Over 1,000 people came out today to protest the
Bush/Ashcroft assault on civil rights and civil liberties
in Washington D.C., demanding the repeal of the USA
PATRIOT Act and other unconstitutional measures.

*Rallies Also Take Place In Over 30 Cities Around the
Country

Over 1,000 people came out today to protest the
Bush/Ashcroft assault on civil rights and civil liberties
in Washington D.C., demanding the repeal of the USA
PATRIOT Act and other unconstitutional measures. Along
with demonstrations held over the weekend in thirty other
U.S. cities, the actions launched a nationwide campaign
called by the A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition to defend civil
rights and civil liberties

While the government has tried hard to single out and
demonize one segment of the population under the phony
"war on terrorism," today the Arab, South Asian and Muslim
communities were joined by anti-war activists, civil
rights attorneys and others who are angry at Bush's
campaign of racist profiling and mass detentions.

Demonstrators also condemned the monitoring of libraries
by FBI agents under the USA PATRIOT Act; the elimination
of basic constitutional protections; the forced
fingerprinting of immigrants; the mass detentions of Arab
and Muslim people; and the reinstatement of COINTELPRO and
Hoover-style harassment by the FBI.

"The Bush administration is criminalizing dissent," said
Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, an attorney with the Partnership
for Civil Justice. "The Bush administration, with an
all-war all-the-time agenda, knows people will want to
protest the spending of billions on war while cutting
school budgets and healthcare.

"Today's demonstration in Washington and in thirty other
cities signals the beginning of a fightback movement
against the domestic war being waged against civil
rights," stated Larry Holmes, a leader of the
International Action Center and spokesperson for
A.N.S.W.E.R. "Racial profiling has been an ever-present
reality for African-American and Latino people and other
people of color for centuries. Bush and Ashcroft are now
legally sanctifying this odious policy under the rubric
of the War on Terrorism and codifying it in the so-called
PATRIOT Act," Holmes stated.

"We all have a stake in defending civil rights and this
demonstration proves that people are responding," stated
Mahdi Bray, Executive Director of the Muslim American
Society Freedom Foundation, who served as the co-chair for
the DC rally.

Tens of thousands of people who were attending the annual
Folk Life Festival on the Mall in Washington DC saw the
civil rights march as it wound through the crowded street
adjoining the Festival. Carrying brightly colored banners
and signs, the marches distributed thousands of leaflets
entitled: Why we are Marching to Defend Civil Rights. A
number of young people in the crowd left the mall and
joined the march for several blocks as it moved forward
past the White House for a closing rally.

International A.N.S.W.E.R.
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.internationalanswer.org