US Justice Department admits abuse of immigrant detainees after September

By Peter Daniels, wsws.org
27 December 2003

The inspector general of the US Department of Justice has documented the systematic physical and verbal abuse of scores of immigrants detained in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Hundreds were rounded up in the days following the attacks, in an atmosphere of panic and anti-immigrant hysteria instigated by the White House and the Justice Department and directed particularly against people from the Middle East. Federal authorities eventually acknowledged that 762 immigrants were detained in the 11 months after September 11, the vast majority held on routine immigration violations. Eighty-four of these were taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), a federal prison in Brooklyn, New York.

There was never any evidence of criminal activity against the vast majority of the immigrants, who were picked up as a means by which Attorney General John Ashcroft could demonstrate “anti-terrorist” toughness and whip up an atmosphere of fear, intimidation and chauvinism. Nearly all of the detainees were released and deported, although only after months of cruel and demeaning treatment.

The first detainees arrived at the MDC on September 14, 2001, and they were immediately subjected to abuse. They were repeatedly slammed against walls, their arms and hands were painfully twisted and they were otherwise manhandled, they were unnecessarily strip-searched for purposes of humiliation and harassment, and they were repeatedly cursed, mocked and threatened.

Within days, many of the immigrants complained, and one was able to obtain a hearing before a federal judge on October 4. Prison officials then announced a policy of videotaping the detainees’ movements, using hand-held cameras. Even though most of these tapes disappeared, the inspector general’s office was finally able to locate more than 300, and they contained numerous examples of sadistic brutality on the part of prison staff.

more...
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/dec2003/mdcc-d271.shtml

the difference between the S.S. of Nazi Germany and the U.S. of the this so-called Republican administration?

It is the same thing we did to the Nisei during World War II, many of whom were born in the US. Their ethnicity and religion made them suspects.

No one seems to care about this! Torture and physical abuse have been endorsed by none other than Allan Dershowitz.

Don't they realize that the power they gave to the government to do this to "them" can easily be used against "us"?

Any confession that is wringed out of any person through any form of physical or psychological torture is automatically suspect and therefore illegal. Especially so called Al Qaeda operatives sent to the dank torture cells of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria or Egypt..
The only story they're getting from these "disappeared" persons is the one they esnt to hear.

Canadian Man Deported by U.S. Details Torture in Syria
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5174.htm

INDEPTH: THE WILLIAM SAMPSON STORY
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/sampson/

America has lost its moral compass and are no longer seen as a proud supporter of either human rights or international justice.
Little wonder the Carlyle-Halliburton Administration refuses to back the International Criminal Court.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/637609.asp

After the dark humor wore off (this guy's no more a terrorist than is my hound dog), I got a really sinking feeling about it. Not any of those catastrophic conspiracy theories about how the 2004 elections are going to be cancelled, or how we're all going to get rounded up, but just that sinking feeling that we've abandoned the whole system of human rights which require suspicious people to be treated with respect under the rule of law.

Here's what he's up to now. Al-Badr Al-Hazmi's got a lot of class.

http://web.reporter-news.com/1998/2002/texas/doc0908.html

Instead of tarring relations between the Gov't and their own Islamic citizens.

Remember the poor Sikh guy that was shot because he wore a turban? The Justice Dep't helped to stoke that kind of irrational hatred and fear with their actions.