Maya Khankhoje believes in the dictum of humanist President Benito Juárez of Mexico: “Respect for the rights of others equals peace".
Unconstitutional. The War on Our Civil Rights. Executive Producer Robert Greenwald in association with Public Interest Pictures. Written, directed and produced by Nonny de la Peña.
This one-hour film won the Grand Festival Award of the 2004 Edition of the Berkeley Video and Film Festival in the documentary category. It is the third in a trilogy following “Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Elections” and “Uncovered: The War on Iraq”. If the titles of the previous films do not give away the thrust of this documentary, then the following clue should suffice: it is an analysis of the USA Patriot Act and its nefarious effects on the Constitution of the United States of America, one of the most enlightened charters of human rights drafted in modern times.
The quiet tone of the film belies the violence committed against “them the enemy” – under which all nations and peoples of the world seem to be subsumed - in the name of protecting “we the people”. Needless to say, “we the people” whom the USA Constitution promises to protect, have become its victims in the process. The main artifice of this sleight-of-hand is the USA Patriot Act, passed with little or no deliberation barely 45 days after 9 /11. It’s very name was imposed at the bargaining table by a handful of men on dissenting legislators. Anyone who went against this law was labelled unpatriotic.
The film starts with a reading of a facsimile of the United States Constitution which, as is perhaps not widely known, was primarily based on the wisdom of the confederation of nations who guarded this vast land before the pilgrims appropriated it, and above all on the wise words of Chief Seattle. As the film unfolds it is clear that the Patriot Act has done more to erode the basic rights of US citizens than any other political event in the history of this nation, dragging the rest of the world with it.
The main witnesses to this travesty of justice are people like Barbara Olshansky, Deputy Legal Director of the Centre for Constitutional Rights, who decries the arbitrary arrest of immigrants and Moslem US citizens; Vincent Cannistraro, former CIA Director for Counter Terrorism, who condemns detentions based on racial profiling and labels them counterproductive anyway; Anne Turner, Librarian of the Santa Cruz Public Library, who steadfastly refuses to hand over information to the government on the reading habits of library patrons; Aquil Abdullah, member of the 2004 Olympics US rowing team, who lamented the curtailment of his sports career for the sole crime of sporting a Moslem name; Major Michael Mori, legal counsel to Guantanamo detainee David Hicks, who was appalled at the inhumane conditions under which “enemy combatants” are held illegally in Guantanamo or simple citizens like Sam Hamoui, whose parents and sister were detained arbitrarily for long months for no reason at all.
Why should the erosion of the US Constitution matter to the rest of the world? Because it is affecting the rest of the world in an unprecedented scale in human history. But for those who understand the laws of nature, this phenomenon is perhaps not so scary after all. Parasites die when they kill their host body. Empires collapse under their own decay. Tides turn. People spring up when they hit rock bottom.
The people of the United States are springing up to rescue their precious charter. 340 communities in 41 states of the Union have passed resolutions against the Patriot Act refusing to enforce those parts of it that are unconstitutional. Four states, starting with California, have declared themselves Patriot Act-free zones.
The American people are waking up from their CNN-induced stupor to a painful truth: that the enemy is not out there, but might actually lie within.