February 28, 2004 - Do you remember the late, great Bill of Rights? Peter Zenger, the Freedom of the Press and all that? Well the Bush Administration doesn’t.

It seems that words are nothing more than a commodity like wheat, corn, or soybeans. Should those words be produced in a country on the Administration’s black list a publisher must now secure a license from the Treasury Department before editing or translating the material. Reordering paragraphs, correcting syntax to Standard English usage, adding illustrations or publishing anything other than camera ready copy without a license from the government is “trading with the enemy” and subjects the publisher to criminal prosecution if the original was written in a country under a US trade embargo. At least that is what the Treasury Department claims in letters sent to US publishers over recent months. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/28/national/28PUBL.html?8br

According to the letters and as confirmed by Treasury spokesperson Tara Bradshaw collaboration on and editing of the manuscripts, the selection of reviewers, and facilitation of a review resulting in substantive enhancements or alterations to the manuscripts; or even correcting typos constitutes “the provision of prohibited services” and subjects a publisher to fines of $500,000 and 10 years in jail. A publisher whose newspaper quotes in English from a newspaper published in Teheran or Havana would be subject must first obtain a license or be at the mercy of John Ashcroft’s Department of Justice.

While the warnings were directed to print publishers, primarily technical and scholarly journals, they apply equally to publishers in any medium – including the Internet. When Google’s translator makes a Cuban web-article readable in English that electronic publication is equally liable under the Bush Administrations interpretation of the law.

If word and ideas are merely commodities in trade, subject to regulation and licensing then it is a only a short step to licensing their import and export as well. It is but a short step to permitting “trade” in only government approved ideas and burning “illegal” books. We have seen that before.

The Treasury’s warnings threatening criminal penalties constitute nothing less than a program of intellectual terrorism. What is next? Will we be required to obtain a license to think?