America is no longer America."

[On the widespread use of Social Security numbers as a form of identification]

"What I do is habitually lie about the Social Security number. I routinely lie about a lot of things [that are] none of [an information-collector's] damned business."

Robert Novak, conservative columnist ("USA Patriot Act Remains Shrouded In Secrecy" The Miami Herald, 9/10/02) 

"Ashcroft is even more intractable than his predecessor, Janet Reno, in refusing information to the legislative branch."

Vincent Cannistraro, former head of counterterrorism at the CIA, ("The War on Terror Enters Phase 2" The New York Times, 5/2/2002) 

"The Justice Department's detention of thousands of immigrant Muslims--the policy of 'shaking the trees' in Islamic communities--alienates the very people on whom law enforcement depends for leads and may turn out to be counterproductive." 

Charlton Heston, President, National Rifle Association (President's Column, American Rifleman, May 2002) 

"Our right to privacy, one of our most fundamental rights as free people, is being eroded as we are followed and photographed, scanned and screened, patterned and profiled, cataloged and cross-referenced, compiled in databases, and combed for clues to future behavior in more ways, in more places, for more reasons and more often than ever before. This represents a polar shift in the traditional American relationship between the individual and the state-a shift that, if allowed to continue to its natural end, cannot be easily undone. Because once we've handed over the immense power that these surveillance regimes demand-once we've untethered the corrupting influence that such power invariably exerts on its bearers-how, exactly, do we get our freedoms back? ?The technology may be new, but its misuses are as old as hatred or greed. We all know from the Hitlers, Stalins and Maos of history exactly where this can lead. But where does it all end? When we're all strip-searched, DNA-scanned, followed, filmed, tracked and profiled from the cradle to the grave? What are the consequences for freedom when the state can concentrate such power, and such power can be so easily misused?"

Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President, National Rifle Association (Speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, February 2002, <http://www.nrahq.org/transcripts/cpac0202.asp> ) 

"Since [September 11th], we've watched social and political marketers jockey for position, seeking advantage on the back of tragedy for more government regulation, intrusion and expansion. We've witnessed a fire sale of American liberties at bargain basement prices, in return for the false promise of more security. Freedom is the first bargaining chip of a scared people. But it's always a losing bet. I'm here to say, don't do it...The federal government is working with the states to develop driver's licenses that can electronically store information, like fingerprints. Plus your retinal scan, voiceprint, hand geometry or DNA. Maybe your credit history, your residential information, your banking history, your medical and mental health records, your marital status, your ATM withdrawals, turnpike use, library checkouts, movie rentals, pharmacy prescriptions, phone call records, and firearms by serial number and address. What's the potential for abuse of a system where all that information gets compiled and is available only to criminal hackers, corporate marketers, corrupt politicians and government hacks? Congress has given the CIA vast new powers and billions of dollars to use them. The CIA can now read secret grand jury testimony without a judge's prior approval. They want to intercept e-mail without a warrant and more powers to eavesdrop on people. And the technology exists to pull it all off. The only people who can stop all of this are you and me. Indeed, the only people who've ever drawn the line, by refusing to toe the line, are the patriots like you who stand up and say, NO MORE. Maybe you think that with President George W. Bush in the White House, everything is safe. You think you can put aside your principles, just this once, to be a loyal conservative?But if we, as conservatives, don't stand up for these fundamental truths, who will? Never accept the idea that surrendering freedom - any freedom - is the price of feeling safe."

William Safire, columnist for the New York Times ("Seizing Dictatorial Power," The New York Times, 11/15/2001)

[On Military Tribunals]

"Misadvised by a frustrated and panic-stricken attorney general, a president of the United States has just assumed what amounts to dictatorial power to jail or execute aliens? No longer does the judicial branch and an independent jury stand between the government and the accused. In lieu of those checks and balances central to our legal system, noncitizens face an executive that is now investigator, prosecutor, judge, jury and jailer or executioner.'"