By Michel Shehadeh

^{Throughout its history, especially in wartime, the US government has always utilized public fear to inflate its powers and stifle opposition to its policies at home and abroad. This, in today’s “war on terrorism” context, situates the Arab American community at the forefront in the struggle to protect civil liberties and the right to political dissent.}

^{Already accused of being a "Fifth Column,” the Arab American community may find itself confronting a situation similar to what the Japanese Americans faced after Pearl Harbor. This is not a far-fetched scenario especially in the event of another attack like the twin towers.}

^{Although the repression of Arab-Americans after 9/11 did not come near the scale of the Japanese American community suffered during WWII, the numbers are still astounding. The government had admitted it detained 1,182 in seven weeks of the start of its detention campaign. 1,100 detentions followed under the Absconder Apprehension Initiative, which, as the government admitted it targeted as a priority the deportation of the 6,000 Arabs and Muslims among the more than 300,000 individuals already ordered deported and did not comply. Another 2,747 were detained in connection with a Special Registration program. Thus, a conservative estimate, places the number of detainees as of May 2003 at over 5,000, an alarming number of mass detention.}

^{Legislative measures and coercive actions taken after September 11, touted, as “necessary tools” to fight terrorism and achieve domestic security, are in fact tools to silence and intimidate dissent at home. This repression is expected to intensify in the coming years, especially if public support for the “war on terrorism” wanes.}

^{History has shown that what we allow the government to do to immigrants today comes to haunt citizens tomorrow. In 1798, Congress enacted the Enemy Alien Act. This law, which remains on the books, authorizes the executive branch during wartime to detain, deport, or otherwise restrict the liberties of any person over fourteen years of age who is a citizen of a country with which the US is at war, without any individualized crime or wrongdoing.}

^{The Fifties --McCarthyism
The anti-communist hysteria known as McCarthyism in the 1950s actually started during the 1940s, WWII era. The Alien Registration Act passed by Congress on 29 June 1940 made it illegal for anyone in the United States to advocate, abet, or teach the desirability of overthrowing the government. It required all alien residents in the United States over 14 years of age to file a comprehensive record of their personal and occupational status and a statement of their political beliefs. Within four months, 4,741,971 aliens had been registered.}

^{The main objective of the Alien Registration Act was to undermine left-wing political groups in the United States. The House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), which the Congress established in 1938, became the vehicle to investigate people suspected of “unpatriotic behavior”}

^{The investigation into the Hollywood Motion Picture Industry is a stark example of the curtailment of freedom of speech and silencing of dissent. HUAC interviewed 41 "friendly witnesses" working in Hollywood. During their interviews, they named nineteen people in the filmmaking industry accusing them of holding left-wing views. Ten refused to answer any questions on constitutional grounds. They became known as the Hollywood Ten. All were found guilty of contempt of congress and sentenced to between six and twelve months in prison.}

^{The Sixties and Seventies--COINTELPRO
After September 11, Arab and Muslim individuals and organizations across the country reported increasing government harassment and disruption of their work. Racial and ethnic profiling became a law enforcement tool. More than 1200 Arabs and Muslims were detained without charges. Two Muslim chartable organizations were shut down and their assets frozen on unproven charges of aiding terrorist organizations. Employees reported FBI visits at workplaces and meetings with their employers. There were also suspected incidents of political purging from Arab American organizations under governmental pressures.}

^{Similar measures were used in the 1960s as part of a secret FBI program known as "COINTELPRO." COINTELPRO was later exposed and officially ended. But there is evidence that it actually persisted and that clandestine operations to discredit and disrupt opposition movements have become an institutional feature of national and local government in the US.}

^{The government used infiltrators and informers not only to spy on political activists, but also to discredit and disrupt legitimate constitutional protected activities. The FBI and police also waged psychological warfare from the outside--through bogus publications, forged correspondence, anonymous letters, telephone calls etc. They used harassment, intimidation, including eviction, job loss, break-ins, vandalism, grand jury subpoenas, false arrests, frame- ups, and physical violence. Government agents either concealed their involvement or fabricated a legal pretext. In the case of Black and Native American movements, they were outright political assassination.
These covert tactics, as shown by the U.S. Senate's investigation of COINTELPRO included but were not limited to:}

^{- Bogus leaflets, pamphlets, etc.: The FBI routinely put out phony leaflets, posters, pamphlets, etc. to discredit dissenters. In one instance, agents revised a children's coloring book that the Black Panther Party had rejected as anti-white and gratuitously violent and then distributed a cruder version to backers of the Party's program of free breakfasts for children, telling them the book was being used in the program.}

<sup>- False media stories: The FBI's own documents reveal collusion by reporters and news media that knowingly published false and distorted material prepared by Bureau agents. One such story accused Jean Seberg, a pregnant white film star active in anti-racist causes, of carrying the child of a prominent Black leader. Seberg's white husband, the actual father, sued the FBI for causing the stillbirth of their child, his wife’s breakdown and eventual suicide.
- Forged correspondence: The U.S. Senate's investigation of COINTELPRO uncovered a series of letters forged in the name of an intermediary between the Black Panther Party's national office and Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver, in exile in Algeria. The letters proved instrumental in inflaming intra-party rivalries that erupted into the bitter public split that shattered the Party in the winter of 1971.</sup>

<sup>- Anonymous letters and telephone calls: During the 60s, activists received a steady flow of anonymous letters and phone calls, which turned out to have been from government agents. Some threatened violence. Others promoted racial divisions and fears. Still others charged various leaders with collaboration, corruption, sexual affairs with other activists' mates, etc. As in the Seberg incident, inter-racial sex was a persistent theme. The husband of one white woman involved in a bi-racial civil rights group received the following anonymous letter authored by the FBI: “Look, man, I guess your old lady doesn't get enough at home or she wouldn't be shucking and jiving with our Black Men in ACTION, you dig? Like all she wants to integrate is the bedroom and us Black Sisters ain't gonna take no second best from our men. So lay it on her man--or get her the hell off [name]. A Soul Sister”
- False rumors: Using infiltrators, journalists and other contacts, the Bureau circulated slanderous, disruptive rumors through political movements and the communities in which they worked.</sup>

^{- Other misinformation: A favorite FBI tactic uncovered by Senate investigators was to misinform people that a political meeting or event had been cancelled. Another was to provide phony addresses for events, stranding out-of-town conference attendees who naturally blamed those who had organized the event. FBI agents also arranged to transport demonstrators in the name of a bogus bus company, which pulled out at the last minute. Pressure through employers, property owners, etc.: COINTELPRO documents revealed frequent overt contacts and covert manipulation to generate pressure on activists. For example, pressures from parents, proprietors, employers, college administrators, church superiors, welfare agencies, credit bureaus, and licensing authorities to force activist to give up.}