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Wednesday, Nov 25, 2009
6) Does Ashcroft regret the treatment of the 762 innocent foreign men detained by the federal government in the U.S. for months after 9/11? Does Ashcroft think those men -- many of whom were subject to verbal and physical abuse and had their due process rights violated -- deserve an apology?
A report released in December by Department of Justice inspector general Glenn Fine found "foreign nationals held at a New York detention facility after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were victims of physical and verbal abuse by guards." Officers at the facility "slammed and bounced detainees against the wall, twisted their arms and hands in painful ways, stepped on their leg restraint chains and punished them by keeping them restrained for long periods of time." A T-shirt with the detention center's slogan, covered in blood stains, "including those that appeared to have come from detainees being slammed into the wall," hung in the receiving area for prisoners for months. An earlier report, released by Fine in June, documented how hundreds of detainees' due process rights were violated by federal officials who imprisoned them without charges or evidence. Of the 762 individuals who were the subject of Fine's review "none was ever charged with terrorism-related crimes." Nevertheless, when questioned about the situation before Congress last June, John Ashcroft said he had "no apologies," adding, "We must be vigilant." What message does Ashcroft believe he is sending to the world about the protection of legal rights and civil liberties that are at the heart of the American example?
7) In October 2001, Ashcroft appeared with President Bush at a press conference to unveil a list of 22 "most wanted terrorists." Thirty months later at least 20 of those individuals are still at large. Why is the war on terrorism lagging?
On Oct. 10, 2001, Ashcroft, President Bush and FBI director Robert Mueller appeared at FBI headquarters to announce the creation of the Most Wanted Terrorists list. Bush called the 22 individuals placed on the list "the most dangerous [terrorists] -- the leaders and key supporters, the planners and strategists." Bush added, "They must be found. They will be stopped, and they will be punished." But only one person on the list -- Khalid Shaikh Mohammed -- has been captured. (One other individual on the list, Muhammed Atef, may be dead). Yet despite capturing or killing fewer than 5 percent of the individuals who, by their own admission, are the world's most dangerous terrorists, Ashcroft continues to repeatedly tout the success of his counterterrorism efforts against al-Qaida. In a speech in October 2003, Ashcroft bragged that "two-thirds of al-Qaida's leadership worldwide is either in custody or dead." It seems that, when success proves elusive, Ashcroft simply changes the definition of success. Were resources moved from the war on terrorism to the war in Iraq? Would additional resources assist in the capture of the terrorists on the Most Wanted list?
