washingtonpost.com - News Front\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\r\n<\/p>
WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?<\/b>
Washington’s new witch-hunt<\/b><\/p>\r\n
By Sharon Smith<\/b> | November 30, 2001 | Page 7<\/p>\r\n
\nON NOVEMBER 19, Rep. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) suggested that state police\nshould \"arrest every Muslim that comes across the state line.\" Chambliss\nisn’t an isolated bigot in Congress--he chairs the House Subcommittee on\nTerrorism and Homeland Security. His remark exposes the racist nature of\nthe Bush administration’s \"war against terrorism\" at home, which is nothing\nbut a witch-hunt against Arabs and Muslims.<\/p>\r\n
That witch-hunt has\nexpanded significantly over the last two weeks, since Bush and Co. handed\nthemselves sweeping authority to act as judge, jury and executioner of any\nnoncitizens they choose, under a cloak of secrecy.<\/p>\r\n
Bush’s November 13\nexecutive order instituting military tribunals gives him the sole authority\nto order a secret military tribunal for any \"individual who is not a United\nStates citizen with respect to whom I determine.\"<\/p>\r\n
Meanwhile, Attorney\nGeneral John Ashcroft is single-handedly overseeing the biggest roundup of\nimmigrants since the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans during the\nSecond World War.<\/p>\r\n
Just 10 months ago, a Newsweek<\/i>\n magazine poll showed that 40 percent of Americans opposed Ashcroft’s nomination\nbecause he was deemed too right wing. People polled cited his opposition\nto school desegregation, abortion and gay rights, not to mention his sympathies\nwith far-right militias and anti-immigration groups.<\/p>\r\n
Last month, Ashcroft\nsummarily announced that he will no longer issue a public tally of those\ndetained in the roundup of mainly Middle Eastern men since September 11,\nwho numbered roughly 1,200 at last count.<\/p>\r\n
Most are being held\nunder the guise of visa violations--and few, if any, have been shown to have\nany connection to the September 11 terrorist attacks. Nevertheless, the Pentagon\nand Justice Department say that they have already begun preparing to move\nsome of those detained into military custody for possible trial by military\ntribunal.<\/p>\r\n
Ashcroft has also\nbegun questioning 5,000 more Arab and Muslim men between the ages of 18 and\n33 who entered the country legally since January 2000.<\/p>\r\n
Muslim and Arab communities\nacross the country are gripped by fear--facing racial harassment encouraged\nby the government’s hysteria, coupled with the prospect that many people\ncould face detention on the pretext of immigration irregularities.<\/p>\r\n
In some cases, reporting\nracial harassment has led to detention. Mohammad Yaseen Haider, a 22-year-old,\nwas beaten on September 16 by three men who shouted racial slurs outside\nthe Norman, Okla., convenience store where he was working. Haider, a junior\nat the University of Oklahoma, complained to the local police. Now he has\nbeen detained on immigration charges.<\/p>\r\n
The FBI apparently\nrequested copies of Haider’s complaint, then began investigating him on the\ngrounds that he once lived next door to two men who are among those detained\nsince September 11.<\/p>\r\n
The FBI and Justice\nDepartment have also continued to use the anthrax scare to target Muslims\nand Arabs--despite mounting evidence of a homegrown far-right perpetrator.\nOn November 10, FBI officials announced that the anthrax terrorist is probably\na white male much like the \"Unabomber,\" Ted Kazcynski, with a grudge against\nthe government.<\/p>\r\n
Yet three days later,\n30 armed FBI agents descended on the home of a Pakistani family after a tip\nthat they were seen dumping a cloudy liquid on the ground behind their home\nin Chester, Pa. The cloudy liquid, according to the family of Asif Kazi--Chester’s\ncity accountant--was soapy water from a clogged sink.<\/p>\r\n
FBI agents held Mrs.\nKazi at gunpoint while a decontamination team spent 10 hours searching their\nhome--seizing her prescription for Cipro, which she uses to treat endometriosis.<\/p>\r\n
Two blocks away,\nanother team of FBI agents broke down the front door to the home of another\nPakistani native, Dr. Ishad Shaikh--who has been the city health commissioner\nsince 1994.<\/p>\r\n
Bush has claimed\nthat the terrorists of September 11 targeted the U.S. because of \"our freedoms.\"\nSince September 11, the war at home has made a mockery of that claim.<\/p>\r\n\n","contact":"","link":"http:\/\/socialistworker.org\/","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"On November 19, Rep. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.)--chair of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security--suggested that state police should \"arrest every Muslim that comes across the state line.\"","numcomment":1,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2001\/12\/socw.html","filesize":"8.7 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2001\/12\/13370.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":13399,"heading":"A question","article":"From the article:\r\n\r\n\"Nevertheless, the Pentagon and Justice Department say that they have already begun preparing to move some of those detained into military custody for possible trial by military tribunal.\"\r\n\r\nCan anyone provide any substantiation for this? If true, this is a very nasty move, but the Socialist Worker's say-so is worth about as much as CNN's.","author":"The Shnoz","parent_id":13370,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2001-12-07 04:52:25","modified":"2001-12-07 05:04:32","fileurl":""}]}