One of the aspects of Bush’s “war on terror” that has not received enough attention is how appalling tactics — torture, warrantless arrests and wiretapping, detention without trial — have dug their way into the world in which we live. These abuses are not taking place entirely “over there” in places like Guantanamo. From the extraordinary rendition flights that start in Smithfield, N.C. to the wiretapping at your local telephone junction, they now form an often invisible part of our everyday world.
Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri
Take the case of Ali Saleh al-Marri. According to an oped in today’s Los Angeles Times, al-Marri has spent nearly 2,000 days in detention in a Navy brig in South Carolina.
He has been held in virtual isolation, without charge or trial, because the president has declared him an “enemy combatant” in the “war on terror.” Marri is the only person with that designation being held inside the U.S., and under current law, he could be imprisoned under these conditions for the rest of his natural life.
In fact, as written, U.S. law now allows the military to seize U.S. citizens as well as legal residents like Marri and hold them forever in a state of legal limbo.
al-Marri arrived in the United States in September 2001 with his wife and five children to study for a master’s degree at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill. Three months later, two FBI agents arested him at his Peoria home. His family later learned that the FBI believed he had information related to September 11. Eventually, al-Marri was indicted for credit card fraud and lying to the FBI, charges he denied.
But less than a month before his trial was scheduled to begin, al-Marri was taken in the middle of the night to a military prison in South Carolina. “He was no longer a man accused of a crime,” the Times reports. “The president had signed an order declaring him an “enemy combatant.” All of the Constitution’s protections had been erased with the stroke of a pen.”
Since, al-Marri has had no contact with the outside world. Through his lawyer, who wrote the piece for the Times, we know he was “shackled in a fetal position to the floor of a freezing cell, kept from sleeping for days on end, and threatened with violence and death — all in a deliberate attempt to create a sense of hopelessness and despair. Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had come to America.”
Who knows if al-Marri is guilty of a crime? He might be; but no one has had the opportunity to know what evidence the government has let alone attempt to refute it.
If the authorities are so sure, they should take this to trial. Cases like this one need to be at the top of the agenda of the Justice Department once Barack Obama is sworn in. The United States has deservedly been criticized for our illegal activities abroad; but the people who care about human rights can’t shut their eyes to what has happened right down the street or around the corner.