Banished U.S. citizens mysteriously permitted to return home (maybe)

[Oilwellian]

The two American citizens who were banished from their own country by the Bush administration despite not having been charged with (let alone convicted of) any crime have now been magnanimously bequeathed permission to return home (maybe):


Two relatives of a Lodi man who was convicted of supporting terrorists have been cleared to return home from a long trip to Pakistan, ending a five-month standoff in which the U.S. citizens were told they had to cooperate with the FBI to get off the government's no-fly list, a federal law enforcement official said Tuesday.

"There's been a change," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity and would not detail the reason for the move, which was made by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Lodi residents Muhammad Ismail, a 45-year-old naturalized citizen born in Pakistan, and his 18-year-old son, Jaber Ismail, who was born in the United States, were never charged with a crime. But they are the uncle and cousin of Hamid Hayat, 23, who was convicted in April of supporting terrorists by attending a Pakistani training camp and is awaiting sentencing.

The most striking aspect of this entire travesty was the sheer lawlessness of it. There was never any document issued to these citizens or their lawyers stating what the restrictions were or the basis for them. Instead, they were given multiple inconsistent explanations as to why they were barred from returning -- all delivered orally and informally by a shifting mix of airline security agents and representatives of the FBI. They were essentially trapped in some caricature of a Kafka nightmare where they were barred by unseen powers from returning to their country without any explanation as to what, if anything, they did to provoke that punishment and without being able even to know for certain who imposed the punishment.

There was even confusion all along as to what the punishment actually was -- i.e., whether they were barred entirely from entering the country or whether they were barred from flying into the U.S. (could they fly to Canada and enter by car? Could they travel to the U.S. by boat?). Roughly 10 days ago, I spoke with their lawyer, Julia Harumi Mass of the ACLU, and she had received informal indications that they were barred entirely from re-entry, not merely included on a no-fly list. But because this was all done so mysteriously and without any process of any kind, she could not even determine with any certainty what the actual punishment was, nor was there any way to find out.

The Good and Just Leaders who rule our country apparently decreed that these two subjects would be permitted to re-enter the kingdom after their lawyer, Mass, filed an administrative complaint with the Department of Homeland Security on their behalf. Even the way in which the punishment was (maybe) lifted is creepy and Kafkaesque -- "'There's been a change,' said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity."

So, there's "been a change," notes an unseen government official in the passive voice, so there's no way to know who made "the change" or what "the change" even is. Whether Mass' complaint had anything to do with "the change" in this case is completely unclear. We have no basis for knowing why they imposed these restrictions in the first place or why they were rescinded or "changed."

And we don't need to know. All we need to know is that we are being Protected and that our Government Leaders are Good and Just and if they secretly and with no explanation ban our fellow citizens from the country, there is Good Reason for them having done that and we should feel nothing but gratitude as a result. We have no right to question or challenge their decisions in court because that would risk disclosure of critical "state secrets." Our Government Leaders can't have their decisions and actions subject to scrutiny by courts because they have an important War to wage. And we have no right to know what they are doing or why, even when it comes to actions they take against American citizens.

http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/09/banished-us-citizens-mysteriously.html#links

[kurth]

1. Unprecedented and blatantly ILLEGAL

There is absolutely no legal basis for barring a U.S. citizen from entering the U.S.

[madeline_con]

2. I'd sleep with the lights on if I were them.

I'd be afraid I'd "disappear". :scared:

[Canuckistanian]

3. "Kafkaesque" doesn't do this story justice

There's some new definition of bureaucratic nightmare that has yet to be named.

Accused, but not charged. Banished, but no decree. Shifting justifications. Nameless, faceless officials issuing vague, nonsensical orders.

At least Hell has certainty.

[Oilwellian]

4. This is the first I've heard of this case

Greenwald also wrote:

Worse than being factually false, the explanation given by the Bush administration is also completely outrageous, since the Government so plainly has no authority to compel U.S. citizens to answer questions in a law enforcement investigation as a precondition to re-entering the country. See e.g., the plain and clear language of the Fifth Amendment, specifically the part about how no person "shall (a) be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor (b) be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." The Bush administration managed the feat of violating those two core Fifth Amendment guarantees with one secret, lawless action that has no basis in any recognizable authority of any kind.