Protecting Dr. King's Legacy

One of the rights that was suspended in detention was that people believed to be connected to terrorists were detained for weeks, even months where no one knew where they were. Charges must be filed within 7 days for a suspected terrorist, or they must be released. Another problem is, if a family cannot find a family member who has been detained, how could they send a lawyer to defend them. They were pretty much told they had no right to counsel, even though it is illegal under the Miranda Rights to deny them that right. Majority of the people detained are Muslim or Arabic and are non-citizens. The Attorney General said that using these criterion is a primary reason for questioning people. 5,000 men between the ages 18-33 were questioned because they had come from countries known to have terrorist cells. This sounds just like racial profiling. To make matters worse, a law was passed to make detaining people easier. People lose their rights to come before a judge and their freedom rests solely with INS.

The rights of attorney-client privacy have been done away with. If you are suspected of terrorism, the government can listen into the conversation you are having with your attorney. That is if you can even get an attorney. An open trial can never be had with the violations of the attorney-clients privileges and suspects are denied the right to a trial by jury of their peers, which the Constitution clearly states every citizen has that right. Strossen does a terrific job of exposing the ugly truth of what are government is doing to people just because of their ethnicity. She gives statistics and information that I did not know about the people who were being detained. Strossen wrote an eloquent argument for the people who have been detained and all the injustices they have had to face, which most people couldn't argue against. I find very it difficult to try to counter argue the curtailments that were made against this powerful argument made by Strossen. There is no counterargument that can justify what our government did to thousands of innocent people just because of their race and beliefs.