: Sifting For Terrorists: Lots Of Pain, Little Gain

Even though there is much rejoicing in the Department of Justice in the conviction of three of four Muslim immigrants charged with being a “sleeper cell” for al-Qaida, a new Justice Department report chronicles the “significant problems” in the policy of rounding up 762 Muslim immigrants – none of whom were ever charged with terrorism – and reveals stories of mistreatment – all unnecessary, all indiscriminate, and altogether unhelpful in bringing a single terrorist to justice. Most had minor visa violations, but were chained, detained in solitary confinement, and otherwise treated like violent criminals. 23-hour “lockdowns”, isolation from family and lawyers, and 24-hour lighted cells were common, even after the FBI had determined some to have no terrorist links. “We make no apologies for finding every legal way possible to protect the American public from further terrorist attacks,” said Justice Department spokeswoman Barbara Comstock. But the personal stories coming to light in the wake of the report paint a different story. “I had no contact with anybody outside. I had no idea when I would get out,” said Muhammad Qayyum, a grocer who spent seven months in prison. “Immigrants weren’t the enemy,” said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union. “But the war on terror quickly became a war on immigrants. In retrospect, the only cases of terrorism brought to court since 9/11 – the abovementioned Arabs caught with “vacation videos” of Las Vegas, pilot-in-training Zacarias Moussaoui, and homegrown terrorist Eric Rudolph – were caught the old fashioned way: through normal investigative work.

Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.