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Cato Daily Dispatch for December 19, 2002

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Bush Denounces Iraqi Weapons Declaration
California Judge Slashes Tobacco Settlement
NYPD Seeking Broader Surveillance Authority

Bush Denounces Iraqi Weapons Declaration

"The Bush administration is denouncing gaps, omissions and other major troubles with the Iraqi weapons declaration, setting the United States on a course to possible war with Saddam Hussein early next year," the Associated Press reports.

"After days of intense internal debate, President Bush directed Secretary of State Powell to make the U.S. case against Saddam's 12,000-page declaration this afternoon. The documents assert that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction, a claim the United States says it is prepared to rebut.

"A U.S. analysis of the Iraqi declaration 'shows problems with the declaration, gaps, omissions, and all of this is troublesome,' Powell said yesterday. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said, 'this was Saddam Hussein's last chance' to come clean with the world about his weapons program."

In a policy analysis, "Why the United States Should Not Attack Iraq," released this week, Director of Defense Policy Studies Ivan Eland and Bernard Gourley, an independent foreign policy analyst, argue that deterrence is the best way to deal with Saddam Hussein. "The key to neutralizing the Iraqi threat is to deter Hussein from aggressive action by sending a clear and credible message of commitment to protecting the United States against any challenge to its security; it is essential to communicate a willingness to massively retaliate in response to attacks against our homeland. This is crucially different from President Bush's message that overthrowing Hussein must be a top priority, regardless of his actual behavior."

California Judge Slashes Tobacco Settlement

"A California judge yesterday slashed a record $28 billion jury award against cigarette maker Philip Morris to a comparatively paltry $28 million, calling the punitive damages 'legally excessive,' Reuters reports.

"Philip Morris, the No. 1 tobacco company, said it still planned to appeal the verdict and expects the process to take several years.

"A jury ordered the company in October to pay $28 billion in punitive damages to 64-year-old Betty Bullock, a woman suffering from terminal lung cancer who blamed the company for failing to warn her of the risks of smoking.

"In a written ruling, Judge Warren Ettinger, of California Superior Court for Los Angeles County, slashed the damages, but turned down the company's bid for a new trial. He said a new trial on punitive damages would be ordered if Bullock refuses the reduced judgment."

In "When Victimhood Runs the System," Senior Fellow Doug Bandow writes that "the tobacco lawsuits represent the demise of traditional negligence law. Consumers eschew responsibility for their own actions, liability lawyers search for deep pockets, legislators overturn standard notions of fault and state attorneys general prostitute their offices in search of publicity."

NYPD Seeking Broader Surveillance Authority

"As the nation's largest law enforcement agency-nearly twice the size of the Federal Bureau of Investigation-the New York City Police Department could be the biggest Big Brother of all. Yet it faces quite a stumbling block. A long-standing federal order, imposed after a landmark lawsuit revealed rampant surveillance abuses of political activists, prevents the NYPD from spying on whomever it wants.

"Now the NYPD is fighting to gut the order and get its old powers back, according to The Village Voice.

"Police currently cannot investigate people who are exercising their constitutional rights, no matter how unpopular the cause, unless there is some indication of a crime. Street protesters are the most obvious beneficiaries. But also covered are those who pray, attend community meetings, write editorials, or express their views in almost any other way.

"The police department insists it needs broader authority to hunt terrorists, who may masquerade as regular law-abiding folks until the moment they strike. But if police win this bid, the followers of 'extremist Muslim fundamentalism' they have mentioned won't be the only ones in their sights. Everyone becomes fair game."

In "Warrior Cops: The Ominous Growth of Paramilitarism in American Police Departments," Diane Cecilia Weber writes, "What is clear-and disquieting-is that the lines that have traditionally separated the military mission from the police mission are getting badly blurred."

Jonathan Block, editor, jblock@cato.org