ANTI-WAR ACTIVISTS CONDEMN ASHCROFT'S CREATION OF RACIST DATABASE
Will Protest Illegal Racial Profiling and Spying at the FBI in Washington on June 29June 5, 2002 --Leaders with the A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition, who are organizing the June 29 demonstration at the FBI’s Washington headquarters, condemned U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's fingerprinting plan announced today, asserting that it is designed to bolster a pre-existing, right-wing agenda on the part of the Bush administration.
"Ashcroft, a defender of the Confederate south, has extended his campaign of racial and religious profiling to include police state tactics and apartheid-like procedures such as fingerprinting and the identification of people based on religion and national origin," said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, co-founder of the Partnership for Civil Justice--LDEF and a member of A.N.S.W.E.R.'s steering committee.
Ashcroft today announced the "National Security Entry-Exit Registration System." This system would in the first year alone require the forced fingerprinting of more than 100,000 immigrants living in the U.S., the overwhelming majority of whom would be Muslim, Arab and South Asian. Along with photographs and other data collection, this information would be stored in a new Justice Department database.
"For nine months, thousands of people have been arrested, investigated and detained," continued Verheyden-Hilliard. "They have had their homes and businesses raided--not because they had committed any crime, and not because they had done anything wrong ‘ but because they were Muslim, Arab, Sikh or South Asian.
"Last week Ashcroft resurrected the J. Edgar Hoover-style domestic espionage program targeting political organizations," Verheyden-Hilliard said. "He has now set his sights on the creation of a database based on nationality and religion, the existence and implementation of which is ultimately intended to put a chill on political expression and activity --especially opposition to the Bush administration's policies of war and racism.
"By first demonizing and focusing on one segment of the population--the Arab, Muslim and Southeast Asian community-- the Bush administration is relying on its favorite weapon, racism, to win public acceptance of the implementation of outrageous and illegal tactics."
Larry Holmes, co-director of the International Action Center, also with A.N.S.W.E.R., said the growing unity and power of the anti-war movement would effectively combat this strategy. "The movement against war and racism has already come out into the streets against Bush's phony 'war on terrorism' in large numbers.
"On April 20, thousands of anti-war and anti-globalization activists joined with tens of thousands of Arab, South Asian and Palestinian protesters and filled the streets of Washington and San Francisco with massive rallies demanding an end to Israel's occupation of Palestine," Holmes continued.
"On June 29, the A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition, one of the central forces behind that demonstration, will protest at the FBI's Washington D.C. headquarters against Ashcroft's assault on the First Amendment. There, people of all nationalities will come together to deprive Bush and Ashcroft of the racism they are hoping will help them pursue an all-war, anti-people agenda," Holmes said.
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For more information about the June 29 protest in defense of civil liberties, see http://www.internationalanswer.org/campaigns/0629/index.html
To endorse the protest, go to http://www.internationalanswer.org/campaigns/0629/endorse.html#endo
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