One of the earliest school lessons I remember about American democracy was this: under the tyrannical rule of the King of England, colonists had little protection from royal police. The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States ensured that the government would never assume for itself such sweeping powers to intrude into people’s lives. Of course my teachers never figured that an administration as corrupt as Bill Clinton’s would ever come to power.
Attorney General Janet Reno recently abrogated the Fifth Amendment so completely, that normally sycophantic U.S. Rep. David Bonior (D-Mich.) had enough and publicly called for Reno’s resignation saying, “In my 25 years in Congress, I have never seen such an act of injustice.” What had Bonior in such a fight mood?
After holding Algerian immigrant Anwar Haddam in jail for four years without ever revealing the evidence against him, Reno used a little-known law to circumvent a judge’s order to release him — guaranteeing that Haddam will remain in jail at least into February.
Ironically, Haddam originally came to the United States in search of political asylum. He claimed that if he returned to Algeria he would be killed, and The Board of Immigration Appeal in Falls Church, Virginia, agreed that his life was in danger and granted him political asylum. Which is where the Clinton administration enters the story.
The Justice Department claims it has “secret evidence” that Haddam is, in fact, a terrorist. Despite the Fifth Amendment, Congress several years ago passed a law allowing the state to confine non-citizens to jail entirely on the basis of secret evidence. Another foreign national, Mazen Al-Najjar, has been jailed for three years based entirely on “secret evidence” that he is a Palestinian terrorist.
As much as it disheartens them, however, there are limits even to the Clinton administration’s power and recently an immigration judge ordered Al-Najjar and Haddam released on the grounds that the U.S. government was unwilling to provide enough evidence of their alleged crimes in order for them to defend themselves at trial. Given how the Clinton administration has found itself with egg on its face over things like the supposed chemical weapons factory in Sudan that turned out to be a legitimate pharmaceutical factory, it’s likely as not that the government simply doesn’t have a solid case against Al-Najjar and Haddam (which doesn’t mean they aren’t terrorists, but in a nation of laws, the state has the burden of proof, not the defendants).
But Reno wasn’t about to allow Al-Najjar and Haddam to just walk out of jail. Instead she recently used a temporary, 45-day detention order to keep the two in jail, leaving the issue of the men’s freedom up to the next administration.
Bonior went public quickly saying,g
I am calling for Attorney General Janet Reno to resign today. This is an absolute outrage. These are Gestapo-like tactics. … This is a brutal decision. I am really distraught and I’m made as hell.
Bonior has sponsored a law that would do away with the United States’ own version of the Star Chamber, but it is likely that the anti-terrorism hysteria will guarantee that the law remains in effect for the foreseeable future.
Bonior is correct when he told the Associated Press that, “When you tell people about the secret evidence law, they don’t believe this goes on here in this country.” At the same time, however, Bonior himself has been one of the major defenders of the Clinton administration’s blatant abuse of power. It is commendable that Bonior finally saw the light, but he’s a little late to call for Reno’s resignation. If he’d started doing so three or four years ago, maybe he could have had some effect, but waiting until the last month of the Clinton administration means his protest will be a footnote that probably won’t even make the nightly news.
Source:
Democrat Congressman demands Reno resignation. NewsMax.Com, December 9, 2000.