May 13, 2003	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 10, 1424

NEW YORK, May 12: The United States government is waging “a spurious war on terror” that is costing Americans their freedoms and democracy, Indian writer and human rights activist Arundhati Roy said on Monday.

Roy, who in October 2002 called for civil disobedience to oppose the US buildup to war on Iraq, said a campaign of “targeted civil disobedience” was needed now to thwart companies with rebuilding contracts in the Gulf country.

“We need to target, we need to take a list of every single company that is taking a reconstruction contract in Iraq,” Roy, 41, said at a New York news conference to discuss “War Talk,” her new compilation of essays. “We need to isolate them, expose them and shut them down.”

Roy, whose 1997 novel “The God of Small Things” won the Booker Prize in Britain, said legislation like the US Patriot Act had damaged US democracy.

“I think the biggest threat is that everybody in the world, and this includes the people of America, are willingly surrendering their freedom to this spurious war on terror,” said Roy, who was hosted by the Center for Economic and Social Rights, a New York-based international human rights group.

She criticized the US Patriot Act, passed following the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on America, saying it allows the government “to pick up anybody, any time” and invade privacy.—Reuters