Early alarm after 9/11 plays out as prophesized in abridged civil liberties and endangered security
MARTHA GIES
The Oregonian
Within weeks after 9/11, civil liberties lawyer David Cole published what would be the first of many articles warning about the danger of compromising, as we reacted to the shock and the carnage, our own cherished rule of law. In the Oct. 8, 2001, issue of The Nation, he wrote, "Nothing tests our commitment to principle like terrorism."
Our commitment failed that test: We sat by, willing to see the Bill of Rights dismantled as secret searches and wiretaps were used without probable cause, thousands of foreign nationals were detained or deported, and hundreds of people -- no one knew exactly who they were -- squatted or kneeled in chain-link cages at Guantanamo Bay while being denied the protections guaranteed by the Geneva Conventions.
Cole, who is also a law professor at Georgetown University, began to focus his alarm: If we don't afford noncitizens due process, how long before we treat citizens the same way? In April 2002, when one of the Guantanamo detainees was discovered to be Louisiana-born, Cole's rhetorical question was answered: Yaser Hamdi, American citizen, was transferred to a military jail, without lawyer, arraignment or trial, and in complete isolation. Two months later, American citizen Jose Padilla was arrested, beginning his more than three years in legal limbo.
Across the country, pressure was put upon the FBI to produce more terrorism cases. Here in Portland, we had a front-row seat for several spectacular cases: the prayer leader of a Southwest Portland mosque was arrested at the airport in September 2002, allegedly with traces of cocaine and TNT on his luggage; seven local Muslims were indicted in late 2002 on charges of attempting to travel to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban; and a local lawyer, also Muslim, was held in May 2004 as a material witness because his fingerprints allegedly implicated him in the train bombing in Madrid, Spain.
None went to trial: not Imam Kariye, because the illegal substances were found to be imaginary (he later pleaded guilty to lying about his income and using false identification when applying for health insurance); nor the Portland Seven, who although they only went to China, pleaded guilty to reduced charges when faced with possible life sentences (for conspiracy to wage war, it should be noted, and not for terrorism); nor for Brandon Mayfield, who never went to Spain.
(Continued here.)
The Oregonian
Within weeks after 9/11, civil liberties lawyer David Cole published what would be the first of many articles warning about the danger of compromising, as we reacted to the shock and the carnage, our own cherished rule of law. In the Oct. 8, 2001, issue of The Nation, he wrote, "Nothing tests our commitment to principle like terrorism."
Our commitment failed that test: We sat by, willing to see the Bill of Rights dismantled as secret searches and wiretaps were used without probable cause, thousands of foreign nationals were detained or deported, and hundreds of people -- no one knew exactly who they were -- squatted or kneeled in chain-link cages at Guantanamo Bay while being denied the protections guaranteed by the Geneva Conventions.
Cole, who is also a law professor at Georgetown University, began to focus his alarm: If we don't afford noncitizens due process, how long before we treat citizens the same way? In April 2002, when one of the Guantanamo detainees was discovered to be Louisiana-born, Cole's rhetorical question was answered: Yaser Hamdi, American citizen, was transferred to a military jail, without lawyer, arraignment or trial, and in complete isolation. Two months later, American citizen Jose Padilla was arrested, beginning his more than three years in legal limbo.
Across the country, pressure was put upon the FBI to produce more terrorism cases. Here in Portland, we had a front-row seat for several spectacular cases: the prayer leader of a Southwest Portland mosque was arrested at the airport in September 2002, allegedly with traces of cocaine and TNT on his luggage; seven local Muslims were indicted in late 2002 on charges of attempting to travel to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban; and a local lawyer, also Muslim, was held in May 2004 as a material witness because his fingerprints allegedly implicated him in the train bombing in Madrid, Spain.
None went to trial: not Imam Kariye, because the illegal substances were found to be imaginary (he later pleaded guilty to lying about his income and using false identification when applying for health insurance); nor the Portland Seven, who although they only went to China, pleaded guilty to reduced charges when faced with possible life sentences (for conspiracy to wage war, it should be noted, and not for terrorism); nor for Brandon Mayfield, who never went to Spain.
(Continued here.)
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