Eight years ago this month, President George W. Bush was warned that “Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S.” Eight years ago September, the Twin Towers and the Pentagon were struck. Eight years ago November, I wrote the editorial at the Tribune Chronicle of which I, to this day, am most proud. It would be the only such pointed editorial at the paper, as was made clear to me on Monday morning. And, in any event, I left soon thereafter to begin law school.
Then-Attorney General Ashcroft and President Bush at a news conference.
For an editorial written so soon after September 11, 2001, though, and despite some organizational issues and a bad semicolon, I think it stands up quite well. If anything, in retrospect, it might have been a bit naïve about how far things would need to go before enough people would seriously question the Administration’s actions.
I found it recently when doing some heavy-duty cleaning my condo and thought I’d share it here, the Tribune Chronicle’s editorial of Sunday, November 11, 2001, to show an example of my pre-blogging written work. Without editing, it follows:
Our liberties must be fully protected
Two months and one day ago, none of it would have seemed possible.
But now, in this post-Sept. 11 world, everything is different. Or so Attorney General John Ashcroft says.
On Oct. 31, a new regulation was published in the Federal Register that makes it possible for the Justice Department to listen to discussions certain detained persons have with their attorneys. Also, the Justice Department announced Thursday it will no longer release a running total of the number of people detained in connection with the terrorist attacks on America.
These are two disturbing developments that when combined paint a frightening picture of this “new kind of war.”
President Bush on Thursday night said, “Our nation faces a threat to our freedoms, and the stakes could not be higher.”
How true.
The federal government abridging a person’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel is a threat to our freedom. Secret detentions are a threat to our freedom.
Friday evening, Ashcroft said the only people affected by the new rule would be those held under “special administrative measures.” He said this constituted only 13 people, some of whom are terrorists.
This, however, only brings us to a second problem. These people whose Sixth Amendment rights are being violated — only some of whom are terrorists; we don’t even know their names. They can be held for as long as six months with what amounts to completely ineffective counsel.
Moreover, the Justice Department is no longer going to give a running total of those detained, instead only giving the number of people being held on immigration charges or in federal custody. This excludes all those being held on state or local charges and will not give any picture of how many of those detained have been released.
What we are left with is people being detained with no charges being filed against them for an indefinite period of time with no with no ability to speak confidentially with counsel.
We realize that the war against terror is an important one, but we cannot sacrifice our freedoms. That is the goal of those who would see us defeated.
there has to be a balance between a government that protects its citizens’ lives and one that preserves their rights. This week’s developments are an attack on those freedoms we have fought so hard to protect. The intentions are good, but the changes go too far.
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Chris Geidner is a lawyer in Washington, D.C., who writes at Law Dork, is the senior political writer at Metro Weekly and has written for The Atlantic Online, Advocate.com, Salon and other publications. An extended biography can be found
I think you are too hard on yourself in the intro. Who would have imagined then that even a slimy bunch like the bush administration was capable of tearing apart this country worse than any bomb. It’s going to take a long time to repair the damage.
Religious zealots have been, and continue to be, the real threat. They’ve imposed real barriers into our private lives, through constitutional amendments, to prevent us from marrying. It will be a truly liberating experience to watch the destruction of proposition 8!