Reply #49: But we have given up liberties, by increments, starting with PATRIOT

[IndianaGreen]

It now appears that the public has accepted the idea of arresting and holding people indefinitely without ever being charged in court. Once it was acceptable to hold people at the concentration camp in Guantanamo, it was only a matter of time before it becomes acceptable to have concentration camps in Iowa, or death camps in Wyoming.

August 2, 2005

600 Arrests, But Only 76 Charged
Chertoff's Preemptive Crackdown
By MIKE WHITNEY

"For too long, these gangs have gone unchecked flouting all laws and demonstrating a blatant disregard for public safety."

Michael Chertoff, Homeland Security

Homeland Security's Michael Chertoff is a busy man. In the last month alone he's arrested more than 600 gang members. There's only one problem. None of them has been charged with a crime.

No matter.

In Chertoff's world that's only a minor glitch; after all, Chertoff engineered the infamous round up of 1,100 Muslims following 9-11; tossing them all in the federal hoosegow and barring them from legal counsel.

It was quite a coup, and probably helped the public feel more secure from the looming threat of domestic terror.

As it happens, not one of Chertoff's detainees was ever convicted of a crime or connected in any way to terrorism. It turns out the whole misadventure was a bigger flop than a Bill Bennett Las Vegas vacation.

A slipshod effort like the post 9-11 sweeps would normally plunk one in the long-gray line at the unemployment office. Instead, it was the boost that Chertoff needed to propel him to the zenith of the national bureaucracy; Homeland Security, the largest agency in the federal government. "Failing upwards" is a long-standing tradition in the Bush White House and Chertoff has become the resident poster child.

His tenure at the agency had been fairly lackluster until the announcement of yesterday's dragnet. Maybe he felt some friendly competition from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who rolled up an astonishing 10,000 criminal suspects' in Operation Falcon just months ago. As the conservative Washington Times noted, (Gonzales) "sweep was a virtual clearinghouse for warrants on drug, gang, gun and sex-offender suspects nationwide." That's how law enforcement is conducted now in Washington; no more meticulous, time-consuming investigations; just bundle the names together with scotch-tape and fire-up the Paddy-wagon.

http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney08022005.html