ACLU Says Bush Choice for Homeland Security Head Worrisome

[struggle4progress]

Chertoff Played Key Role In Formulating Controversial 9/11 Policies
January 11, 2005

Statement of Gregory T. Nojeim
ACLU Washington Legislative Office Associate Director
Chief Legislative Counsel

<snip> He has been a vocal champion of the Bush administration’s pervasive belief that the executive branch should be free of many of the checks and balances that keep it from abusing its immense power over our lives and liberty.

His nomination as head of the Department of Homeland Security - a new and untested agency with great influence on civil liberties - means that Chertoff should be questioned aggressively to ensure his fitness for the position, and the strength of his dedication to the Bill of Rights.

This is made more imperative by the fact that, as with Attorney General-nominee Alberto Gonzales, some of Chertoff’s post-9/11 policies have been repudiated by others in the government. Namely, two reports by the Justice Department’s inspector general, released in June and December 2003, castigated Chertoff’s use of rarely enforced and minor immigration violations to hold non-citizens shortly after 9/11 for as long as possible, without bail or access to a lawyer. None of these non-citizens was found to have any connection to the 9/11 attacks.

Chertoff was also an architect of the USA Patriot Act, which has come under increasing fire from conservatives and progressives alike since its passage in 2001. <snip>

http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=17293&c=206