Opinions

Detention centers will harm our civil liberties

In print | April 10, 2008

After the events that took place on 9/11, all of our government’s plans for “national security” have seemed like nothing more than an excuse to invade our civil liberties. The U.S. government’s plans for maintaining national security are becoming increasingly ridiculous with each passing year.

As early as 2002, a representative of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission stated that he “could foresee a scenario in which the public would demand internment camps for Arab Americans if Arab terrorists strike again in this country.”

In response, The Miami Herald noted President Bush saying, “He personally doesn’t support internment camps and the government would never envision setting them up.” The concept of internment camps in the United States just sounds ridiculous right? Internment camps? Please. That must have just been someone letting off steam in the wake of the events that took place on 9/11. Well at least GW shows some good judgment.

Well folks, four years later on Feb. 3, 2006, the New York Times reported the 385 million dollar contract awarded to Halliburton and its subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root to build “detention centers” in the continental United States.

The detention facilities are to be used in case of “an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S.,” or in the event of general mass emergency. The detention centers are projected to be similar the ones in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which Halliburton and KBR also helped build. These detention centers have not officially planned to, but potentially could, house “enemy combatants.”

What exactly are “enemy combatants?” Well, a bill passed in October 2006 added convenient ambiguity to this term. The bill was rammed through Congress with little to no debate, hiding under the pretense of being “necessary to ensure national security.” The Military Commission Act of 2006 empowers our president to declare illegal aliens as well as U.S. citizens as “unlawful enemy combatants.” So anyone who poses a treat to “national security” is subject to imprisonment in our newly built internment camps.

Even worse, the bill also strips enemy combatants of their habeas corpus rights. Suppose the United States goes to war with Iran? Any future dissidents who the federal government feels are becoming too powerful can easily be rounded up, dubbed enemy combatants, and not seen until further notice. But that’s not all: the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 has just passed in the House and is awaiting approval by the Senate.

Not familiar with this bill? It calls for the Department of Homeland Security to establish a National Commission on Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism. What exactly would this commission do? Their primary goal would be to prevent violent radicalization, which is defined as “an[y] extremist belief system for facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious or social change.”

Do you realize what this means for America? This means that as its citizens, in the event that such an act should be necessary, we will no longer be able to overthrow the federal government. Overthrowing repressive government regimes is what America was founded on. Does your idea of America involve not being able to do something about a government that can lawfully squash political dissidence in the name of national security? Maybe you feel like the government isn’t employing unjust tactics against subversives. Then why should we give them all the ammunition they need to do so in the future? The legislation has already passed and more is on the way; the federal government only needs a reason to use it.

When shit gets worse than it is now, what are we to do? What will we do when blocking traffic, holding profane signs, and signing rhetorical songs gets us nowhere? There won’t be anything we can do — for we will have already signed away our rights in the name of national security.

Ben is a first-year. He can be reached at bvanzee1@swarthmore.edu.