You know, the more I hear about the Justice Department proposals for new police powers, the more I wonder what on earth they're really up to. The proposal for indifinite detention based purely on suspicion is so outlandish that they must expect that Congress won't let the provision through in that form and that any federal judge worth their salt would immediately strike the prohibition on judicial review. And why on earth would you need to make hacking, of all things, a capital terrorist offense? Most hackers have nothing to do with terrorism, as such; they're usually bored, overbright teenagers with a studied lack of common sense. There are so many things wrong with the justice department proposals that you have to conclude that many of the things in the bill are there for the express purpose of giving Congress something to change and strike; that behind the scenes, Justice is telling Congress, "OK, look: this is what we really want and what we feel is minimally acceptable, and we'll fight for those." You just wonder what those things actually are.
In the meantime, taking advantage of the situation, the "Justice" department is abusing its powers on a scale heretofore unseen. Detainees aren't allowed to contact lawyers. For all the high-falutin' rhetoric from Bush and Ashcroft that racial profiling of Arabs and other Muslims won't be tolerated, it's happening on an obnoxiously wide basis. The government is releasing statements saying, "Look! A terrorist!" about some people, and then later saying, "Oops. Wrong guy. Sorry," having trashed a person's reputation from coast to coast. People are being removed from the cities and towns in which they live and are being sent to New York for interrogation; of course, they are entirely likely to experience a reasonably fair process in the midst of a city directly traumatized by such a heavy loss, now aren't they? Given the numbers -- the feds are aiming to find about 800 people total at this point -- it is inevitable that some will serve a very long time in detention before the feds really even get around to questioning them and investigating thoroughly enough to realize that they're innocent. Some will undoubtedly lose jobs and homes because of this.
This "war" is likely to go on for many many years. Britain has been going up against the IRA and its relations for 40 years now. Israel and various Arab factions for nearly the same amount of time. We're likely to have to go at least as long. Do we really want to continue acting like this for 40 years or more?
Copyright © 2001, Iain Jackson, after-words.org
[Archives: 2001 and after]
Archives before February 5, 2001
Search entries:
12/19/2001: vive la france
12/19/2001: princess, redux
12/19/2001: yemen and rumsfeld
12/18/2001: you're NOT in the army now
12/18/2001: interesting donation
12/18/2001: shame on winn dixie, indeed
12/18/2001: saudi princess
12/17/2001: new resolve
12/17/2001: a victim of the attack ... yeah, right
12/17/2001: polluters ho!