U.S. Losing The War On Terror

In a one hour television and radio interview with Dean Lawrence Velvel of the Massachusetts School of Law about a new book entitled "Less Safe, Less Free", author Jules Lobel says the U.S. is losing the war on terror because it is squandering its assets tracking supposedly "suspicious" suspects rather than individuals against whom there is real proof. Lobel is a distinguished professor of law who co-wrote the book with David Cole.

"We locked up 5,200 aliens, virtually all Muslims, after 9/11 not because they had done something wrong but because we were suspicious that they might commit a crime," said Lobel, of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and Vice President of the nonprofit Center For Constitutional Rights, of New York City .

Additionally, 80,000 Muslims were asked to fill out a special registration form and of all those arrested or required to fill out the forms "zero of them were found to be terrorists," Lobel said. "The (action) has given rise to propaganda all around the world we are mistreating people here."

"The theory was there could be an attack (on the U.S. ) any time and these people were suspicious," Lobel said. He termed this approach the "preventive paradigm," one that is not based on somebody who has done something wrong "but who might do something wrong in the future," an approach "that allows the executive to operate in a void."

Lobel made his remarks in an interview about his book taped for Comcast television on "Books of Our Time" and for World Radio Network's "What The Media Doesn't Tell Us." Both are hosted by Lawrence Velvel, dean of the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover .

Elaborating points made in his book in regard to the current war, Lobel explained how the preventive paradigm was applied at the international level. He said, "We didn't say that Iraq was attacking us or was imminently about to attack us. All we said was we were suspicious. We see a transformation of the usual rule of law which says you can't use coercive power until somebody does something wrong. We use coercion now based on suspicion that they might do something wrong."

"Underlying all this," Lobel continued, is that "we can no longer wait for something to be shown by objective evidence. Rather, we act on what a high CIA official called 'actionable suspicion'. [Vice President] Cheney said we know with absolute certainty they had WMD and [Defense Secretary] Rumsfeld said we know right where they are. This all was wrong, and shows us how dangerous such assumptions are."

Launching a war based on assumptions, like the dragnet arrests of thousands of suspects without any evidence, has not only not made the U.S. safer but has wasted the time of the investigators and the tax dollars of the public, Lobel said in further elaborating points made in his book. "It's a huge expenditure of government resources" that has "caused tremendous distrust in the Muslim community."

"Before we invaded, Iraq had very little terrorist activity," Lobel said. "Now it is the No. 1 terrorist haven in the world. A lot of terrorists are getting their training in Iraq and going back to Afghanistan ."

Discussing the book, Lobel said that "The point of the rule of law is not to put restrictions on the government but to ensure the government doesn't act incompetently when it is using force against people, such as sending one hundred thousand troops into a battle when it was not necessary."

"The rule of law tries to focus government's energy on people who have really committed crimes. If you focus on everybody who is suspicious, you waste resources and delegitimize the government's resources. We're diverting our resources going through tapes that are worthless. If you had gotten a warrant, you would have had to show there is something objectively suspicious about the tape. And to use military force against people who [only] might attack you in the future," and who in fact may never attack you, takes your military away from necessary work."

Dean Velvel's interview with Jules Lobel will be aired in a variety of formats. On television, the Comcast CN8 network will distribute it throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic States under the title, Books of Our Time. Advanced DVD copies of the interview will be available from Jeff Demers by writing to demers@mslaw.edu. Shortly after airing, the video will be available online in its entirety at http://video.google.com.

As a radio program, the interview will also be aired as an installment of the program What the Media Doesn't Tell You with Larry Velvel. What the Media Doesn't Tell You with Larry Velvel is available on affiliate AM/FM stations and satellite outlets in the United States and Europe. To listen online visit MSL's own internet radio station at http://tinyurl.com/2vtdk2. The podcast form is available at http://velvelonmedia.libsyn.com and direct downloads are at http://mslawradio.com/what-the-media-doesn't-tell-you.html.
(Further Information: Jeff Demers, Massachusetts School of Law at Andover , (978) 681-0800)

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