IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE?

By Steve McGehee

As the history of McCarthyism reminds us, even in a nation where government derives its just authority from consent of the governed and citizens have clearly-defined protections, a climate of fear and hatred can erode the guarantees of the Bill of Rights. Without authorization, Lincoln suspended writs of habeus corpus for those suspected of Confederate sympathies. Wilson's Attorney General Mitchell Palmer, without warrants or charges and with only allegations of guilt by association, arrested and held without trial thousands of leftists. Most were resident aliens.

Inheritor of the repressive legacy of Joe McCarthy, John Ashcroft has shown that our Bill of Rights is no safer with him than it was with his predecessor Palmer. Within months of 9/11,1200 men--virtually all Muslims and resident aliens--were incarcerated for questioning. Without filing of charges, without representation, and with only the faintest of suspicions alleged, they were deprived of their liberty. Names were withheld, proceedings closed to the public, to the press and even to family members. To date, not a single charge against those so detained has been made related to the awful events of 9/11.

Now, when you might have thought Ashcroft's thirst for trashing civil liberties had been slaked, along comes the internment of two American citizens. Jose Padilla, a petty Chicago crook, was arrested May 8 last year and has been kept locked up in a military prison since then. No charges have been filed, he has not been allowed to confer with an attorney and it is still unclear what evidence supported George Bush's designation of Padilla as an enemy combatant. There are allegations that he was researching the construction of a dirty bomb, but Administration officials were quick to point out that Padilla possessed no radioactive material or bomb making equipment. Neither had he chosen a target or formulated a plan. It seems clear that this ex-con did have al-Qaeda training, but we will never know the details since, according to Rumsfeld, Padilla will never stand trial. What we do know from Bush is that this guy, Padilla, is a bad guy. And that appears to be enough for the ultra-conservative Fourth US istrict Court.

The second American citizen designated an enemy combatant was Yasser Hamdi. Arrested in Afghanistan with the Taliban, he was brought to Guantanamo Bay. Later, after his citizenship was determined, he was stripped of his due process rights as an American and has also been held incommunicado. The same Fourth District Court of Appeals ruled that Bush's war powers gave him authority to detain without warrant, without charges and without a right to consult an attorney. Remember WSU sociologist Rik Scarce who was jailed for refusing to disclose sources in his research of radical groups? One, the Animal LIberation Front, has now been designated by Bushs team as eco-terrorist.

Perhaps Rik should be grateful that he was arrested under a regime that at least allowed him visitors and meetings with lawyers. If anyone is tempted to think that the trashing of probable cause standards and habeus corpus is a laughing matter, imagine it is your own child attending the Pullman campus and falling in with a group of radical environmentalists. Arrests are made, your son or daughter, by affiliation, is determined an enemy combatant and is held indefinitely without trial, without charges ever being filed, without even the right to consult an attorney.