The Foreign Service Journal, September 2004

Though the Alien and Sedition Acts (but not the Enemy Alien Act, it is worth noting) were ultimately repealed, their spirit has resurfaced more than once during wartime. Abraham Lincoln suspended the right of habeas corpus during the Civil War, and thousands of Japanese-Americans were interned for years during World War II despite a complete lack of any evidence that they were disloyal or had harmed the United States in any way. Rights were abrogated in World War I as well, and internment camps from that conflict were used again in World War II. But those decisions were soon correctly seen as aberra- tions, not as precedents. We must return to our American revolutionary roots, resisting the temptation to weaken our system of rights when under stress, and instead setting an example for all to follow. Give the prisoners lawyers. Give them rights and a speedy, open, fair trial. No more deaths or torture dur- ing interrogation. Such behavior de- means us and sets American soldiers and civilians up for torture in the future. As the Hindu poet Manu wrote in 1200 BC: “Justice, being destroyed, will destroy; being preserved, will pre- serve; it must never, therefore, be vio- lated. Beware, O Judge! Lest justice, being overturned, overturn both us and thyself.” Larry Roeder, a Civil Service employ- ee of the State Department, is the pol- icy adviser on disaster management in the Bureau of International Organi- zations. The views expressed herein are his only. 22 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 4 S P E A K I N G O U T The Supreme Court ruling that the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere do have at least some rights is not popular in many quarters, but it was the right call. 2000 N. 14th Street Suite 500 Arlington, VA 22201 Telephone (703) 797-3259 Fax (703) 524-7559 Tollfree (800) 424-9500