The nearly absolute secrecy surrounding the detentions is a growing concern to civil libertarians and legal observers who fear basic rights are being violated as authorities pursue the terrorist conspiracy responsible for the attacks in New York and Washington. [...] It is unknown whether the detainees are considered conspirators in the worst act of terrorism in U.S. history, valuable witnesses or merely people who might have information because they crossed paths with the terrorists responsible for the deaths of nearly 5,000 people Sept. 11. A senior federal law enforcement official involved in the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the detention of material witnesses and others is "pushing the envelope" of civil liberties. The source said some people are being detained based on circumstantial evidence and held for a week or longer without legal representation or permission to contact family members. "Some of these people have done nothing more than give someone a ride in their car," the official said. [...] At least 165 of the 698 people detained have been held for violations of immigration law. Their detentions can be virtually indefinite if deportation proceedings are begun. [...] During his [three-weeks of detention], Al-Salmi was denied contact with family and had a few, brief visits from his attorney, Randall B. Hamud. Despite being told early on that he was not a suspect, Al-Salmi said he was confined to a dirty, high-security cell in New York, where he was deprived of a shower and toothbrush for the duration. [...] Hamud said that his clients repeatedly asked to contact him during their time in federal custody but that the requests were denied.
Let's see: deprivation of proper diet, deprivation of any hygiene (how on earth do the guards stand it?), refusal to allow contact with family or lawyers. And civil libertarians only "fear basic rights are being violated". What, they need MORE evidence?
Not only is it crystal clear that these people have no rights at the moment -- after all, if you can't exercise a right, then you don't really have it, do you -- it's clear that nobody in the government cares in the least. Information out to the public is limited, and at the moment, most of the public wouldn't care. Many in this country would be perfectly happy to have all Arab-looking people locked up for the duration, no matter that they were perfectly innocent of anything criminal.
Unfortunately, it's likely to continue like this for some time. The antiterrorism bills, once they're reconciled and passed, will ease some of the abuses ... but only some of them. After all, the government can simply start deportation proceedings under the still-in-force Secret Evidence portions of the old antiterrorism laws. It will then take the person in jail years to wind his way through the bureaucracy to get his case heard by a court; that's been the experience of all held under those laws to date. Mind, they've all won their court cases, when it gets that far, but because they have to sue for the right to judicial review in the first place, it tends to take quite a while.
And, of course, because the government is doing this under color of law, the person arrested has no right to sue for recovery even if he is released. Al-Salmi lost his home, his possessions, his job, his education. Since the government can do what it will, and he's now a terrorized (the word is used advisedly) foreign national, he has no right to recover any of that. Since he can't catch up on his education, through no fault of his own, he'll almost certainly lose his student visa (which he would almost certainly have had removed anyway) and because he was arrested, INS won't let him back in the country. (And if you think INS doesn't keep records of major arrests, regardless of charges and convictions or lack of same, and doesn't use them to make decisions, then you're an utter fool.)
"I was completely racially profiled because of my last name," Hassan told the panel. "I don't know what my rights are. Do I have the right to say, `I'm not a criminal, so I shouldn't be treated like this'?"
Nope. Sorry. You don't. And never did, to be sure. As many of us know from experience, saying something like that while the police are interrogating you or searching you or doing whatever they're doing is pretty much a sure way to an actual arrest and possibly worse.
Welcome to our brave new world. Ain't it fun?
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!