Arshad Hasan: Civil liberties in danger

The United States has endured no shortage of crisis and challenges in the last 225 years. Human slavery and the Civil War, bleak economic depressions, two global wars and a heinous act of international terrorism all spring to mind.

When we confront such a crisis, we must also confront ourselves. We evaluate and reevaluate our values and our civic principles. The Civil War and its aftermath brought a political, social, and moral upheaval to this country. The Great Depression brought a massive overhaul of our financial institutions. The two world wars changed our foreign policy outlook forever. The civil rights and women's movements forced us to self-consciously examine the principles upon which this country was founded. How will the events of Sept. 11, 2001 shape this country?

I have heard that in these times civil liberties are a luxury we cannot afford. Because of these trying times, the argument goes, it's OK to engage in racial profiling. I have been told that those of us, who may be profiled "just need to understand our fear," as if we do not have reason to fear, as if we did not know fear.

Sensing this fear, the president and the attorney general have assumed expansive powers. Racial profiling is only the beginning.

President Bush's plan to use secret military tribunals in place of functioning civil courts for non-citizens suspected of terrorism has caused alarm on both sides of the political spectrum. Not only has it been condemned by the American Civil Liberties Union, but politicians and commentators as varied as Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.) and New York Times columnist William Safire have expressed their concerns about the legality and wisdom of the tribunals.

International war criminals and perpetuators of genocide receive more even-handed treatment than they would under this plan. Slobodan Milosevic will have public trial. Nazi leaders had a public trial. Those simply suspected of terrorism will not.

The proposed military tribunals, similar in structure to the one established to try Nazi saboteurs during World War II, call for a jury that is subordinate and directly accountable to those bringing the charges. But Roosevelt's order was based on an existing law, which gives the president the authority to establish such tribunals when Congress has declared war. Furthermore, his order was specific to the those saboteurs that were caught. However, Bush's order applies to any non-citizen suspected of terrorism and has no basis in existing law, thereby circumventing both the legislative and judicial branches.

This order affects no small minority of Americans. There are 20 million resident aliens in the United States. You probably know a few of them -- 10 percent of Penn's student body hails from abroad.

Even during a great crisis, our fundamental principles cannot and should not be abridged. The Supreme Court's 1866 ruling in Ex parte Milligan declared that people cannot be tried in military tribunals on the president's whim if there are functioning civilian courts in the area in which the crime occurred -- and this even as the country was engaged in a bloody civil war. America's tradition of liberty and justice must be preserved.

The United States is not a country that places blind trust in its leaders to exercise power responsibly and within the law. Americans have a long history of skepticism toward concentrated power. John Adams envisioned this country to be one run "not by men, but by laws." Neither Ashcroft nor Bush has the authority to turn these founding principles on their heads.

I don't wish to imply that these men are not well-intentioned, but history has taught us not to sacrifice our fundamental principles for the sake of expediency. People have given their lives to defend and define these rights. Our consistent commitment to them is what separates us from the tyrannical regimes we deplore.

President Bush has frequently called the United States the freest country in the world. But as he whittles away our civil liberties, the veracity of this claim becomes more and more suspect.

While we struggle against terrorism in defense of freedom, we must ensure that our freedoms do not fall victim to this struggle.

Arshad Hasan is a junior Political Science major from Grand Forks, N.D., and vice president for external affairs of the Penn ACLU.

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