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Andrew1999
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quote:
Arabs in U.S. could be held, official warns
Rights unit member foresees detainment
July 20, 2002
BY NIRAJ WARIKOO
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
A member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission said in Detroit on Friday he could foresee a scenario in which the public would demand internment camps for ArabAmericans if Arab terrorists strike again in this country.
If there's a future terrorist attack in America "and they come from the same ethnic group that attacked the World Trade Center, you can forget about civil rights," commission member Peter Kirsanow said.
The reason, he said, is that "the public would be less concerned about any perceived erosion of civil liberties than they are about protecting their own lives."
Kirsanow, who was appointed to the commission last year by President George W. Bush, said after the session that he personally doesn't support such camps and the government would never envision them. He said he was merely saying public opinion would so strongly favor the idea that it would be difficult to prevent. There would be a "groundswell of opinion" for the detainment, he said.
The remarks came during a raucous commission hearing in Detroit in which Kirsanow and another conservative member, Jennifer Braceras, defended U.S. antiterrorism efforts after Sept. 11.
"They had their own political agenda," said Kary Moss, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, referring to Braceras and Kirsanow.
A White House spokesman said Friday night that he could not respond specifically to Kirsanow's comments without seeing a full transcript of them, but said that the possibility of Arab internment camps has never been discussed at the White House.
"The president has said repeatedly and often that this is not a war against Arabs or Islam, this is a war against terror," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said. "We have very close allies in the Arab world who are integral partners in the war against terrorism. . . . The president has said that ours is a war against evil and extremists and that the teachings of Islam are the teachings of peace and good."
Stanzel said that as of Friday he was "still looking into the matter" of Kirsanow's comments.
The seven-member commission, based in Washington, D.C., was at the Omni Hotel in Detroit for its monthly meeting, and heard testimony from Arab-American leaders who said the government abused civil rights following Sept. 11.
"It's becoming really ugly," said Imad Hamad, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, during his testimony.
Hamad and others expressed concern about mass interviews of Arab men, secret immigration hearings and profiling of drivers and airplane passengers.
Kirsanow was unmoved, arguing that Arab and Muslim Americans should accept the country's new antiterrorism laws and complain less about infringements to their civil rights.
If there's another attack by Arabs on U.S. soil, "not too many people will be crying in their beer if there are more detentions, more stops, more profiling," Kirsanow said.
"There will be a groundswell of public opinion to banish civil rights. So the best thing we can do to preserve them is by keeping the country safe."
At one point during the hearing, Roland Hwang, a Lansing attorney, recalled how Japanese-Americans were interned during World War II and said this country needs to prevent that from happening again.
It was at this point that Kirsanow broached the possibility of a rising public sentiment for internment camps if the U.S. were attacked again.
Braceras, another Bush appointee, said:"There's no constitutional right not to be inconvenienced or even embarrassed."
Kirsanow, a Cleveland labor attorney, is the former head of the conservative Center for New Black Leadership.
After the meeting, Hamad said he felt insulted by some of the commission's remarks.
Braceras said she didn't intend to upset the Arab-American community of metro Detroit, the largest concentration in the United States. "I was trying to be a devil's advocate," she said.
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This article is from the Detroit Free Press, the major Detroit newspaper.
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Lord Merciless
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If terrorist attacks piss off people to a certain degree, then anything can happen.
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Eli
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Israel
Jul 2000
time: 07:21
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Another proof to the claim that if any other country but Israel had been suffering daily terror attacks they would've commited genocide years ago.
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Bereta_Eder
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The average american arab citizen has no intention of blowing himself up, people, people.....
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Kramerman
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UT, Austin - The live music capital of the world
Jun 2002
time: 23:21
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quote:
Originally posted by Ned
Once I barely understood Roosevelt;s Japanese concentration camps and thought they were a mistake. I now am more understanding. |
They weren't concentretion camps
And the Japanese had a fanatical loyalty to their empror like many Arabs have to their 'leaders', who manipulate their minds with a propaganda machine that would make Hitler proud.
Anyway, the detaining of Japanese was very unfortunate, as the vast, vast mjority were harmless Americans. It would also be unfortunate if the same happened to Arabs, though we are at war and must go through the natrual hystaria that comes with it (like japs in wwii, and the red scare of the cold war). Though i think it is very unlikely that anything like the japanese detention camps would happen to arabs due to the world response of today.
Kman
OT
This war sucks. We will never be able to win, because we will never be able to brake our enemies spirit, as the only way to do so would be 'inhumane' and, no thanks to global communications, we would be hated by the world. The only reason why we were able to overcome the Japs, whos 100 million homeland population pledged to fight for their emperor to the bitter end, was becaused we nuked them and killed 100s of thousands with seemingly ease (almost all civilians). Their spirit was destroyed. When Rome faced rebellion, it slaughtered men wemon and children, razed the region, and salted the earth so nothing would grow. You could be damn sure it would be a long time before that area rebelled again. Unfortunately, the US nolonger can utterly destroy our enemy who grows faster than we can hurt them, becuase it is 'uncivilized'. Though, in reality, nothing is more civilized than protecting ones own civilization from barbarians....
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29-07-2002 01:51
The El Pais newspaper said that, also one of the most credible in the world.
That would simply START the real war.
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