Have Americans lost any liberties sense 9/11.?

Question

If so Give me specifics and please try and explain why people don't notice the loss's, or the possibility of intrusive acts by the government?

I don't care if you noticed anything or not. That is not the question.
There is a difference between the difference of the illusion of freedom vs actually freedom.

WHAT!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta-Y8hFv8I0

Answer 1

The Patriot Act. Read it. Just because you have not been affected yet does not mean it has not happened.

Wire taps without court orders. Reading emails with out court orders, giving your personal information to the government for stupid things like filling out a bank loan, the NATIONAL ID ACT.


Statement Number One: "The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

Statement Number Two: "To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve."

The first statement is a quote from Hitler's right hand man, Hermann Goering, explaining at his war crimes trial how easily he and his fellow Nazis hijacked Germany's democratic government. The second statement is a quote from Bush's right hand man, John Ashcroft, defending the Patriot Act and explaining why dissent will no longer be tolerated in the age of terrorism. If that doesn't send chills down your spine, nothing will.

Just because you have not been affected does not mean that you wont.

Answer 2

The thing is that no freedoms have been taken away. The only real difference is that the laws used against terrorists are now identical to the laws that have been used against organized crime for decades.

The intelligence laws are common sense. Prior to the Patriot Act our intelligence services had a problem. If we were monitoring a foreign terrorist and that terrorist called a US phone number to discuss a terrorist attack - the law required that we cease all monitoring and destroy all records! (This is one of the issues that contributed to our failure to detect the 9/11 plot.)

As a result the law has been changed. Now monitoring of those calls is allowed with the caveat that the information gained is legally 'tainted' and cannot be used as evidence in a trial. (Although it can be passed over to law enforcement and used as 'probable cause' to begin an investigation.)

Answer 3

I've noticed a few things, such as what you're allowed to have on an airplane.
And people don't notice our freedom being taken away because it's going away a little at a time.
It's like putting a frog into a pot of boiling water - if you put the frog in when it's already hot, it'll jump out.
But, if you put a frog into a pot of cold water, and then bring it to a boil, then frog will sit there and die, because it can't feel the change.
The same is true for us.

What the crap?
You don't care what I noticed??
That's what you asked - "
Have Americans lost any liberties since 9/11?"
...And I told you what changes I had noticed.

Answer 4

We have lost liberties. The biggest one being the way were once allowed to hop a plane for a weekend trip to where ever at the last minute without question, try that now and see what happens, or better yet buy a one way ticket the day you need to fly and see what they do.

Where once the airports were easy to get through now they have guidelines that would make the Pope cuss.

I have a friend that has a son that is 9 and on a no fly list because of his name and his heritage, nice.

His Grandparents visited and took him to California for the summer they drove. When they took him to the airport to send him home, at the age of 9 he could not fly, he is on the no fly list because his name is of profile decent. I can vouch he was born right here, I still have the scar from where she bit my hand when she was in labor.

She called me that day and asked me if I could fly out, rent a car and drive him home, sure, that will work. I bought a ticket on Frontier Air one way to LAX, went to the airport 2 hours later to use it, and what do you know, they pulled me a side, asked me why I just bought it and was using it the same day and why I had very little stuff with me if I was going out there to stay. Missed that flight. Got the next one after they were sure that I was not going to hijack or bomb anything.

When I got back home I wrote a letter to the airline asking them why they sell tickets for same day flights if their policy is to harass the people that use them. I got a form apology and a 200.00 certificate. I wrote them back, sent the certificate back and told them that if I needed cat littler I would stick with Feline Pine.

They called me and by the time I got done with that poor rep. she was on Valium. They sent me a 500.00 certificate, I gave it to someone I don’t like and told them to book the flight the same day they want to fly.

9/11 has changed a lot of things.

Answer 5

For one thing, a presidential order in 2002 allows the NSA to spy on Americans without first obtaining a warrant:

Amendment IV: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Then there's the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that eliminated Habeas Corpus:

Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution: The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it.

Whether or not either of these has affected you personally is irrelevant. Nor does the argument that one has done nothing wrong change the fact Constitutional rights have been lost.

Answer 6

In Australia we definatly have: but it might have more to do with the Bali bombings in 2002 than 9/11. the government has used their absolute power to pass two major laws: the sedition laws, which make it a crime to say anything inciting violence against a race or the government, and the federal police can now detain people for up to 2 weeks with no charge, and they aren't allowed to tell anyone where they've been.

Answer 7

How about the "Patriot Act"? Don't you know that just on the mere suspicion of engaging in terrorist activity (like say, being a journalist that writes critically of elected officials) you can be picked up and held indefinitely without a warrant, no phone call, without even being brought up on charges... for years! One day you just disappear and no one knows where or why. Not to mention the phone/wire taps. White people may not notice a sudden loss of liberty... but what if you are a brown-skinned American of Middle-Eastern descent? Are your phone calls monitored? Is your mosque being spied on? Are you being profiled at the airport?

It's very easy to live inside a shelter with blinders on; the system is designed to make that very easy. You can't get the scoop from mainstream media like CNN, and definitely not Fox!! Six mega-media corporations control 95% of all radio, newspaper, and magazines in the U.S. They will tell you what (they want you) to think. You gotta dig deeper to get the scoop.

Answer 8

Who said they aren't occupying Washington, DC? Isn't FOX News covering this? They ARE demonstrating against the government by calling out the fat cats (1%) who have bought out the Senate and House.

Answer 9

The low income have seen what freedoms have been taken so quietly thru laws for awhile, and more people finding themselves falling from the middle class, and even middle class are being hit with the realities that they no longer enjoy the security of the constitution, as the % grows closer to 1/4 of the U.S. population incarserated or on parol I mean WOW is there that much crime now? no just more things are concidered crimes, + more are left to pay courts amounts so high that to keep from jail one must do criminal acts.

Answer 10

looks like the aussies have a few good ones, (new laws)
U.S. should follow their lead,
You whinners are talking a slight inconvience at air ports etc. BIG DEAL
You made it to your destination safely.
You have no less freedoms. If you are afraid of what you say or do, dont do it dummy.