It was shocking to read in the Washington Post Weekly edition of June 24-30 that the US government in considering secret trials of non-citizens engaged in helping separatist movements like the IRA, the Sikhs and the Kurdish rebels.

This revelation will no doubt lower the image of this great and free nation, the model of an open and secular democracy. The championing of the cause of freedom does not any longer ring true.

If these secret trails became a reality is it not the first step towards a police state which is the antithesis of the American idea of fairness and equality.

Secret Trials

“The Senate is about to consider a terrible proposal that would allow the government to hold secret trials leading to the deportation of certain noncitizens, It will come up as part of an assorted crime bills, one the agenda are two crime bills, one supported by Sen. . Joseph Biden and the Democrats, the other the administration’s proposal sponsored by Sen. Strom Thurmond. Because the major features of both bills-the death penalty, habeas corpus revisions and changes in the exclusionary rule-have been considered in both houses recently, the Senate Judiciary Committee held only three perfunctory hearings this year-one on habeas, another on rural crime and a third to hear Attorney General Dick Thornburgh.

Incredibly, no hearings were held on the deportation proposal, which is new this year. Moreover, because the committee didn’t even vote on these bills but simply sent both to the floor without recommendation, there is not even a committee report that evaluates this section of the president’s bill. The proposal is directed against aliens the government believes are engaged in “terrorist activity”. It applies to all noncitizens, even those who have entered legally, lived here for decades and has children and other close relatives who are citizens. The bill uses a definition of “terrorist activity” that is broad and includes raising money for or urging others to join “terrorist organizations”, though it does not defined the latter term. That is a political decision left to the government, and presumably it could include groups such as Kurdish nationalists, Afghan rebels, Sikh separatists and the IRA. Spokesmen for the PLO are singled out in the statute as engaging in terrorist activity.

The administration bill would allow the Justice Department to go to a secret court and get an order for a special proceeding to deport such people. Targeted individuals would have no notice of this hearing and no opportunity to attend or be represented. They could be arrested and detained as soon as this petition was filed. At the special proceeding that followed, the government could present proceeding that followed the government could present secret evidence-outside the presence of the alien and his lawyer and could even withhold a summary of that evidence from the accused. Theoretically, appeals would be allowed, but again, the e evidence used at the trial could be kept under seal and the appeal argued in secret.

Does this sound like a proceeding in American court? It is a nightmare that could allow the worst kind of injustice. Though not a criminal trial, a deportation hearing involves severe penalties and must afford due process. There is not much that is good in either of the crime bills coming up for consideration-gun control is the exception-but this blueprint for a kangaroo court stands out. It’s hard to see how anyone wiath any respect for the American idea of justice could support it.

Article extracted from this publication >> July 5, 1991