WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- The UPI Think Tank Wrap-Up is a daily digest covering brief opinion pieces, reactions to recent news events, and position statements released by various think tanks.
Institute for Public Accuracy
(The IPA is a nationwide consortium of policy researchers that seeks to broaden public discourse by gaining media access for experts whose perspectives are often overshadowed by major think tanks and other influential institutions.)
WASHINGTON--Comments on Cipro Patenting, Civil Liberties
--Asia Russell, member of the Health GAP Coalition.
"With the Cipro deal, Secretary Thompson did not want to set a precedent that could be used against the U.S. administration at the upcoming WTO meeting, where the issue of affordable AIDS drugs and patent rights in poor countries will be a major controversy. If U.S. officials had agreed to license production of generic ciprofloxacin, all their arguments against patent flexibility in poor countries seeking generic AIDS drugs would have fallen to pieces---and Robert Zoellick, the U.S. Trade Representative, wouldn't tolerate that, no matter how high the stakes. Thousands die daily from untreated AIDS globally, and Zoellick is blocking the use of common-sense strategies among poor countries to promote generic AIDS drug access."
--James Love, director of the Consumer Project on Technology.
"Thompson says we need medications for 10 million persons. At the 120-pill recommended course of treatment for ciprofloxacin, this is 1.2 billion pills. Bayer says it can produce 2 million per day. At this rate it would take 600 days to supply 1.2 billion pills. The U.S. is now saying it will only provide 10 doses of ciprofloxacin, and then switch to a cheaper antibiotic....
Apparently five generic companies have already received U.S. FDA clearance for the quality of their ciprofloxacin, and could immediately be asked to manufacture the drug. The U.S. government already has the right to use patents without a license. The U.S. can clearly address supply issues faster with six suppliers than with one. The government is cutting corners on public health to protect its negotiating position in the Doha WTO meeting on November 9-13 -- where the issue of compulsory licensing of drugs, and imports under a compulsory license where a country does not have domestic capacity for production, is a central issue, with the U.S., Canada and the European Union opposing the Africa group. Americans are being put at risk in order to protect the pharmaceutical companies doing business in Africa and other developing countries."
--Susan Akram, associate professor at the Boston University School of Law and author of the law review article "Scheherazade Meets Kafka: Two Dozen Sordid Tales of Ideological Exclusion." She has given legal assistance in cases where secret "evidence" has been used by the government.
"This entire legislation is premised on the idea that we can get increased security at the expense of our civil liberties--that's historically never been true and it's not true today."
--Nancy Chang, senior attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights.
"Our commitment to the Bill of Rights and to the democratic values that define this nation is under challenge. The legislation that the Senate is expected to pass today will ... discourage protest activities, further diminish our already reduced expectations of privacy under the Fourth Amendment, and strip immigrants of their fundamental right to freedom from bodily restraint without due process of law. As constitutional challenges to the legislation wind their way through the courts, the judiciary will be presented with the choice of upholding the Constitution or acquiescing in its surrender."
The Center for Democracy and Technology
(CDT works to promote democratic values and constitutional liberties in the digital age. CDT seeks practical solutions to enhance free expression and privacy in global communications technologies, including the Internet and other new media.)
WASHINGTON--Anti-Terrorism Bill "Compromises" Only Civil Liberties: Legislation Gutting Privacy Standards Passes Congress; Several Provisions Survive Sunset
The Senate approved and sent on to the president an anti-terrorism package that would dismantle many privacy protections for communications and personal data. Many of the provisions are not limited to terrorism investigations, but would apply to all criminal or intelligence investigations.
"This bill has been called a compromise," said Jerry Berman, executive director of CDT, "but the only thing compromised is our civil liberties."
The bill will:
--Allow government agents to collect undefined new information about Web browsing and e-mail without meaningful judicial review;
--Allow Internet Service Providers, universities, network administrators to authorize surveillance of "computer trespassers" without a judicial order;
--Override existing state and federal privacy laws, allowing FBI to compel disclosure of any kind of records, including sensitive medical, educational and library borrowing records, upon the mere claim that they are connected with an intelligence investigation;
--Allow law enforcement agencies to search homes and offices without notifying the owner for days or weeks after, not only in terrorism cases, but in all cases - the so-called "sneak and peek" authority;
--Allow FBI to share with the CIA information collected in the name of a grand jury, thereby giving the CIA the domestic subpoena powers it was never supposed to have;
--Allow FBI to conduct wiretaps and secret searches in criminal cases using the lower standards previously used only for the purpose of collecting foreign intelligence.
As passed, some of the surveillance provisions expire, or "sunset" in four years unless renewed by Congress. However, the sunset provision does not apply to the sharing of grand jury information with the CIA, giving the CIA permanent benefit of the grand jury powers.
Nor does the sunset feature apply to the provisions for sneak and peek searches or the provision extending application of the pen register and trap-and-trace law to the Internet.
The sunset also does not apply to ongoing investigations.
Since intelligence investigations often run for years, even decades, the authorities will continue to be used even if they are not formally extended in 2005.
