Vol.64/No.1 January 10, 2000
U.S. gov't whips up 'antiterror' campaign, targets rights
{front page}
BY BRIAN WILLIAMS
WASHINGTON, D.C.—During the final weeks of December, U.S. government officials have flooded the media with warnings of impending terrorist attacks against U.S. citizens worldwide. This stepped-up so-called antiterrorist drive, combined with unsubstantiated charges of possible espionage, targets the democratic rights of immigrants and all working people.
Hundreds of additional cops have been placed at U.S. border crossings, leading to increased harassment of those seeking to pass through customs as many more individuals are being subjected to searches and questioning. The Immigration and Naturalization Service announced December 21 that it plans to institute similar measures in the coming days. The Federal Aviation Administration has stationed bomb-sniffing dogs, more uniformed police, and additional tracer explosives detector units at airport security checkpoints. They're advising passengers not to gift wrap items.
The State Department in mid-December issued its fifth "worldwide terrorism warning" in the past four months, advising travelers to stay away from "large gatherings and celebrations" throughout the world.
President William Clinton's national security adviser, Samuel Berger, issued a similar warning for within the United States as well. "If they see something suspicious, or see packages or activities that they think are unusual, they should obviously let law enforcement people know," he said. Despite this hype, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno admitted December 16, "We have no specific information concerning specific attacks."
In Pakistan the government has arrested more than 200 people, mostly Afghan nationals, supposedly as a precautionary measure to avert attacks on U.S. citizens. Authorities in Jordan also rounded up 14 people — —12 Jordanians, one Iraqi and an Algerian — —under similar pretenses.
On December 14, U.S. border cops arrested Ahmed Ressam, who was originally from Algeria, after he crossed the border by ferry from Canada into Port Angeles, Washington. They claimed he was driving a car containing nitroglycerin and other materials that could be made into a bomb.
According to a December 21 Washington Post article, Algerians living in Montreal, who face routine discrimination from the police, commented on the stepped-up harassment they expect to face in light of Ressam's arrest. "They treat us now like they treat the Blacks in the U.S.," stated one unnamed Algerian immigrant. "If you have an Algerian passport, it's like having a bomb in your hand," said another. "They look at us all as if we are terrorists."
In Vermont, at the Beecher Falls border crossing to Canada, U.S. police on December 19 arrested Algerian-born Bouabide Chamchi and a Canadian woman named Lucia Garofalo. Authorities claimed that trained dogs detected traces of possible explosives in their car. A thorough search of the car, however, turned up nothing. They are now being accused of trying to enter the United States with allegedly false documents.
Meanwhile, a U.S. weapons scientist, Wen Ho Lee, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Taiwan, was arrested December 10 and is being held without bail. He pleaded not guilty to a 59-count indictment that accuses him of downloading classified data from the computers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory where he worked. Amidst a government-orchestrated campaign charging the Chinese government with obtaining nuclear secrets through a 20-year campaign of espionage, Lee was fired from his job in March. U.S. officials admit they have no evidence to charge Lee with being a spy for Beijing.
Lee's son and daughter said that members of their family have been allowed to visit him in jail for only an hour a week, in the presence of an FBI agent. While both children were raised speaking to their parents in Chinese, they said FBI agents insist that all jail conversations be conducted in English. The family has filed a lawsuit against the FBI and the departments of Energy and Justice for leaking confidential information to the press that has been used to whip up the campaign against Lee.
According to documents obtained by a Senate Judiciary subcommittee, some 250 other individuals had access to the same information for which Lee has been indicted. Earlier this year the U.S. Energy Department announced that it might order polygraph tests for as many as 10,000 people employed at nuclear weapons laboratories. In response to an uproar by scientists, the department announced that it has scaled back this project but still plans to require 800 scientists to undergo these tests.
Brian Williams is a member of United Steelworkers of America Local 2609 in Sparrows Point, Maryland.