Capitol Conspiracy by William Bernhardt Page B

the louder. “Sounds like sour grapes to me.”
    Privately, Salter tended to agree, but he certainly wasn’t going to say that. “I gather then that you and your department are all for this thing.”
    “It was my idea, son. We need it, if we’re going to survive. You think all those Middle East maniacs care about civil rights? Hell, no. They just want to blow us off the map. Destroy our way of life.”
    Salter addressed Muldoon, not quite looking her in the eye. “And that goes for you, too, I guess. Faithful follower and all that?”
    “Actually, no.”
    Lines creased Lehman’s forehead. Salter got the impression he wasn’t accustomed to being disagreed with—especially not by his second in command.
    “I think it’s crazy,” Muldoon continued. “One horrible incident and we decide to eradicate our fundamental freedoms?”
    “There’s no freedom if we’re all dead,” Lehman countered.
    “Masterfully argued,” Muldoon said, and for once, Salter liked her a little, especially as he watched Lehman try to figure out if he’d been complimented or insulted.
    “You think this is the first time something like this has happened?” Lehman asked. “I can assure you it isn’t. I’ve been around a long time, and I’m a student of history, too. The real history, not what they teach you in sixth-grade civics class. Remember the Alien and Sedition Acts? Clear violation of freedom of speech, but that didn’t stop John Adams from pushing for it when he started getting scared. During the Civil War, our beloved Abe Lincoln suspended habeas corpus and replaced civil trials with military trials. He didn’t have any constitutional amendment backing him up, either. He just did it. President Wilson gave us the infamous ‘Red Scare’ and Palmer raids during and after World War One. During World War Two, FDR signed Executive Order 9066 that put 3,500 Japanese Americans who had not even been
accused
of crimes into concentration camps. Nixon’s Organized Crime Control Act suspended search and seizure laws and most of the accused’s Fifth Amendment rights.”
    “Yes,” Muldoon said, “and if all those violations could occur with the Bill of Rights in place, imagine what might happen if someone got the right to suspend the Bill of Rights for an indefinite period.”
    “It’s only a temporary measure.”
    “Yeah, it was only a temporary measure that suspended the Bill of Rights in India in 1962. A national emergency was declared and an emergency council was convened, and the Bill of Rights was held in abeyance. For six years. Then they suspended them again not ten years later, in 1975. How do we know that won’t happen here? Every time some worrisome little Orange Alert occurs, our fundamental liberties could fly out the window.”
    “Are you suggesting I might abuse my power?”
    “I’m suggesting,” Muldoon replied, not backing down in the least, “that the whole amendment is a very bad idea.”
    Exasperated, Lehman blew air through his teeth. He turned his attention to Salter. “I gather you share your boss’s sentiments?”
    Salter took a deep breath. “I have concerns about giving so much authority to a relatively new governmental department. I think the director of the FBI would’ve been a better choice.”
    “I’m just one member on a committee of six.”
    “I know how these things work. The chairman will wield a huge amount of authority and influence. Especially in the face of a crisis.”
    “You Feebs just don’t get the picture,” Lehman said, and this time there was a touch of a growl in his voice. “Your day is done. When the president decided to move the Secret Service—the men protecting his butt on a daily basis—out of Treasury, did he give them to you? Hell, no. He gave them to Homeland Security. We’re today, not yesterday. We’ve got 184,000 employees. We’re the third largest cabinet department—only the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs are larger.