Countdown

A Brave New America?

Volume III, No. 33
Posted on Friday August 16, 2002

Ashcroft Announces Desire For Citizen Camps

Attorney General John Ashcroft announced last week his desire to set up camps for American citizens that he determines to be enemy combatants. “Ashcroft’s plan, disclosed last week but little publicized, would allow him to order the indefinite incarceration of U.S. citizens and summarily strip them of their constitutional rights and access to courts by declaring them enemy combatants.” The “proposed camp plan was forged at an optimistic time for Ashcroft’s small inner circle, which has been carefully watching two test cases to see whether this vision could become a reality. The cases of Jose Padilla and Yaser Esam Hamdi will determine whether U.S. citizens can be held without charges and subject to the arbitrary and unchecked authority of the government.”

Bush Administration Criticized by the ABA and District Court Judge

Joining a growing tide of criticism, the nation’s largest lawyers’ organization, the American Bar Association, strongly condemned the Bush Administration’s policy of secretly detaining large numbers of immigrants in the wake of the September 11th attacks. The condemnation came after a short debate and voice vote at the ABA’s annual conference held in Washington, D.C., and demanded to know who has been detained and why the detainees have not received legal representation. In a related development, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler issued a stay on an earlier ruling ordering the government to release the names of those detained after 9/11, pending a federal appeals court ruling on the matter, which could take months. Also, in Norfolk, Virginia, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Doumar lambasted the Administration’s representative (an assistant to the solicitor general, Gregory Garre) for the continuing incarceration of Esam Hamdi, a U.S. citizen being held as an “enemy combatant,” asking, “So, the Constitution doesn’t apply to Mr. Hamdi?” A decision as to whether Mr. Hamdi is indeed an “enemy combatant” is expected from Judge Doumar in the coming days.

A Brave New America?

The Justice Department announced that it has chosen September 11th of this year as the time to implement the new fingerprinting program, developed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, that seeks to stop potential terrorists from entering the United States. The program will be implemented in undisclosed locations on September 11th, and will reach full implementation at all ports of entry by October 1st. It will target all nationals of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, and Syria as well as non-immigrant foreign nationals deemed a risk to national security by the State Department or INS officials at the port of entry.

California Legislature Considers Pro-Israel Legislation

In the coming weeks, the California State Legislature will consider Bill 235, urging the University of California – Berkeley not to divest its public pension funds from companies with strong ties to Israel. The university has been considering divestiture in reaction to criticism from student organizations and members of the faculty. The bill also urges leaders of the Palestinian Authority to clearly denounce terrorism, and urges the Palestinian people to use their upcoming elections to replace Yasser Arafat. The bill was reviewed by the Committee on Higher Education on August 13th, and will be finalized in the coming days.

Heard Around Town…

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE): “Maybe Mr. [Richard] Perle would like to be in the first wave of those who go into Baghdad.”

After heavy handed criticism from both Republicans and Democrats in Congress, as well as from civil rights activists, the Department of Justice has decided to scale down its Terrorism Information and Prevention System (TIPS) to include only truckers, bus drivers, and others whose occupations allow them to monitor public places.

This week, Marriott International agreed to pay the Midwest Federation of American Syrian-Lebanese Clubs $115,000 for violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by revoking a contract for the usage of one of the company’s Iowa hotels on September 11, 2001. $100,000 of the settlement will be used to endow a scholarship fund to be administered by the Midwest Federation.

From a pamphlet recently distributed by Israeli soldiers to Palestinians, “…stop proving any help or cooperation with the attackers in order to guarantee your safety, and the safety of your family and property.”

Human Rights Watch has released its ninety-five-page report “Presumption of Guilt: Human Rights Abuses in Post-September 11 Detainees.” The report can be found at the following link: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/us911/.