Sept. 11 Detainees Are Entitled to Due Process

Your Aug. 6 editorial, “Secrecy vs. the Republic,” addressed only part of the violation of rights committed by our Justice Department. We the people do need to know the names of those jailed after the 9/11 attacks. We also need to protest in favor of the constitutional rights that prohibit their detention without due process. This point was driven home to me during a discussion at the Manzanar exhibit at the Japanese-American National Museum last Sunday.

One of the survivors of the camp and I bemoaned the fact that the violations of U.S. law based on racial profiling that led to that camp were being used today against Arabs living in our country, many of whom are U.S. citizens. Let’s not destroy our democracy in an attempt to save it.

Laura F. Meyers

Marina del Rey

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Re “U.S. Ordered to Disclose Names of Detainees in Sept. 11 Inquiry,” Aug. 3: I commend U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler’s ruling that the Justice Department may not keep the names of detainees secret “in the interest of national security.” Remember, the approximately 73 individuals still being detained have not even been charged with committing a crime.

Kessler was absolutely correct in noting that secret arrests are odious to a democratic society. So are Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft’s concept of justice and President Bush’s insistence on secrecy in developing policies that affect the lives of us all.

Colleen H. Whitehead

Bellflower

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Kessler’s ordering of the Justice Department to release the names of the Middle Eastern and South Asian persons who were taken into custody after Sept. 11 came just a day after Duane Noriyuki’s poignant July 31 article describing the experience of some Japanese Americans who were detained at Manzanar during World War II. Of the 1,182 people Ashcroft says were detained, 73 remained in custody as of mid-June. According to your story, the Justice Department concedes that “few if any being held had direct complicity in, or knowledge of, the Sept. 11 attacks” and says that they are being detained because they violated immigration laws and should be deported. There was no mention in any of this of due process of law for the detainees.

The presidentially appointed commission that investigated the incarceration of Japanese Americans, which resulted in the apology signed by former President Bush and $20,000 to each internee, concluded in its report that the incarceration was the result of war hysteria, racial prejudice and a failure of political leadership. Does any of this sound familiar today, relating to how our government deals with those protected by our Constitution? If the Manzanar Historical Monument exhibit does not cause Americans to resolve not to allow Manzanars to occur again, our efforts are in vain.

Phil Shigekuni

Civil Rights Chair, Japanese American Citizen’s League

San Fernando Valley Chapter