The New York Times has an excellent article today titled Foreigners' Rights in the Post-9/11 Era: A Matter of Justice. Here's the beginning but we recommend reading the entire article:

More than 5,000 citizens of foreign countries have been detained by the government since 9/11 in connection with anti-terrorism measures. Only a handful have been charged with a terror-related crime. Many were held initially without charges, denied access to lawyers, judged in secret and locked up for months without any showing that they had committed crimes or otherwise posed any danger. More than 500 were deported for immigration violations.

The Bush administration's anti-terrorism campaign has set off a fierce legal and philosophical debate over what rights foreigners have compared with Americans. When is it permissible to treat noncitizens differently? Are there some rights — whether to a speedy trial or a formal charge — that transcend nationality, and should be accorded to every human being?

For more on the issue, Georgetown Law Professor and civil liberties expert David Cole's new book "Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism" is a must read. We've made it the "hot read" of the month on CrimeLynx.

Buy the Book Today!


David Cole is the country's great voice for civil liberties today. In this important book he shows how 9/11 has been used to undermine the legal rights of immigrants—and that after them, it will be easy to target American citizens.