Only one bomb was weakly excusable. The second one was dropped before Japan had a chance to respond. Some say the reason for rushing into the second bomb was to finish the experiment as to the differences between a uranium bomb and a plutonium bomb.
BTW here is some readings for you. Unfortunately it is only about the recent Arab detainees and does not go over cases of non-Arabs. Nor does it discuss individual abuses during the past two years. Some of those made it to 60 minutes so may be you can get transcripts. There were considerably worse cases than what you read here.
ST
1 Detainment of Immigrants on December 16, 2002.
a Summary.
i The INS detained hundreds, perhaps even more than one thousand, Arab immigrants on December 16 on minor immigration infractions. The immigrants had arrived at INS headquarters in Los Angeles, San Diego and suburban Orange County to comply with a Justice Department order requiring all nationals of specific countries to show up for interviews and verification procedures. Reports indicated that the detainees were subjected to horrible conditions. According to the US Justice Department, as of December 20, about one hundred were still detained. However those who had been released had been released on bail. [New York Times 12/17/02; The Times 12/20/02; Guardian 12/20/02; The Washington Post 12/20/02; Dawn 12/23/02]
b John Ashcroft’s order.
i Summary.
(A) Attorney General John Ashcroft issued an order in November 2002 that required “virtually all male noncitizens over the age of 16 who come from 18 countries, mostly Arab and Muslim, to be interviewed, photographed and fingerprinted by federal authorities.” The immigrants were warned that failing to comply with the order could result in criminal prosecution and immediate expulsion from the country. Nationals from different countries were given different deadlines. [New York Times 12/17/02; The Times 12/20/02] The order followed the launching of the National Security Entry Exit Registration System on September 11, 2002. [Dawn 12/23/02]
ii Deadlines.
(A) December 16: Nationals of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Sudan. [New York Times 12/17/02]
(B) January 10: Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Eritrea, Lebanon, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. [New York Times 12/17/02; Guardian 12/20/02]
(C) February 21: Armenia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. [New York Times 12/17/02]
iii Official purpose.
(A) The Washington Post contended, “The efforts are an attempt to know who is in the country, legally and illegally, or is applying for residency status, and possibly to ferret out those who might know of terrorist activities or pose a threat to U.S. interests.” [The Washington Post 12/20/02]
c The detainment of more than one thousand immigrants.
i Summary.
(A) On December 16, thousands of immigrants from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Sudan waited in long lines at the INS offices in Los Angeles, San Diego and suburban Orange County to comply with Ashcroft’s November order. Hundreds – perhaps even over one thousand - were detained on charges of minor immigration violations. Some of those arrested were no more than 16 years of age. “In some cases the men had expired student or work visas; in other cases the men could not provide adequate documentation of their immigration status,” reported the New York Times. Other reports suggested the reasons for their arrests were unclear. Dawn reported, “Previously, Justice Department officials had said that the majority of those detained were held because the INS could not process unexpectedly large numbers of registrants quickly enough.” [New York Times 12/16/02; The Times 12/20/02; Independent 12/20/02; Reuters 12/19/02; Guardian 12/20/02; Dawn 12/23/02] According to a press release from several civil rights groups who are suing the government, “the INS has been using the registration process to not only enforce immigration law but to arrest and deport people who have complied with the law at every stage and are on the road to becoming permanent residents.” [PR Newswire 12/24/02; UPI 12/24/02]
ii Reasons for the arrests.
(A) The reports varied.
(1) New York Times.
(a) “In some cases the men had expired student or work visas; in other cases the men could not provide adequate documentation of their immigration status,” reported the New York Times. [New York Times 12/16/02]
(2) Dawn.
(a) On December 23, Dawn reported, “Previously, Justice Department officials had said that the majority of those detained were held because the INS could not process unexpectedly large numbers of registrants quickly enough.” [Dawn 12/23/02]
iii Number of arrests.
(A) INS: 400 [Dawn 12/23/02]
(B) ACLU: 700: “a full one-quarter of all those who complied with the programme were arrested in Los Angeles.” [Dawn 12/23/02]
(C) Other sources – few hundred to more than one thousand. [New York Times 12/16/02; The Times 12/20/02; Independent 12/20/02; Reuters 12/19/02; Guardian 12/20/02]
iv Conditions.
(A) Statements.
(1) “The situation in the detention centers is absolutely horrifying. In one center, they were ordered to strip down and given a strip search. They were only given a prison jumpsuit, without any underwear, T-shirts, socks or shoes. They were not given blankets. They are freezing,” Iranian-American lawyer Sohelia Jonoubi told the Reuters news agency. [Reuters 12/19/02]
(2) “These people are being held in inhumane conditions. ... We don't know how many. We have estimated anywhere between 1,000 to 2,500 detained in southern California. The INS in Los Angeles is overworked, overwhelmed and doing everything they can (but) these people were not prepared to handle it,” Iranian-American Lawyers Association spokesman Kayhan Shakib told the Reuters news agency. [Reuters 12/19/02]
(3) Reuters reported that the southern California chapter of the ACLU believed that the detentions were “reminiscent of what happened in the past with Japanese-Americans” during World War II. [Reuters 12/19/02]
(4) The Independent of London reported: “Lawyers reported that some detainees were forced to stand up all night for lack of room, that some were placed in shackles, and others were hosed down with cold water before being thrown into unheated cells. They said the numbers were so high that authorities were talking about transferring several hundred detainees to Arizona to await immigration hearings and deportation orders.” [Independent 12/20/02]
(5) Quoting immigration lawyers, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations said people were “being asked questions about mosque attendance, their political views and other personal information. … Some are being strip-searched, shackled and given inadequate clothing.” [Dawn 12/23/02]
iii Examples.
(A) Anonymous Iranian man interviewed by the New York Times.
(1) The New York Times reported, “One … man, who would not give his name because he said he was a member of a prominent Iranian Jewish family in Los Angeles, said he came to register last Tuesday and was immediately detained because his pending application for permanent residency had been held up in I.N.S. proceedings for five years. …He spent all of Tuesday in the federal building lockup in Los Angeles, where he said he saw dozens of men in similar circumstances. He then was taken by bus to a jail in Pasadena, where he spent the night. He was later taken to an detention center in Lancaster, about 40 miles north of Los Angeles, where his father-in-law put up $1,500 bail to get him out on Thursday afternoon.”
“This was the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to me,” he told the New York Times. “I am very respected in the business community here and I was just trying to do the right thing, to help solve the problem this country has with terrorism. We were treated like animals in Iran and all I want is for my kids to grow up and say they're proud to be Americans. But until the day I die, I'm going to be a foreigner in this country, because of the way I look and my accent.” [New York Times 12/17/02]
(B) 16-year old boy ripped from the arms of his mom
(1) The Independent of London reported: “In one case, a 16-year-old boy was ripped from his mother's arms and told he would never return home. The mother is a legal resident married to an American citizen. Many of the detainees came from Los Angeles' large Iranian Jewish population and are highly unlikely to have any link to militant Islamic guerrilla groups.” [Independent 12/20/02]
(C) 18-year old Iranian man, who may be deported to Iran – but who does not speak the language and is not familiar with the culture.
(1) The Washington Post reported, “One man detained at the INS's Arlington office on Monday was Soheil Varamini, 18, who came with his family to the United States from Iran when he was 2. A freshman at George Mason University, Varamini fears authorities might deport him to a country where he does not speak the language and is not familiar with the culture, according to his sister, Nancy Hedayet. Hedayet, 31, said Varamini is guilty only of a minor paperwork problem and was treated badly by INS officials.” [The Washington Post 12/20/02]
iv Statements from the US Government.
(A) On December 16, the New York Times reported, “Immigration officials in Los Angeles declined to discuss the program, referring all calls to Washington. The Department of Justice official authorized to speak about it did not respond to repeated phone calls.” [New York Times 12/17/02]
(B) Officials later attempted to downplay the event. [The Washington Post 12/20/02; Los Angeles Times 12/20/02] Jorge Martinez, a Justice Department spokesman, claimed that only a little more than 200 had actually been detained and that accounts quoted in the press were “preposterous.” He said, “I think these are people who obviously have some bias against the system blowing things out of proportion.” [Los Angeles Times 12/20/02] Another statement - from the INS - claimed the number of arrests was around 400. [Dawn 12/23/02]
(C) Jorge Martinez, a Justice Department spokesman, said “Since the aliens in question were from countries that were considered by the United States to be state sponsors of terrorism, no chances would be taken. We don't want to detain guys with minor violations for 90 days and see them deported. But after the Sept 11 attacks - which were done by legal aliens - we cannot take a chance of anyone we had in custody being released and then committing some act. That can never happen again. … We are giving no extensions. Individuals cases are being accommodated on medical and other grounds, but no extensions.” [Dawn 12/23/02]
v Reactions and responses.
(A) Statements.
(1) Civilians.
(a) Jonoubi, a US citizen and Los Angeles resident for 15 years, told Reuters, “I cannot believe that I lived to see the day that such human rights violations occur in the United States of America in the 21st century.” [Reuters 12/19/02]
(b) Babak Sotoodesh, an immigrant from Iran who was an attorney and president of the Alliance of Iranian Americans, an advocacy group, told The Washington Post, “If you were a terrorist, would you show up to be fingerprinted? Only law-abiding people are showing up. This is nuts. These people have been here for ages; these are not criminals.” [The Washington Post 12/20/02]
(c) Nancy Hedayet. Hedayet, 31, whose brother was detained by the INS said, “They misled people by just saying, ‘Come and get your picture taken,’ Then they round people up like animals and treat them like criminals. . . . Why do they have to terrorize people who only love this country?” [The Washington Post 12/20/02]
(2) Professionals.
(a) Angelo Paparelli, a corporate immigration lawyer told The Times of London, “I saw so many people in tears on Monday [December 16]. . . What’s happening in America is outrageous and the world needs to know.” He also explained that he was helping some of the detained immigrants pro bono because he was so outraged by the actions of INS. [The Times 12/20/02]
(3) Organizations.
(a) American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
(i) General Statements.
01. It released a statement in which it said, “[T]he INS is using the registration programme as a pretext for the mass detention of hundreds of Middle Eastern and Muslim men and boys.” [Dawn 12/23/02]
(ii) Individuals.
01. Lucas Guttentag, Director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project said, “Given the evidence, there is no alarmism in saying this is a round-up. Attorney General Ashcroft is using the immigrant registration programme to lock up people who already have provided extensive information as part of their green card applications. Therefore the purpose is clearly not to get information but rather to selectively arrest, detain and deport Middle Eastern and Muslim men in the United States.” [Dawn 12/23/02]
(b) Council on American-Islamic Relations. (CAIR)
(i) CAIR released a statement which said, “While the American Muslim community supports all actions that will safeguard our country's security, there is now a sense among many that the Justice Department considers Muslims guilty until proven innocent.” [Dawn 12/23/02]
(B) Protests.
(1) Thousands protested in response to the mass arrests waving placards which read ‘What's next? Concentration camps?’, ‘Detain Terrorists not Innocent Immigrants’, and ‘Free our fathers, brothers, husbands and sons’. [Guardian 12/20/02; The Washington Post 12/20/02]
(A) Legal Action.
(1) Class action lawsuit.
(a) Summary.
(i) Several civil rights organizations filed a class-action lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in the United States District Court for the Central District of California on December 24, 2002 in response to the mass arrests of Muslims immigrants that had occurred on December 16. [PR Newswire 12/24/02]
(b) Plaintiffs in the case.
(i) The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), Alliance of Iranian Americans (AIA), Council on American Islamic-Relations (CAIR), and the National Council of Pakistani Americans (NCPA) [PR Newswire 12/24/02]
(c) Charges against the defendants.
1. “The arrests were illegal because the government did not obtain the necessary arrest warrants;” [PR Newswire 12/24/02; UPI 12/24/02]
2. “It is unlawful and unjust to arrest and deport people who are eligible to apply to legalize their status based on family relationships or their employment;” [PR Newswire 12/24/02; UPI 12/24/02]
3. “Some detainees with avenues available to legalize their status are being detained without bail or bail hearings;” [PR Newswire 12/24/02; UPI 12/24/02]
4. “The fear of mass illegal arrests created by these detentions will obviously inhibit compliance by people facing similar registration deadlines in the near future.” [PR Newswire 12/24/02; UPI 12/24/02]
(d) What they are seeking.
1. “An injunction ordering the government not arrest any additional persons in the ‘special registration’ process without appropriate arrest warrants as required by existing federal laws;” [PR Newswire 12/24/02]
2. “An injunction preventing the deportation of detainees who have avenues available to legalize their status; and” [PR Newswire 12/24/02]
3. “An injunction requiring that the INS not hold detainees without bond or bond hearings if the detainee has available a mechanism to legalize their status.” [PR Newswire 12/24/02]
(e) Lead attorneys in the case.
(i) Peter A. Schey and Carlos R. Holguin of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law. [PR Newswire 12/24/02] |
