It's Not the American Way
There's so much going on in Washington these days--George Bush is even hiring a lawyer to help him fend off the investigators looking into who leaked Valerie Plame's name, while CIA head George Tenet is resigning--that it's easy to ignore the recent release of more information about the case against Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen--like me and, more than likely, you--who has been held without trial for two years and who allegedly confessed to several terrorist plots under these conditions--without a lawyer present, because until this March, he wasn't allowed to have one. Fortunately, Richard Cohen is paying attention in the article linked above.
As Dahlia Lithwick points out, it no longer matters what Padilla did or did not do. The government cannot bring his case to court using the evidence it has because that evidence was obtained unconstitutionally--under duress, without a lawyer present, without informing the "defendant" of his right to remain silent.
In the mania that followed September 11, a lot of things happened that would never have taken place in saner times. The Patriot Act's privacy-invading provisions, random searches of old women in airports, and unlimited detention of prisoners without formal charges or even information about their whereabouts for loved ones--these are not hallmarks of the American system. Timothy Noah may be right: "Let America be America again" may be a dud of a slogan for John Kerry's campaign. But in the face of these sorts of affronts to our constitution--and that is what they are, as Cohen and Lithwick clearly show--it's hard not to appreciate the sentiment.
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I'm sure you understand, Brian, that the reason I titled the post "Least Among Us" is that Padilla is literally the least-sympathetic face we could put on the problem of rights being ignored and destroyed in today's America. How do we make people understand that when it's OK to detain Padilla indefinitely, it's only a stone's throw to detain you or me without declaring a cause? This will sound insane, but think about it: This is how people reacted during the Holocaust, too. You've read this poem, right? (credit http://www.hoboes.com/html/FireBlade/Politics/niemoller.shtml)
First they came for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.
It's been updated today (credit http://www.janrainwater.com/htdocs/Rohde.htm):
First they came for the Muslims, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Muslim.
Then they came to detain immigrants indefinitely solely upon the certification of the Attorney General, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't an immigrant.
Then they came to eavesdrop on suspects consulting with their attorneys, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a suspect.
Then they came to prosecute non-citizens before secret military commissions, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a non-citizen.
Then they came to enter homes and offices for unannounced "sneak and peek" searches, and I didn't speak up because I had nothing to hide.
Then they came to reinstate Cointelpro and resume the infiltration and surveillance of domestic religious and political groups, and I didn't speak up because I had stopped participating in any groups.
Then they came for anyone who objected to government policy because it aided the terrorists and gave ammunition to America's enemies, and I didn't speak up because...... I didn't speak up.
Then they came for me....... and by that time no one was left to speak up.
Ordinary people pretended the Holocaust didn't happen; they were scared--for different reasons than Americans are scared today, perhaps--and the Jews made a good target for Hitler. I'm not saying Bush is Hitler; I'm not claiming Padilla is innocent of any crime, while the Jews of the Holocaust clearly did nothing to deserve their fate. But in both cases, the government said someone was bad and needed to be removed from public life, whether to prison or a gas chamber, without any public trial for their crimes; whether those crimes are real or imaginary hardly matters when the people alleged to have committed them are never given the opportunity to argue their side of the case. Any fair jury would have set the Jews free; it's entirely possible Padilla and the thousand other prisoners being held at Guantanamo would be convicted of treason or terrorism and rightfully imprisoned for life (or even killed, though we all know how I feel about that, I think). But the point is that neither group got a fair hearing from their government; they were both simply escorted away from their homes, to be treated as the government saw fit.
For people who fear a big, intrusive, pushy government, Republicans sure don't give a damn as long as they're not the ones being pushed--or, in this case, hidden in a cell on an island and denied the basic rights that make--or made, at least--America the country that people in other countries have emulated and venerated for the last two centuries.
Your quote, by the way, is this: "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."
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