Opinion Editorials, November 2003, www.aljazeerah.info
Human Price of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine
Israeli daily aggression on the Palestinian people
Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah
Cities, localities, and tourist attractions
Attacks on Islam; Attacks on Law
Mike Whitney
Al-Jazeerah, 11/9/03
The true measure of a society, is its commitment to justice, the rest is window dressing. By this standard, even with its checkered history of slavery and “Jim Crow”, the United States stands tall among the nations of
the world. By in large, ours is a history that is rooted in the belief that “no man is above the law”, and it is a tradition of which most Americans are understandably proud. Perhaps this explains why the behavior of the Bush Administration and their shocking disregard for those traditions, has had such a devastating affect on those of us who believe firmly that the rule of law is what distinguishes America from many other countries. The reaction of the Administration since 9-11 has been nothing short of extreme. Muslims, in particular, have been singled out and pilloried in a way that is anathema to the American ethic, and is only reflective of the unbridled fanaticism that issues from the Ashcroft Justice Dept. Even more disturbing, however, is the apparent willingness of the American public to accept this attack on fundamental rights without uttering a word of dissent. No society is worthy of freedom if they are unwilling to defend that same freedom for the least powerful among them.
For the most part, Americans have failed this critical test. We have sat back and remained silent why 1200 Muslims were rounded up Gestapo style and dispatched in secret proceedings. We have seen citizens stripped of their citizenship, denied Constitutional privilege and incarcerated indefinitely. Just two days ago, the Seattle Times reported on case that will appear before the Supreme Court of a man of whom nothing is publicly known. In other words, all previous proceedings have been entirely secret, the identity of the accused is unknown, and all of his Constitutionally guaranteed rights have been denied. This is just one of a number of such cases where people have been “disappeared’ only to show up at some later date in court. Even the oldest principle in American jurisprudence, habeas corpus, which goes back 600 years in English history, has been rejected for these suspects in the name of national security. How is this any different than the mock trials in Stalinist Russia? Many may argue that the number of convictions the Justice Dept has tallied is evidence that the Patriot Act and other egregious violations of personal liberty have at least been partially successful. But, that is simply not the case. In the two years since 9-11, the inept Justice Dept has not convicted one suspect that is directly related to al Qaida, international terrorism or 9-11. This is a stunning indication of the absolute incompetence of the Ashcroft Justice Dept and their ham-fisted methodology. Every case has resulted in plea bargains from terrified Muslims who knew that if they did not comply with the fanatics at DOJ they would be dispatched as “enemy combatants” and, presumably, sent off to Guantanamo Bay. This is the kind of intimidation that masquerades as justice under the taciturn Ashcroft. The most recent case that epitomizes the sorry state of the US judicial system is that of Maher Arar, the Canadian citizen who was illegally arrested while on a stopover in New York en route to Canada. Arar was detained as a “suspected terrorist” and shipped off to his country of origin, Syria, even though US law does not permit the return of people to states where the likelihood of torture exists. Never the less, Arar was dispatched to Syria at the behest of the CIA where he was incarcerated in an isolated cell for eight months and tortured on a regular basis. (He was beaten with steal cables) Eventually, the Syrian Government released Arar convinced that he was completely innocent of the charges. The Syrian Ambassador has admitted that the torture was administered at the request of the US government, a grim reminder of how every a trace of decency has been purged from those people who are entrusted with preserving our institutions of justice.
Ironically, and much to the chagrin of the US government, Arar has not only been released, but allowed to return to his home in Canada. The US opposed this vigorously, knowing that the publicity would reflect poorly on an Administration that never misses an opportunity to pontificate on the “rule of law” to the rest of the world. Bush and his colleagues would have preferred the infinite detention they have in mind for the poor souls in Guantanamo Bay, Bagram Air Base, Baghdad Airport or wherever the newest Gulag is going up to imprison the growing number of the Empire’s enemies. It should be of great concern to us all to know that our justice system, which at one time was the envy of the world, now finds itself running a dismal second place to that of Syria’s We should not expect this steady erosion of rights to reverse itself with a decline in terrorist attacks. The method that has characterized the Administration’s assault on civil liberties is part of a much larger scheme to systematically undermine the principles that safeguard the average citizen from the long arm of the State. What seemed like “radical blather” from right wing think tanks (like the Federalist Society and the American Enterprise Institute) just a few short years ago, is now part of a well organized program to savage the long established legal precedents that protect us all.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python. (Alquds,10/25/03). |
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