2008 Woodie Awards
Viewpoint - Government act provides threat to freedom instead of protecting civil liberties
By Monte Ashqar
Issue date: 9/14/07 Section: Opinion
Originally published: 9/13/07 at 4:28 PM CSTLast update: 9/13/07 at 5:20 PM CST
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A week before my speech I asked if anyone could name three countries that imprison their citizens for several years without trial or charges. As expected, the answers included the usual suspects - countries like Iran, Libya, etc. No one knew that the use of classified evidence in the United States has been going on since the 1950s in attempts to convict German wives of U.S. soldiers of spying in the wake of World War II.
It just became more apparent in the last few years in the name of combating terrorism after Sept. 11.
The use of classified evidence was restricted to immigration procedures and noncitizens until 1980 when Congress passed the Classified Information Procedures Act.
The act made the use of classified evidence inclusive to U.S. citizens under the condition of being a threat to national security.
The act kicks into action in two circumstances. The first is if the government makes a public indictment of a suspect, and to secure a conviction, it has to use classified evidence.
"The defendant and the defense attorney would get a sanitized version of the evidence sheet and witnesses' testimonies," political science Professor Phil Rogers said. "Names of witnesses, for example, would be omitted."
Rogers said as long as the detainees get at least one review, which can be a pretrial hearing, then their imprisonment is legitimate by the Pentagon's standards.
The second circumstance is when a defendant who is being charged with a crime by the government and wishes to use classified evidence to exonerate himself, then the government per the act may block the use of the evidence in court to protect its national security.
In 2002, Al-Jazeera News Channel broadcast a documentary on the use of classified evidence and gave examples of people and families whose lives were affected dramatically.
In that documentary, then-Congressman David Bonior, D-Mich., said the act was renewed in 1995 when President Bill Clinton ratified Executive Order 12968.
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