Scheer Fears for Our Rights Under New Law

I usually have a good chuckle when Robert Scheer’s column appears. But his Oct. 30 commentary on the counter-terrorism bill (“With Powers Like These, Can Repression Be Far Behind?”) causes me to point out a few of his deceptions, lest he actually cause a reasonable person to believe him.

He rails against Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, “who has arrested 1,000 purportedly potential terrorists but found hard evidence on none.” How does Scheer know this? Are we to suppose that the Justice Department shares its indictable facts with Scheer? He says that “nothing in this bill would have prevented the disaster of Sept. 11,” speaking of the Patriot Act of 2001. How does Scheer know this? Are we to believe that a careful following of the movements and conversations of known terrorists might not have prevented Sept. 11? And if not, that the effort is not worth it?

Regarding how to secure the airlines, he writes, “Hiring and training 18,000 professional airline security personnel--men and women who actually know what they are doing and are paid an honest wage--is apparently a mark of socialism.” But everybody is interested in the hiring of competent people at an honest wage. The issue, rather, is who should do the hiring and by what method. There is a legitimate debate going on about this issue.

David B. Gelles

Long Beach

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Thank you for publishing Scheer’s commentary. Does no one study history anymore? The examples are all there: Security concerns are always used to overturn civil rights in a democratic society. It can happen here. Undermining the Constitution will not stop terrorism.

Edward Mast

Seattle