Cato Daily Dispatch for October 15, 2001
Powell To India: We Haven't Forgotten YouAttack-Related Detentions Raise Questions
Immigration Debate Changes After Attack
Powell To India: We Haven't Forgotten You
Secretary of State Colin Powell set off for Pakistan and India yesterday to try to cool passions between the nuclear-armed regional rivals that have been further heightened by the U.S.-British bombing campaign in Afghanistan, according to Reuters.
Though his schedule was being kept secret, he was expected to be in Islamabad today and visit New Delhi before setting off for talks with counterparts from 20 other countries at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gathering in Shanghai, China Oct. 17 and 18.
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told reporters Powell would discuss the shape of a future Afghan government with Pakistan's rulers.
In "India as a World Power: Changing Washington's Myopic Policy," Victor Gobarev warns that Washington's shortsighted policy has led India to pursue a Russia-India-China nexus aimed at preventing U.S. global domination. He writes that "a foreign policy and national security strategy based on Washington's willingness to accept India's world power status, including accepting New Delhi in the nuclear club, is the only realistic way for a breakthrough in U.S.-Indian ties."
In "India in the Balance," Ted Galen Carpenter makes recommendations for better U.S. relations with India.
Attack-Related Detentions Raise Questions
The Washington Post reports today that in a high-security wing of Manhattan's Metropolitan Correctional Center, an unknown number of men with Middle Eastern names are being held in solitary confinement on the ninth floor, locked in 8- by 10-foot cells with little more than cots, thin blankets and, if they request it, copies of the Koran. Every two hours, guards roust them to conduct a head count.
They have no contact with each other or their families and limited access to their lawyers. Their names appear on no federal jail log available to the public. No records can be found in any court docket in New York showing why they are detained, who represents them or the status of their cases.
The nearly absolute secrecy surrounding the detentions is a growing concern to civil libertarians and legal observers who fear basic rights are being violated as authorities pursue the terrorist conspiracy responsible for the attacks in New York and Washington.
Earlier this year, the Cato Institute hosted the forum "Racial Profiling: Good Police Tactic or Harassment?" The event featured Reuben Greenberg, the black police chief of Charleston, S.C., who supports racial profiling, Nkechi Taifa of Howard University Law School, and Cato's Timothy Lynch.
In his comments, Lynch talked about the tenets of "false imprisonment" and explained that "the courts have greatly opened the door [to arrest] with a standard that they call reasonable suspicion."
Immigration Debate Changes After Attack
The recent terrorist attacks have radically altered the immigration debate, replacing an agenda of amnesty with proposals to remilitarize U.S. borders, severely limit student visas and increase tracking of foreigners on American soil, according to The Washington Post.
According to those involved with the issue, the paper reports, the basic image of immigrants has changed, with the image of those who hate the United States and are willing to wreak destruction on its citizens displacing, at least temporarily, the picture of hard-working men and women in pursuit of the American dream.
It would be a national shame if, in the name of security, we were to close the door to immigrants who come here to work and build a better life for themselves and their families. The problem is not that we are letting too many people into the United States but that the government is not keeping out the wrong people, says Cato scholar Daniel Griswold in "Don't Blame Immigrants for Terrorism."
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