“Because-we-say-so” doctrine [Archives:2004/733/Opinion]

Now if that is not totalitarian rule, then what is it? That is how the defense lawyer describes the attitude of the Government of the United States in the case against Jose Padilla, the American born Puerto Rican later convert to Islam, who is detained incognito, for a crime that has yet to materialize or for that matter to be clearly defined by the Government. Nevertheless, the handling of the case by the Government has raised a lot of questions about the attitude of the Government in applying its own dictates – right or wrong – all over the globe, even in cases involving Americans. In an article by Deborah Sontag, in the New York Times (April 25, 2004) writes “The government has asked the public and the courts to accept that Mr. Padilla would not be locked up incommunicado if he were not a danger to national security and a highly valuable intelligence source.” This is really unbelievable for the United States. We are not claiming that we are any better in the Arab World, where we know our governments arrest and sometimes wipe out anyone they deem to be a threat to their political well-being, but in the Arab World the governments are not fooling anybody about their neglect of human rights, disguised under various rationales. However, for a nation that has long been respected for the value given to individual human rights, notwithstanding their political affiliation or even their criminal record, such government logic warns of dangerous horizons, not only in the United States, but throughout the world, since the United States has always been looked at as a model of democratic government and ideals. In fact, the opposite is now the case, where despotic rulers throughout the world are now tightening the noose around their constituencies on the pretext that the same is being done in the United States or on the premise that the “fight against terror” calls for tighter rules governing the relationship between the government and the governed. So, those of us who are seeking to advance the cause of freedom at home, before having to helplessly wait for the American Armed Forces to “liberate us” are really put on the spot. It is time for the Bush Administration to give the will of the people some leverage in its decision-making process; otherwise to us it would seem that the US is really not being much different than North Korea or Israel. Yes, Israel, because Israel indeed applies the same logic in all its dealings, with the Arabs or even the rest of the world. In fact, the whole concept may have crept into Bush Administration thinking, thanks to the overly strong influence of the American Likudnik mentality that reigns supreme in the strategic ministries of the US (Defense, State and Home Security).
Mr. Padilla has not really been charged with any definite crime. In fact in the memo of the allegations against Padilla, the author of the memo, Phillip Mobbs, a Pentagon official added a footnote, in which “Mr. Mobbs said that two of those sources ('of multiple intelligence information sources') might not have been 'completely candid' and might have tried to provide some disinformation”, as was said in the same NYT article.
This case reminds the observer of the several prisoners picked up almost at random by the “Israelis Defense Forces” in territory that they illegally occupy (as is the case in Afghanistan and Iraq, where Israeli tactics have become standard procedures in US military occupations). We have thousands of prisoners picked up oftentimes as they are sleeping with their female partners, or amidst their children, to try to give them comfort and solace in the wake of continuous weapons firing that shatters the silence of the night. In illegal indefinite occupations exercised by the bullies of the world, there is no such thing as “due process”, civil or human rights. Everyone is an enemy, unless they can prove otherwise, which they cannot do so anyway, because they have yet to find out why they are really being detained! However, one really expected that American citizenship meant something; even if you are a Moslem American and that there are no grounds for abuse of inalienable rights.
We believe that the people of the United States, once aware of their government's contempt for constitutional rights will surely not stand for any abuse of the privileges that the American people sacrificed so much to instill in their social contract with their government. Yet, the Likudniks in the United States insist on assuring the world that only they know what is best for the United States and the rest of the world. Listen to Donald Rumsfeld speak out with such emotional diatribes against Al Jazeera or for that matter listen to George Bush speak about Padilla: “this guy Padilla's a bad guy.”
We have often heard despotic rulers speak the same language and we have plenty times heard Israel speak the same language and issue Apache death warrants to people, based on fuzzy innuendos and undefined allegations. Yet, these bullies think that they are God and their judgment is supreme and final and not subject to refute or appeal or even due process. The Justice of the Gun is an ugly form of adjudication and most of the world is seeking a way out of it, while one expects the United States to lead in the struggle against man's inhumanity to man. We are under no illusions to expect that Israel will also set an example in this struggle because Israel has no pretense about being Mr. Nice Guy, at least to us. Surely the record of Israel on the ground points to a regime that has never attested to any intention of dealing with anyone in accordance with any law or ethical or moral suasion, except the rule of the nozzle of the gun. One only has to look at the daily footage of life in the West Bank and Gaza, where tanks chase schoolchildren around and Apache aircraft fire away at gathering protesting crowds. Look at Falluja, Look at Guantanamo, ask Padilla how nice it is to be American!
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