USA Act not protecting, but jailing U.S. citizens
If we don’t speak up for those already being held, there may not be people to speak for us when our time comes.
COMMENTARY
Andrew Dyer

“They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.” — Benjamin Franklin

Six weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Congress overwhelmingly approved the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act, better known by its acronym, the USA PATRIOT Act. The result of this rash knee-jerk, far-reaching legislation is now being felt.

Jose Padilla, a.k.a. Abdullah al-Muhajir, the accused “dirty bomber,” is an American citizen who has never been charged with a crime. In spite of that fact, he is being detained indefinitely on a naval brig off the coast of South Carolina without being permitted to speak with an attorney. Another American, Yaser Esam Hamdi, also hasn’t been charged with a crime, yet he too is being detained indefinitely by the military, without access to legal counsel.

The present administration seems to think that it is possible to deny both citizens and non-citizens in this country their constitutional rights at time of an undeclared war. In response to this dangerous notion, U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler gave the government 15 days to release the names of the more than 1,000 people it admitted to arresting and secretly detaining in its ongoing Sept. 11 investigation. This search for the names — just the names — of the detainees has brought to the forefront the unchecked state power being exercised by the present administration.

Attorney General John Ashcroft maintains that the treatment being meted out these “enemy combatants” is justified by a 1942 Supreme Court ruling that held that Nazi prisoners of war needed only provide their name, rank and serial number when questioned. Ashcroft and the Justice Department obviously have been reluctant to release the mass of citizens and non-citizens they have in custody because they hope to gain more information about the al-Qaeda movement and the 9-11 attack on the World Trade Center.

The Bush administration has taken upon the executive branch the power to declare that anyone — citizen or non-citizen — is an enemy combatant, jail that person indefinitely without being charged and deny him or her access to legal advice.

Before the reader folds this page and thinks his or her civil liberties are safe, he or she should recall the words of Martin Niemoller, writing about Nazi Germany: “They came for the communists, and I did not speak up because I wasn’t a communist. They came for the socialists, and I did not speak up because I was not a socialist. They came for the union leaders, and I did not speak up because I wasn’t a union leader. They came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak up for me.” Perhaps the line “They came for the Muslims ... ” should be added to this chilling quote.

Andrew Dyer is a junior political science major from Dallas.