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Alternate Universe Editorial - NY Times September 12th 2001.

( What the NY Times would have said had the Bush Administration actually stopped the 9/11 attacks before they happened...)

EDITORIAL
Federal Law Enforcement Abuse of Foreign Students
Published: September 12th, 2001

This week saw an series of unprecedented arrests and detainment of students studying in the United States in what the Federal government is calling a "crackdown on terrorism”. Around the county, 18 Students, most of which are of Arab extraction, have been charged with being a part of what the White House is calling an “al-queda terror cell”. At this point the White House has offered only a tissue of information regarding the identities of these students and have so far not provided any details behind what motivated the arrests. The wanton disregard for the rights of foreign students and possibly even the rights of American citizens marks the low point in the John Ashcroft Justice Department in its administration of the law within the United States. Attorney General John Ashcroft has said that charges against the 18 men will be withheld from the public until it can be determined if all the members of the cell have been detained. This action has been called clearly illegal by the ACLU and by several Democrat members of the Senate and there is a move underway in the 9th Circuit Court to see that this is overturned. The ACLU and other civil libertarians have promised to make the case of the abuse of Mr. Atta and his fellow colleagues a central point to their fund raising this season. While Attorney General Ashcroft has said very little about the case in public by hiding behind the “ongoing investigation” dodge that has become standard procedure in Washington, the New York Times has learned that the case involves the improbable use of commercial airliners to crash into buildings in key cities throughout the United States. It is unclear how 18 students of modest means would manage to procure airliners, and a background review of these students reveal that none of them have had any training in flying aircraft. We at the New York Times have reviewed these charges with several security organizations and each one has told this paper that the idea of using commercial airlines to crash into buildings is, at best a fantasy, and could not possibly be carried off even by the best of Americas commando teams, much less a group of college students. In our opinion, these charges are false and are based only on the anti-Arab racial hatred that serves as the core culture to many of those in the new Bush Administration.

The abuse of foreign students under the trumped up charges of “terrorism” show that the Bush administration is working to shore up his base with the very worst sort of jingoism and blind patriotism as part of a ham handed attempt to improve their badly sagging poll numbers. If it were not for the abuse of civil rights of foreign students like Mohammded Atta, this would be simply another sad political attempt to fool the American public.

We call upon Congress and the courts to stop this abuse of executive power before the rights of all citizens is completely eroded by an out of control Attorney General and the newly selected President.

Posted @ July 07, 2006 04:33 PM | Current Affairs

Posted by: Sharpshooter at July 11, 2006 03:06 PM