NP? Vineland echo: internment camps, etc.

[Doug Millison]

http://www.freep.com/news/metro/civil20_20020720.htm
Arabs in U.S. could be held, official warns
Rights unit member foresees detainment
July 20, 2002

BY NIRAJ WARIKOO
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

A member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission said in Detroit on Friday he
could foresee a scenario in which the public would demand internment camps
for ArabAmericans if Arab terrorists strike again in this country.

If there's a future terrorist attack in America "and they come from the
same ethnic group that attacked the World Trade Center, you can forget
about civil rights," commission member Peter Kirsanow said. [...]

"It's becoming really ugly," said Imad Hamad, regional director of the
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, during his testimony.

Hamad and others expressed concern about mass interviews of Arab men,
secret immigration hearings and profiling of drivers and airplane
passengers.

Kirsanow was unmoved, arguing that Arab and Muslim Americans should accept
the country's new antiterrorism laws and complain less about infringements
to their civil rights.

If there's another attack by Arabs on U.S. soil, "not too many people will
be crying in their beer if there are more detentions, more stops, more
profiling," Kirsanow said.

"There will be a groundswell of public opinion to banish civil rights. So
the best thing we can do to preserve them is by keeping the country safe."
[...]

Braceras, another Bush appointee, said:"There's no constitutional right not
to be inconvenienced or even embarrassed." [...]

Braceras said she didn't intend to upset the Arab-American community of
metro Detroit, the largest concentration in the United States. "I was
trying to be a devil's advocate," she said.




http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/21/politics/21PENT.html?ex=1028263928&ei=1&en=c6e
fb30b5cb3a6a5 PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo., July 17 - The four-star
general in charge of defending the United States against attack said he
would favor changes in existing law to give greater domestic powers to the
military to protect the country against terrorist strikes.

The Bush administration has directed lawyers in the Departments of Justice
and Defense to review the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 and any other laws
that sharply restrict the military's ability to participate in domestic law
enforcement. Any changes would be subject to Congressional approval.
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The general, Ralph E. Eberhart of the Air Force, said he had no specific
changes in mind, but added in an interview here, "We should always be
reviewing things like Posse Comitatus and other laws if we think it ties
our hands in protecting the American people." [...]



http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,759127,00.html
Cheney firm won $3.8bn contracts from government
Ed Vulliamy in New York and Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow
Sunday July 21, 2002
The oil services company once headed by United States Vice-President Dick
Cheney reaped massive rewards in government contracts and bank loans after
he took its helm, including one deal with a Russian firm under
investigation for mafia connections.
[...] The company under Cheney benefited from $3.8bn in government
contracts or insured loans. Although Bill Clinton was in the White House,
Capitol Hill - where the Appropriations Committee handles government
contracts - was controlled by Cheney's Republican Party, to which
Halliburton doubled its contributions to $1,212,000 after his arrival. The
most eye-catching contract was for the refurbishment of a Siberian
oilfield, Samotlor, for the Tyumen oil company of Russia. The company was
loaned $489m in credits by the US Export-Import Bank after lobbying by
Halliburton; it was in return to receive $292m for the refurbishments.
The White House and State Department tried to veto the Russian deal. But
after intense lobbying by Halliburton the objections were overruled on
Capitol Hill. One of Halliburton's top lobbyists was David Gribben, who had
been Cheney's chief of staff at the Pentagon.
[...] The company's fortunes have flourished during the 'war on terrorism'.
It has landed contracts to build the cells for al-Qaeda detainees at
Guantanamo Bay.