Cato Daily Dispatch for October 1, 2001
Feds Warn of More Terrorist AttacksSupreme Court Disbars Bill Clinton
Punishing the Sick
Feds Warn of More Terrorist Attacks
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld warned yesterday that he expected the enemies of the United States would eventually help terrorist groups obtain chemical, biological and possibly even nuclear weapons technology, according to The New York Times.
His remarks echoed other administration officials who have stepped up warnings on the spread of chemical and biological weapons, the threat of attacks against Americans overseas and the need for stronger antiterrorism measures at home.
Appearing on television, Attorney General John Ashcroft said the United States remained under threat of new attacks within its borders. Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House chief of staff, said the administration believed that Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network may already have the means to use chemical and biological agents as terror weapons. On Friday, the State Department issued its latest warning of potential terrorist attacks against Americans traveling abroad.
In a Cato study written last year, Eric Taylor wrote that the lack of public awareness about nuclear, biological or chemical attacks undermines national plans for dealing with such terrorism. Without education, the government "will have two foes to combat during an attack: the [nuclear, biological or chemical] agent and rampant civil panic," he says. Read more in "Are We Prepared for Terrorism Using Weapons of Mass Destruction?"
Supreme Court Disbars Bill Clinton
The Supreme Court today announced that former President Bill Clinton is suspended from practicing law before the High Court, according to CNN.
The Court, in a one-sentence order said, "Bill Clinton, of New York, New York, is suspended from the practice of law in this Court, and a rule will issue, returnable within 40 days, requiring him to show cause why he should not be disbarred from the practice of law in this Court."
As is its custom, the Supreme Court gave no explanation for its order.
Supreme Court observers say such suspensions nearly always lead to permanent disbarments. In April, Clinton's Arkansas law license was suspended for five years and he paid a $25,000 fine. The original disbarment lawsuit was brought by a committee of the Arkansas Supreme Court.
The Cato book, "The Rule of Law in the Wake of Clinton," explores President Clinton's abuses of the rule of law, with chapters by ACLU President Nadine Strossen, Sen. Fred Thompson (R - Tenn.), and Cato's Roger Pilon.
Punishing the Sick
Across the country, chronic pain sufferers are finding it increasingly difficult to obtain the powerful prescription painkiller OxyCotin, dubbed "Hillbilly Heroin" because of its burgeoning abuse as a narcotic in Appalachia, according to the Associated Press.
They say that abuse--and the response to it by law makers and law enforcers--has made doctors increasingly unwilling to provide the drug, even to the cancer patients and chronic pain sufferers who need it.
Sally Royster, who is unable to walk without the medication, searched seven months before she found a specialist in late September near her Cincinnati-area home that would prescribe OxyContin. Until then, her primary care physician agreed to prescribe the drug, but only on an interim basis, she said.
Several states have tightened control over OxyContin. At least nine have limited Medicaid patients' access to the drug. Louisiana and Virginia adopted resolutions to study the use and abuse of OxyContin, and Massachusetts and Kentucky have legislation pending that would restrict distribution of the drug, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In Virginia, police have provided fingerprint kits to pharmacies for customers wanting OxyContin.
In "Punishing the Sick," Senior Fellow Doug Bandow writes that of all of the victims of the war on drugs, "none are more tragic than the suffering and terminally ill who are treated as criminals."
/div>