MIT-National Security and Civil Liberties

Merrie Najimy’s father told her that “making the right decision isn’t always popular but making the popular decision isn’t always right.” Each of the speakers on this panel has taken an unpopular stand following September 11th. Najimy believes that the Patriot Act codified anti-immigrant passions fired up by the terrorist attacks. She claims that more than 5,000 Arab and Muslim men are now in detention and 13 thousand have been deported – largely because of racial and religious profiling allowed by the new laws. Margie Yamamoto, who has known Congressman Honda since the 1960’s briefly discusses details of the Honda family’s internment and its aftermath.

Mike Honda, who was interned in 1942 at a Colorado camp with his family, says he had “flashbacks” to Pearl Harbor on 9/11. He anticipated that the same kind of civil rights violations suffered by the Japanese in the U.S. during World War 2 would be inflicted on Arabs and Muslims today. Honda says the Bush Administration and Republican leaders forged a Patriot Act that overreaches in terms of police powers. Barney Frank worries that the lack of judicial oversight in the bill has led to an erosion of basic rights, as witnessed by the indefinite detention of suspects not charged with any crime, the use of “sneak and peek” warrants and increased use of electronic surveillance.

• March 21, 2010 -- MIT-America at War? (0)
• March 21, 2010 -- MIT-Spectacular Reconstructions: The Politics of Recovery in American Urban Disasters (0)
• March 21, 2010 -- MIT-Double Restoration: Berlin after 1945 (0)
• March 21, 2010 -- MIT-Beirut, Beirut (0)
• March 21, 2010 -- MIT-Washington, DC after Conquest and Arson during the War of 1812 (0)