His Worldwide Legacy
Hentoff, Nat
Ashcroft Watch Nat Hentoff His Worldwide Legacy Before this column becomes the Bill of Rights Watch next month, a long-awaited farewell to John Ashcroft, whose amiable and manipulative successor,...
...An editorial in that newspaper adds that because the Bush Administration supports the Uzbekistan government, we have "given it the confidence to sell a long-running campaign against internal dissidents as part of the campaign against Al Qaeda...
...He is the author of "The War on the Bill of Rights and the Gathering Resistance...
...and passed through its Central Intelligence Agency to the United Kingdom...
...Ashcroft Watch Nat Hentoff His Worldwide Legacy Before this column becomes the Bill of Rights Watch next month, a long-awaited farewell to John Ashcroft, whose amiable and manipulative successor, Alberto Gonzales, will be even more dangerous to our liberties...
...Eritrea, alas for its citizens, is not subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S...
...outsourcer Electronic Data Systems to information on [Australian] citizens...
...operations in neighboring Afghanistan...
...Karimov can justify his internal war on terrorism by citing his ally, George W. Bush...
...On November 8, when Federal District Judge James Robinson in Washington struck down as unlawful the special military tribunals there, he spoke of "the way other governments have already begun to cite the United States' Guant?namo policy to justify their own repressive policies...
...Nat Hentoff is a columnist for The Village Voice, Free Inquiry, and The Progressive...
...In Eritrea," the group continues, "the governing party arrested eleven political opponents [and] has held them incommunicado and without charge [a Bush policy revoked by the Supreme Court in June] and defended its actions as being consistent with United States actions after September 11...
...The Financial Times, in a story on the brutal rule of Islam Karimov in Uzbekistan, pointed to a link between that country's busy torture chambers and our government: "Uzbek officials are torturing prisoners to extract information, which is supplied to the U.S...
...But the Justice Department is handicapped by having no torture chambers...
...In summarizing other parts of Ashcroft's legacy, a New York Times November 11 editorial emphasizes: "The investigation and prosecution of domestic terrorism cases have produced little since 9/11 except dismissed charges, misidenti-fied suspects, and minor convictions of minor figures...
...During all the plaudits and denunciations during Ashcroft's leave-taking, I've seen no accounts of how his beloved Patriot Act has been intertwined with the repressive apparatuses of other nations...
...authorities to access the personal information of Canadians [including medical records] if it ends up in the United States [through outsourcing of records] or if it is held by U.S...
...Supreme Court...
...On November 2, The Australian noted that following the chilling news from Canada, "The South Australian government has promised to review the access of U.S...
...Said British Columbia's privacy commissioner, David Loukidelis, "The USA Patriot Act knows no borders...
...The website of the Canadian Press on October 29 reported: "The long arm of the Patriot Act allows U.S...
...Ashcroft, moreover, was deeply involved in supporting and implementing the Bush policy of denying the Geneva Conventions on prisoners of war on detainees at Guant?namo...
...John Ashcroft, our chief law enforcement officer, never criticized the CIA for its contempt of both American and international laws...
...Naturally...
...The more unfettered CIA, however, outsources recalcitrant prisoners to countries that specialize in torturing suspects...
...companies in Canada...
...This cozy tripartite relationship is explained by Financial Times columnist Philip Stephens: "Uzbekistan provides a vital base for U.S...
...Human Rights First (formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights), for example, cites Zimbabwe, where the ruthless dictator, Robert Mugabe, "while voicing agreement with the Bush Administration's policies in the 'war on terrorism,' declared foreign journalists and others critical of his regime 'terrorists' and suppressed their work...
Vol. 69 • January 2005 • No. 1
