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The New Style of Internment

Asian Pacific Islander Americans know internment camps. That’s why when Muslims, Arabs and South Asians were being murdered, harassed and unfairly targeted for the Sept. 11th attacks, many of us began to think the unthinkable.

After all, the Supreme Court precedent that would allow the incarceration based on race for national security reasons still stands.

But certainly, the political climate in the days of the post-WTC attack could not get that bad, could it? Internment camps are just a bad memory from the past, right?

Well, yes. And no.

Dale Minami, the lawyer who built his reputation gaining justice for internees told me there would be too many allies of Arabs and Muslims to allow for the second coming of an internment.

But just as we appear to be heading to a “new kind of war,” we should expect the comeback of internment under a new guise.

Not a “round them up, stick them in horse stalls” type of internment. We’ve gone beyond that. Besides the housing, the logistics problems — no one wants to go through that again.

The new improved internment promises to be more sophisticated than ever, and doesn’t even place people in physical isolation and discomfort. It can happen to you and you don’t even know it. And when you do know it, well, it’s just for a few days.

You’re just stripped of your freedom. And isn’t that what the old internment did, only longer? Right now the Bush administration is urging the passage of the so-called “Patriot Act,” a misnamed piece of legislation that actually poses a serious threat to Ame rican freedom.

Do a lot of e-mailing? The Patriot Act would enable the government to snoop into your e-mail without obtaining a court order.

Use the phone? Under the Patriot Act, telephone voice mail messages could be obtained with a simple search warrant. In fact, the government will be able to tap multiple phones as part of a “roving wiretap” warrant.

They wouldn’t just do this to anybody, right? I mean it’s just for terrorists, isn’t it?

Under the Patriot Act, the definition is so broad, a terrorist could include a non-violent protester at an anti-war demonstration. It could be a total innocent with a coincidental link to a known terrorist.

But here’s where the Patriot Act comes closest to internment. It allows the government to detain legal immigrants for seven days on the flimsiest accusation of terrorist activity.

The thought of a patriot stripping another of freedom should not automatically make you feel fearful. Especially if there’s cause. But I suppose it all depends on what percentage of the time the patriot’s “bad guy” sensor is right. A patriot with a bad batting average is bad news for America.

Consider the case of Dr. Al Badr Al-Hazmi? Perhaps you’ve heard his story.

The radiologist from Saudi Arabia is a medical resident on a work study visa in San Antonio. At 5 a.m., the day after the WTC attack, six FBI agents showed up at his door step.

For six hours the agents searched his home. No explanation was given. They carted off his computer, Islamic magazines and medical texts. And then they arrested him.

In the afternoon he was handcuffed and in his pajamas in the county jail where he spent the night. Then another night. On that Friday, he was taken away in handcuffs and shackles. No attorney. Still no knowledge of why he was being detained. He was placed in a small plane and sent to New York. Upon arrival, soldiers with guns accompanied him to a facility in lower Manhattan. For the next three days he was in a New York jail.

It wasn’t until six days from his arrest that he even learned why he was being held.

There were a string of coincidences that seemed to tie him to the suspected terrorists. He had traveled to Washington, D.C., He purchased tickets from Travelocity. In fact, he shared a common name with the suspects, Mawaf Al-hazmi and Salem Al-hazmi.

Al-Hazmi said his name is very common in his home country. Sort of like Smith or Jones is in America. Once the coincidences were explained, Al-Hazmi was released. Sum total of detention: Two weeks.

See, the Patriot Act is an improvement over Al-Hazmi’s experience! It will only sustain a detention mistake for seven days. Certainly, by comparison, internment seemed to last a lifetime. This Patriot Act is like internment with the modern conveniences.

Who needs it? The FBI certainly doesn’t need new laws to do its job. Under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the FBI can already go into homes and search computers.

If the FBI wants to know what a patriot should act like, it should take a lesson from the humble immigrant visa holder, Dr. Al-Hazmi.

Despite all that has happened to him, Al-Hazmi has a remarkable lack of anger and need for revenge. He doesn’t even support his local congressman’s move to get him a formal apology. None needed.

“It’s not time to point fingers and apologize,” Al-Hazmi said on ABC’s Nightline.

“It’s time to cooperate with the officials to conduct their investigation and hopefully get the people or the evils that are behind this.”

He meant the WTC attack. We know who perpetrated the evil toward him. The U.S. government.

The ABC news anchor asked him if their actions were “appropriate?”

“It was an unfortunate situation that I have to go through,” Al-Hazmi said. “And given the circumstances, I understand, given my travels and my family name. It’s fine if they have suspicion, but I thought it would be shorter than two weeks.”

It should have been—-in America.

While in prison, Al-Hazmi was given the Koran. At random he opened the holy text to a passage from the book of Shura: “For those who are patient and forgiving, it is the most righteous of deeds.”

Al-Hazmi sought guidance in silence. He prayed to Allah. “He wants me to be patient and he wants me do forgive,” he told reporters. “I will be patient, and I will forgive.”

Get Emil’s book, Amok. E-mail: emil@amok.com