- We are fighting a war against terrorism to defend American
values of truth, liberty and justice. That's how President George W. Bush
sold this war to us after the horror of Sept. 11.
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- In those first days after The Reckoning, as a shocked
nation grieved, the president held back tears and his lips quivered as
he hung up the phone after checking on recovery efforts in New York.
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- "I'm a good guy," he said, and we believed
him.
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- Americans of all creeds and backgrounds stood shoulder
to shoulder. We had good and right on our side - and yet some of us had
healthy doubts about this war against enemies unknown.
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- As much as I lauded Bush, I wrote a few days after the
attack that I feared this war on terrorism could turn into a war against
the very rights that America's Founding Fathers fought to secure against
tyranny. Now, almost a year later, my fears have proved to be a painful
reality.
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- In this nation of laws, based on the separation of powers,
on the checks and balances of each branch of government, we have a police
state in the making. To say that this war is so unique as to demand the
dismantling of basic constitutional protections, as Attorney General John
Ashcroft maintains, goes against everything our young people in military
service risk their lives for. It goes against the very core of what it
means to be an American, and it clearly goes against the Constitution.
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- We have the right to know what the government's charges
are against us. We have a right to an attorney. We are innocent until proved
guilty. We are protected from illegal searches and seizures. Or so we thought.
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- The cases of two Americans accused of terrorism puts
us on notice. The two men - Jose Padilla of Puerto Rican descent and Yaser
Esam Hamdi, who was born in Louisiana and raised in Saudi Arabia - are
being held in solitary confinement, without access to lawyers, even without
official charges filed against them. They are being treated as military
combatants under a system in which the rules keep changing.
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- Federal Judge Robert G. Doumar has become so frustrated
by the assaults on the Constitution in the Hamdi case that he blasted government
lawyers last week for not producing any evidence. "I have no desire
to have an enemy combatant get out," Doumar said, "but due process
requires something other than a declaration (by a Defense Department official)
that he should be held incommunicado. Isn't that what we're fighting for?"
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- Many members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats,
are asking that question, too. Yet the Justice Department has refused to
turn over information to Judiciary panels that are looking at the ramifications
of the misnamed "Patriots Act." For instance, how many times
has Justice obtained authority for roving surveillance? Ashcroft says that's
classified, and the only ones who can know are members of Intelligence
committees that meet behind closed doors.
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- That kind of secrecy has nothing to do with national
security and everything to do with the type of power grabs third-rate dictators
demand. The U.S. Supreme Court inevitably will have to decide.
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- This isn't a matter of Bush being a good guy or not.
We all want to get the bad guys. But we can't pretend to be the "good
guys" if our government is willing to spit on basic rights and shred
our Constitution in the name of justice.
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- © 2001 bayarea and wire service sources. All Rights
Reserved.
- www.bayarea.com
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- http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/news/3900650.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
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