Philadelphia Inquirer
Post-9/11 arrests dog Chertoff
Mon Jan 24, 2005 03:16
64.140.158.44
Post-9/11 arrests dog Chertoff
By Wendy Ruderman / Inquirer Staff Writer
The man President Bush wants as homeland security chief is now in the crosshairs of civil-rights advocates who say he eroded freedoms in pursuit of terrorists. ... in pursuit of terrorists. But, before 9/11, Michael Chertoff was a powerful ally in the ...
Sunday, January 23, 2005 (Philadelphia Inquirer)
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/10709286.htm
Posted on Sun, Jan. 23, 2005
Post-9/11 arrests dog Chertoff
The Homeland Security nominee is criticized by some who were his allies in fighting racial profiling.
By Wendy Ruderman
Inquirer Staff Writer
The man President Bush wants as homeland security chief is now in the crosshairs of civil-rights advocates who say he eroded freedoms in pursuit of terrorists.
But, before 9/11, Michael Chertoff was a powerful ally in the battle against racial profiling in the pursuit of drug traffickers.
"I think in evaluating Mike's record, you need to look not only at his handling of the war on terrorism in 9/11, but also at the role he played in dealing with racial profiling in New Jersey - very different roles at very different times," said former Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert A. Mintz, who worked under Chertoff in the early 1990s.
The contrasts between Chertoff's pre- and post-9/11 personas illustrate America's ongoing struggle to strike a balance between liberty and security in times of crisis.
If confirmed by the Senate as expected, Chertoff will lead the Department of Homeland Security, overseeing 22 federal agencies and 180,000 employees. The 51-year-old North Jersey native is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, based in Philadelphia.
On the day hijacked planes smashed into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Chertoff was in charge of the Justice Department's criminal division.
After 9/11, Chertoff's tactics in ferreting out terrorists drew criticism from the very people who had applauded his crusade to expose racial profiling on New Jersey's highways.
Some of that criticism came after Chertoff directed the arrests of 762 illegal immigrants, most of whom later turned out to have no ties to terrorism.
"Are we being aggressive and hard-nosed? You bet," Chertoff told a U.S. Senate committee on Nov. 28, 2001. "In the aftermath of Sept. 11, how could we not be?"
But Chertoff stressed that the antiterrorism tactics were valid under the Constitution and federal law.
Most of detainees were arrested on criminal and immigration charges, many of them relatively minor and some rarely enforced before 9/11. The vast majority were from the Middle East.
The arrests grew out of investigative leads ranging from information gleaned from searches of the hijackers' car to anonymous tips from people who were suspicious of the odd hours kept by their Arab and Muslim neighbors.
In June 2003, Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine released a report criticizing federal authorities, saying they had made little effort to distinguish real terrorist suspects from harmless foreigners inadvertently swept up in the dragnet. Though many were jailed for months, only one of the 762 detainees - Zacarias Moussaoui - was charged with a terrorism crime, the report found.
Civil-rights advocates argue that the war on terror has become a kind of war on immigrants, not unlike the way the war on drugs morphed into a war on black and Latino motorists.
The legality of those 762 arrests is besides the point, said David Harris, a critic of racial profiling and a criminal law professor at University of Toledo in Ohio.
The question, Harris said, is whether the spirit or intent of the nation's laws is being violated.
At the height of the drug war in the 1980s, New Jersey troopers were targeting minority motorists for traffic stops. When questions about the practice surfaced, state police leaders asserted the stops were legal.
"It was often said, and almost always true, that the people stopped had in fact violated traffic laws," Harris said. "But traffic enforcement was being used as an excuse - not to confront unsafe driving or road safety issues - but for another purpose altogether. In the case of the New Jersey Turnpike, it was to find possible drug couriers."
Four years ago, Chertoff led an investigation by the state Senate Judiciary Committee. The investigation found that top officials were aware of statistics indicating that racial profiling was a problem long before publicly acknowledging the issue.
State police statistics released in 2001 revealed that whites, when searched by troopers, were more often found with illegal drugs or weapons than were minorities.
"For every drug courier who was stopped that possessed drugs... there were dozens who were stopped who were innocent," recalled John J. Farmer Jr., who was New Jersey attorney general at the time. "Over time, that really hurt the relationship between police and minority communities."
But there is no comparison, Farmer said, between the methods employed by troopers to apprehend drug traffickers and the ones used by federal authorities to protect Americans from terrorists.
"You are talking about a violent threat that went right to the heart of our country," said Farmer, who served as special counsel on the 9/11 Commission. "The Constitution talks about reasonable and unreasonable public conduct. You can't evaluate that in a vacuum."
In the aftermath of 9/11, Chertoff's job was to figure out how to keep suspected terrorists from slipping away while FBI agents pursued investigations. He said he believed he had no choice but to act swiftly and forcefully to prevent further violence and death.
"We could continue as before and hope for the best, or we can do what we are currently doing - pursuing a comprehensive and systematic investigative approach that uses every available lawful technique to identify, disrupt, and if possible, incarcerate or deport persons who pose threats to our national security," Chertoff told senators in Washington in November 2001.
Extraordinary measures were required in such extraordinary times, say terrorism experts and Chertoff supporters.
"I don't think anyone would dispute that the attacks of 9/11 caused a threat that was unprecedented and much more grave than the threat posed by drugs," Farmer said. "What Mike demonstrated was his ability to grapple with very nuanced and tough issues, and I don't see any conflict there at all."
Contact staff writer Wendy Ruderman at 856-779-3926 or wruderman@phillynews.com
-----------------------------------
The prosecutor vs. the justice.
Nationally, Michael Chertoff might be known for enforcing the USA Patriot Act. But in his home state, the former prosecutor is perhaps better known for one of most dramatic political moments in New Jersey history: the inquisition of a state Supreme Court justice on the subject of racism on the highways.
Sunday, January 23, 2005 (Philadelphia Inquirer)
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/10709285.htm
Senators, Chertoff discuss security
By Jeffrey Gold / Associated Press
New Jersey's U.S. senators met yesterday with Michael Chertoff, President Bush's choice to head the Department of Homeland Security, and said afterward that they believe the nominee would be good for the state.
Wednesday, January 19, 2005 (Philadelphia Inquirer)
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/10678109.htm
Call this number to order the books and videos: 1 (800) 442-3977
Please go to http://www.reopen911.org to sign the petition to reopen the 911 investigation!
What happens when one goes and finds the news medias own footage which they themsleves released after 911, and then, simply slows it down? If you have an eye for detail, the first thing that will occur is your heart will sink. For on the 2nd plane which hit the 2nd World Trade Center, there is a very large extra piece of equipment that has been attached to the planes fuselage, off centered on the right side of the fuselage, just forward of the gear well doors. And it doesn't belong. It is not standard equipment for a Boeing 767 200 ER, or any other passenger aircraft. Boeing was asked to identify this equipment, obvious in almost all the news photos from 911. They refused to identify it, and instead suggested that these questions be answered by the 911 Commission.
http://reopen911.org/painful6.htm
PowerPoint Presentation/Movies
9/11 Attack on America Part 1
The Irregularities of 9/11
10.5MB
http://www.apfn.org/movies/911.ppt
9/11 Attack on America Part 2
Omissions & Distortions
(David Ray Griffin)
13.9MB
http://www.apfn.org/movies/911-2.ppt
Proof Explosives Were Used At WTC
http://www.reopen911.org/
September 11, 2001 ALEX JONES - ROAD TO TYRANNY
Download 911: The Road to Tyranny
http://www.c0balt.com/resources/911/download.shtml
Clueless 9-11 Commission Cheats American Public
"It was Al Qaeda in the airports and airplanes, with the dagger,
revolver, rope, lead pipe, candlestick and spanner"
http://joevialls.altermedia.info/wtc/clueless.html
Video & Photographic Evidence
of the Largest Coverup In Modern Day History
http://www.911inplanesite.com/
The Incredible 9-11 Evidence
We've All been Overlooking
by Leonard Spencer
http://www.serendipity.li/wot/aa11.htm
5-Minute Video of George W. Bush on the Morning of 9/11
http://www.thememoryhole.org/911/bush-911.htm
9/11 OKC / CONNECTION:
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/OKC_motel.htm
Furthermore, static discharge would not look like a puff of smoke. Moreover, it would be clearly visible like a lightning strike, not hidden in a puff.
Our first full page ad: http://www.walden3.org/Painful_Questions.pdf
Our new full page ad: http://www.walden3.org/Zogby2NYTfull.pdf
Our 9/11 event ad in the Village Voice: http://www.walden3.org/vvad.pdf
Hear our Radio Ad: http://www.walden3.org/W3-BSV-IMP.mp3
See our TV Ad on the Pentagon: http://www.walden3.org/spot2_pentagon2.mp4
See our TV Ad on the Building 7: http://www.walden3.org/spot1_building7.mp4
Call this number to order the books and videos: 1 (800) 442-3977
By Wendy Ruderman / Inquirer Staff Writer
The man President Bush wants as homeland security chief is now in the crosshairs of civil-rights advocates who say he eroded freedoms in pursuit of terrorists. ... in pursuit of terrorists. But, before 9/11, Michael Chertoff was a powerful ally in the ...
Sunday, January 23, 2005 (Philadelphia Inquirer)
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/10709286.htm
Posted on Sun, Jan. 23, 2005
Post-9/11 arrests dog Chertoff
The Homeland Security nominee is criticized by some who were his allies in fighting racial profiling.
By Wendy Ruderman
Inquirer Staff Writer
The man President Bush wants as homeland security chief is now in the crosshairs of civil-rights advocates who say he eroded freedoms in pursuit of terrorists.
But, before 9/11, Michael Chertoff was a powerful ally in the battle against racial profiling in the pursuit of drug traffickers.
"I think in evaluating Mike's record, you need to look not only at his handling of the war on terrorism in 9/11, but also at the role he played in dealing with racial profiling in New Jersey - very different roles at very different times," said former Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert A. Mintz, who worked under Chertoff in the early 1990s.
The contrasts between Chertoff's pre- and post-9/11 personas illustrate America's ongoing struggle to strike a balance between liberty and security in times of crisis.
If confirmed by the Senate as expected, Chertoff will lead the Department of Homeland Security, overseeing 22 federal agencies and 180,000 employees. The 51-year-old North Jersey native is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, based in Philadelphia.
On the day hijacked planes smashed into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Chertoff was in charge of the Justice Department's criminal division.
After 9/11, Chertoff's tactics in ferreting out terrorists drew criticism from the very people who had applauded his crusade to expose racial profiling on New Jersey's highways.
Some of that criticism came after Chertoff directed the arrests of 762 illegal immigrants, most of whom later turned out to have no ties to terrorism.
"Are we being aggressive and hard-nosed? You bet," Chertoff told a U.S. Senate committee on Nov. 28, 2001. "In the aftermath of Sept. 11, how could we not be?"
But Chertoff stressed that the antiterrorism tactics were valid under the Constitution and federal law.
Most of detainees were arrested on criminal and immigration charges, many of them relatively minor and some rarely enforced before 9/11. The vast majority were from the Middle East.
The arrests grew out of investigative leads ranging from information gleaned from searches of the hijackers' car to anonymous tips from people who were suspicious of the odd hours kept by their Arab and Muslim neighbors.
In June 2003, Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine released a report criticizing federal authorities, saying they had made little effort to distinguish real terrorist suspects from harmless foreigners inadvertently swept up in the dragnet. Though many were jailed for months, only one of the 762 detainees - Zacarias Moussaoui - was charged with a terrorism crime, the report found.
Civil-rights advocates argue that the war on terror has become a kind of war on immigrants, not unlike the way the war on drugs morphed into a war on black and Latino motorists.
The legality of those 762 arrests is besides the point, said David Harris, a critic of racial profiling and a criminal law professor at University of Toledo in Ohio.
The question, Harris said, is whether the spirit or intent of the nation's laws is being violated.
At the height of the drug war in the 1980s, New Jersey troopers were targeting minority motorists for traffic stops. When questions about the practice surfaced, state police leaders asserted the stops were legal.
"It was often said, and almost always true, that the people stopped had in fact violated traffic laws," Harris said. "But traffic enforcement was being used as an excuse - not to confront unsafe driving or road safety issues - but for another purpose altogether. In the case of the New Jersey Turnpike, it was to find possible drug couriers."
Four years ago, Chertoff led an investigation by the state Senate Judiciary Committee. The investigation found that top officials were aware of statistics indicating that racial profiling was a problem long before publicly acknowledging the issue.
State police statistics released in 2001 revealed that whites, when searched by troopers, were more often found with illegal drugs or weapons than were minorities.
"For every drug courier who was stopped that possessed drugs... there were dozens who were stopped who were innocent," recalled John J. Farmer Jr., who was New Jersey attorney general at the time. "Over time, that really hurt the relationship between police and minority communities."
But there is no comparison, Farmer said, between the methods employed by troopers to apprehend drug traffickers and the ones used by federal authorities to protect Americans from terrorists.
"You are talking about a violent threat that went right to the heart of our country," said Farmer, who served as special counsel on the 9/11 Commission. "The Constitution talks about reasonable and unreasonable public conduct. You can't evaluate that in a vacuum."
In the aftermath of 9/11, Chertoff's job was to figure out how to keep suspected terrorists from slipping away while FBI agents pursued investigations. He said he believed he had no choice but to act swiftly and forcefully to prevent further violence and death.
"We could continue as before and hope for the best, or we can do what we are currently doing - pursuing a comprehensive and systematic investigative approach that uses every available lawful technique to identify, disrupt, and if possible, incarcerate or deport persons who pose threats to our national security," Chertoff told senators in Washington in November 2001.
Extraordinary measures were required in such extraordinary times, say terrorism experts and Chertoff supporters.
"I don't think anyone would dispute that the attacks of 9/11 caused a threat that was unprecedented and much more grave than the threat posed by drugs," Farmer said. "What Mike demonstrated was his ability to grapple with very nuanced and tough issues, and I don't see any conflict there at all."
Contact staff writer Wendy Ruderman at 856-779-3926 or wruderman@phillynews.com
-----------------------------------
The prosecutor vs. the justice.
Nationally, Michael Chertoff might be known for enforcing the USA Patriot Act. But in his home state, the former prosecutor is perhaps better known for one of most dramatic political moments in New Jersey history: the inquisition of a state Supreme Court justice on the subject of racism on the highways.
Sunday, January 23, 2005 (Philadelphia Inquirer)
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/10709285.htm
Senators, Chertoff discuss security
By Jeffrey Gold / Associated Press
New Jersey's U.S. senators met yesterday with Michael Chertoff, President Bush's choice to head the Department of Homeland Security, and said afterward that they believe the nominee would be good for the state.
Wednesday, January 19, 2005 (Philadelphia Inquirer)
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/10678109.htm
Call this number to order the books and videos: 1 (800) 442-3977
Please go to http://www.reopen911.org to sign the petition to reopen the 911 investigation!
What happens when one goes and finds the news medias own footage which they themsleves released after 911, and then, simply slows it down? If you have an eye for detail, the first thing that will occur is your heart will sink. For on the 2nd plane which hit the 2nd World Trade Center, there is a very large extra piece of equipment that has been attached to the planes fuselage, off centered on the right side of the fuselage, just forward of the gear well doors. And it doesn't belong. It is not standard equipment for a Boeing 767 200 ER, or any other passenger aircraft. Boeing was asked to identify this equipment, obvious in almost all the news photos from 911. They refused to identify it, and instead suggested that these questions be answered by the 911 Commission.
http://reopen911.org/painful6.htm
PowerPoint Presentation/Movies
9/11 Attack on America Part 1
The Irregularities of 9/11
10.5MB
http://www.apfn.org/movies/911.ppt
9/11 Attack on America Part 2
Omissions & Distortions
(David Ray Griffin)
13.9MB
http://www.apfn.org/movies/911-2.ppt
Proof Explosives Were Used At WTC
http://www.reopen911.org/
September 11, 2001 ALEX JONES - ROAD TO TYRANNY
Download 911: The Road to Tyranny
http://www.c0balt.com/resources/911/download.shtml
Clueless 9-11 Commission Cheats American Public
"It was Al Qaeda in the airports and airplanes, with the dagger,
revolver, rope, lead pipe, candlestick and spanner"
http://joevialls.altermedia.info/wtc/clueless.html
Video & Photographic Evidence
of the Largest Coverup In Modern Day History
http://www.911inplanesite.com/
The Incredible 9-11 Evidence
We've All been Overlooking
by Leonard Spencer
http://www.serendipity.li/wot/aa11.htm
5-Minute Video of George W. Bush on the Morning of 9/11
http://www.thememoryhole.org/911/bush-911.htm
9/11 OKC / CONNECTION:
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/OKC_motel.htm
Furthermore, static discharge would not look like a puff of smoke. Moreover, it would be clearly visible like a lightning strike, not hidden in a puff.
Our first full page ad: http://www.walden3.org/Painful_Questions.pdf
Our new full page ad: http://www.walden3.org/Zogby2NYTfull.pdf
Our 9/11 event ad in the Village Voice: http://www.walden3.org/vvad.pdf
Hear our Radio Ad: http://www.walden3.org/W3-BSV-IMP.mp3
See our TV Ad on the Pentagon: http://www.walden3.org/spot2_pentagon2.mp4
See our TV Ad on the Building 7: http://www.walden3.org/spot1_building7.mp4
Call this number to order the books and videos: 1 (800) 442-3977
Message Board by American Patriot Friends Network [APFN]
