Even Stalin's regime didn't try telling whoppers like Ashcroft

[protect freedom impeach bush now]

http://www.americanpolitics.com/20011130Zepp.html

excerpt -

Okay, so we had 603 people locked up awaiting trials that haven't been planned yet on charges that haven't been made. Five hundred and fifty, Ashcroft informed his servile reporters, were visa violators. An undisclosed number were terrorists. But Ashcroft insisted they were terrorists, and in post junta-America, that's all that's needed. 104 people have actually been charged with federal crimes in the probe.

One of the most staggering moments, one which showed how steeply America has declined into becoming just another weak, brittle dictatorship, came when on courageous reporter dared to ask Ashcroft who some of these "detainees" were. Ashcroft replied that the names were being withheld for the protection of those detained.

You can do a lot with that argument. "No, Ma'am, I'm sorry, but we can't tell you what we did with your husband or where he is. He's facing serious charges, but we can't say what they are. It's for his own protection. If people knew what we charged him with, they might break into our maximum-security jail and hurt him."

Even Stalin's regime didn't try telling whoppers like that one.

......more......

[denverbill]

1. It's right out of the Nazi playbook.

Nacht und Nebel. Night and Fog.

They figured it was even worse than regular jail or execution. They would just take people away and not tell relatives where they were or what had happened to them.

[tom_paine]

2. Actually, Stalin DID tell whoppers like that one

Which doesn't exonerate the Busheviks, fo course.