Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism

by David Cole

Book Overview

When David Cole was first writing Enemy Aliens, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the anti-immigrant brand of American patriotism was at a fever pitch. Now, as the pendulum swings back, and court after court finds the Bush administration's tactics of secrecy and assumption of guilt unconstitutional, Cole's book stands as a prescient and critical indictment of the double standards we have applied in the war on terror.

Called "brilliantly...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1565848004
• ISBN13: 9781565848009
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: New Press
• Length: 315 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.9" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

A must read

A previous reviewer stridently denounces Cole's supposed reliance on "fabricated instances of government abuses." I wonder if he or she has even read the book, which is based on a law review article with several hundred footnotes. Perhaps he thinks all of the citations are to the liberal mainstream media and so cannot be trusted? The "Constitution is very clear about citizen/non-citizens," the previous reviewer also writes. I agree. The Fifth Amendment says, in relevant part, "no person shall . . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." Person, not citizen. The Supreme Court has resoundingly rejected the position that a state of war is a blank check for the President. The rule of law and the due process requires, at a minimum, that unlawful combatants be given a fair opportunity to rebut the basis for their classification as such before a neutral and independent decisionmaker, not a sham status review tribunal. As citizens in a representative democracy, it is our obligation to be informed of what is being committed in our names. Cole's book offers a terrifying and timely glimpse into how the Administration is pursuing the global war on terrorism.

A thought-provoking study of civil rights challenged

David Cole's Enemy Aliens is a powerful testimony to the challenged freedoms which have taken place since 9/11. The rapid emergence of double standards in the war on terrorism is explored in a hard-hitting title which documents statistics about those being held prison without civil liberties rights, and the prevalence of ethnicity-based detentions justified as security measures. A thought-provoking study of civil rights challenged.

An Excellent Book

Professor Cole writes an excellent book, hitting many points that are usually left out. He examines the way Arabs and Muslims are being treated today post-9/11 and parallels it with our nation's past abuses of foreigners, bringing in examples of the Japanese internment during WWII and many others. Professor Cole is dead on when he writes about the loss of legitimacy faced by law enforcement in the Muslim community, stepping into a mosque shows it to be quite evident. Cole's analysis of what the United States should be doing to make our country safer rather than an indiscriminate dragnet of immigrants shows the professor's wisdom. This book was recommended to me by Wayne Cornelius, Director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, San Diego, an expert in his field...a recommendation that I would like to pass on.

We Are All Americans

David Cole has authored a masterful and compelling book about the discriminatory and abusive treatment of non-citizens in the wake of 9/11, the Patriot Act, and the Bush Administration's resort to the modern-day version of W.W.I Palmer Raids. A distinguished Georgetown University Law Center Professor, David Cole writes with a lucidity and command of facts that makes this major work on civil liberties in time of crisis such a powerful indictment of the federal government's Unamerican-like disrespect for the Constitution and laws. The author's use of historical antecedents shows that we have not really learned many valuable lessons from our checkered history of shortchaning individual rights in time of war and national emergency. That so few of the thousands of immigrants rounded up by the Justice Department's indiscriminate dragnet were in fact guilty of any criminal conduct(much less terrorist activities)exposes Attorney General John Ashcroft's craven pandering to public fear and hysteria. Co-author of the outstanding book "Terrorism and The Constitution," Professor Cole warns that American citizens should care deeply about what happens to non-citizen residents who are our neighbors and co-workers. Why? Because it is only a short step for the government to rationalize the abuse of the rights of citizens in the same ways that it has oppressed non-citzens--all in the name of national security. For proof, all you need to note is President Bush's illegal detention without charges, counsel or trial of two American citizens suspected of terrorist associations (Hamdi and Padilla)for almost two years. Everyone who cares about striking a proper balance between civil liberties and national security should read "Enemy Aliens."