In June 2006, I authorized The Multiracial Activist to sign onto comments drafted by the ACLU regarding a Bush Administration attempt to suppress prisoner contacts with friends, family, media and others. This Bureau of Prisons regulation was worded broadly enough to allow such suppression of speech to apply to individuals who had not even been charged with a crime. We thought it died when we expressed our concerns in this comment letter: http://multiracial.com/site/content/view/1110/49/
According to The Raw Story's Jennifer Van Bergen who interviewed me for this story, we were wrong:
"The US Department of Justice has implemented a secretive new prison program segregating "high-security-risk" Muslim and Middle Eastern prisoners and tightly restricting their communications with the outside world in apparent violation of federal law, according to documents obtained by RAW STORY."
"Quietly implemented in December, the special "Communications Management Unit" (CMU) at a federal penitentiary in Indiana targeting Muslim and Middle-Eastern inmates was not implemented through the process required by federal law, which stipulates the public be notified of any new changes to prison programs and be given the opportunity to voice objections. Instead, the program appears to have been ordered and implemented by a senior official at the Department of Justice."
And the neo-con campaign against our civil liberties continues. Now, before you spam me with comments like "it only applies to terrorists," remember that it is worded to allow such restrictions to be applied to ANYONE in custody that the Administration decides needs to be silenced – regardless of whether or not they've been charged with a crime.
Combine this regulation with last year's cowardly nullification of habeas corpus and you've got an Administration that can not only lock you up without charge, it can silence you "legally" as well.
Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer, exactly when do the impeachment hearings begin??????
Relevant links:
http://multiracial.com/site/content/view/1110/49/
http://www.rawstory.com//news/2007/Documents_show_new_secretive_new_US_0216.html