BUSH APPOINTEE: TERRORISM WILL LEAD TO INTERNMENT CAMPS. Rick Perlstein, who apparently receives secret memos from the great media watchdog in the sky detailing egregiously overlooked stories, today tells the tale of Peter N. Kirsanow, an evilly mustachioed Bush appointee to the U.S. Civil Rights commission who said some rather remarkable things:
"[If there's another terrorist attack and the terrorists] come from the same ethnic group that attacked the World Trade Center, you can forget about civil rights... The public would be less concerned about any perceived erosion of civil liberties than they are about protecting their own lives."
"Not too many people will be crying in their beer if there are more detentions, more stops, more profiling," Kirsanow said. "There will be a groundswell of public opinion to banish civil rights. So the best thing we can do to preserve them is by keeping the country safe."
Kirsanow clarified later that he did not endorse internment, but the statement did indicate a certain passiveness about the idea. If he was truly exercised about the possibility you'd expect him to at least be trying to criticize it and explain why it should be avoided, even in the face of terrorism. After all, the entire goal of the commission is to investigate and publicize cases where civil rights are infringed. The "this is bad but oh well" approach is entirely inappropriate for someone in his position. A group of lawyers who helped overturn the Korematsu decision that sanctioned the internment of Japanese Americans is now calling for his resignation.
--Sam Boyd
