Patriot Act Horror Envelops North Carolina Family of Teen Ashton Lundeby
16 year old Ashton Lundeby is the homeschooled son of widow Annette Lundeby. His bedroom is decorated with American flags, and his mother says the family was at church the night that Federal agents contend a bomb threat was made from Ashton's computer. She believes his computer must have been hacked by crank callers who made it look as though the threat was made from Ashton's computer.
Annette Lundeby told the television station that she feels like she is living in a third world country, having to protect her son from the government. A scheduled court hearing for Lundeby has been repeatedly pushed back, according to his mother.
Because of a gag order, Federal officials have not commented on the Lundeby case.
Arguably, the Lundeby case is a result of overzealous Federal agents misusing the Patriot Act to deny due process to an ordinary U.S. citizen accused of an ordinary crime.
Many Americans believe, however, that the Patriot Act is bad law. The Patriot Act suspends Constitutional protections, allowing Federal authorities unprecedented rights to intercept communications and detain persons subject only to the scrutiny of a secret tribunal. The most notorious use of the Patriot Act involves the U.S. government's 7year detention at a Federal facility in Guantanamo of 600 persons suspected of involvement in terrorist plots. The United States has faced severe criticism in the international community and in U.S. courts for its indefinite detention and denials of due process to suspects held at Guantanamo. Three separate U.S. Supreme Court cases are pending, two of which involve American citizens held as alleged enemy combatants without being charged with commission of any crime.
When President Obama was elected, there was widespread speculation as to whether he would repeal the Patriot Act, legislation he initially opposed but ultimately supported in Congress. So far, the Obama administration has not acted to repeal the Patriot Act. As recently as last month, the Obama administration sought renewal of due to expire Patriot Act provisions in Congress. Those provisions include allowing investigators to obtain third party records without notice or a hearing for the subject of the records and permitting wiretaps of multiple electronic devices without separate warrants.
Meanwhile, an American teenager waits in detention, unable to defend himself against secret evidence of a crime his mother says he did not commit.
Sources: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=97099; http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/5049867/; http://epic.org/privacy/terrorism/hr3162.html; http://www.examiner.com/x-2547-Watchdog-Politics-Examiner~y2009m3d26-Obama-renewing-Bushs-Patriot-Act-Provisions; http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june04/guantanamo_4-21.html.
Published by Carol Bengle Gilbert - Featured Contributor in Travel and Lifestyle
2010 Yahoo! Outstanding Contributor of the Year, Carol has consistently been designated a Top 100 Yahoo! Contributor Network writer. She received a 2008 People's Media Award for "Best Article." Carol’s pr... View profile
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22 Comments
Post a CommentHow do you know this kid was making prank phone calls? If so, there should be probable cause shown. What an injustice. Thank you for writing this story. The word really needs to get out about this.
It's now become clear that the Patriot Act had nothing to do with the Lundeby case. Maybe a retraction or correction of this editorial is in order??
Excellent writing Carol. Keep shining the light.
Sometimes people are just criminals, and their mom's are not the best source of information. Of course her son was just a poor victim of big government, according to her. Except when her son is a punk who's been making obscene and threatening prank calls across interstate lines. The FBI showed up and arrested him because he committed a crime, and probably made money off of it. You people should not be so quick to believe every story posted online.
The Patriot Act reminds me of times when innocent parents get too quickly accused of child abuse because we are in such a frenzy to stop such behavior. It's a useful system that's sometimes abused. But I guess we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water.
Josh, I don't have time to go through the PA and point out the sections to you but one of the key issues is that it allows detention based on "good faith beliefs" of the investigators, not the usual and much stricter legal standard of probable cause to suspect commission of a crime. It also allows secrecy whereas normally charges are brought in open court.
Everyone here is lambasting the Patriot Act, but so far I haven't found a single story specifying what section within the PA allows this. Can someone point me to it? Obviously it seems insane what is being done to this kid, but its the fixation on the Patriot Act rather than the morons who have decided to keep this kid locked up with no evidence or court date that interests me.
The "Pariot Act" is merely a Treaty with Europe, not enforcible in the states of the union, See Supreme Court decision Downs v. Bidwell. Furthermore, the "Patriot Act" is contained in Title 6 USC, which has not been passed into positive law, translation,it cannot be used as a law unto itself.The only one who can be charged is a Federal Entity.
The mother should use the "Tucker Act" and sue these guys big time.
Here's the definition of terrorism according to the Council of Europe
Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism
Warsaw, 16.V.2005 http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/Tr ... 96.htm#ANX
The member States of the Council of Europe and the other Signatories hereto,
Recalling that acts of terrorism have the purpose by their nature or context to seriously intimidate a population or unduly compel a government or an international organisation to perform or abstain from performing any act or seriously destabilise or destroy the fundamental political, constitu
I'm not sure why this case couldn't be handled more quickly, considering the age of the accused. Wow!
But Big Gubbermint's goooood. Our benevolent overlords would never do this to us. This boy is obviously with Al-Quaeda!