Rove, Kristol Laugh At Idea U.S. Arrested American Muslims Without Trial: ‘We Didn’t Do It!’

Think Progress
Friday, Dec 05, 2008

On Tuesday, Karl Rove and Bill Kristol debated journalists Simon Jenkins and Jacob Wiesberg at an event sponsored by BBC. The debate was whether “President Bush is the worst president of the last 50 years“; Jenkins and Weisberg argued in favor of the resolution, while Rove and Kristol argued against it.

At one point, Weisberg said that the Bush administration had never convinced the world that it had “not taken out Muslims as a particular group.” Kristol and Rove literally laughed at the idea that the United States had targeted and arrested American Muslims as part of its “war on terror” effort:

KRISTOL: What have we done to Muslims in America? What has happened?

JENKINS: Arrested them.

KRISTOL: We’ve arrested Muslims in America? [LAUGHTER]

JENKINS: Incarcerated them without trial.

KRISTOL: We’ve incarcerated Muslims in America without trial?

ROVE: Rounded them up? Rounded, rounded them up? Name one?

KRISTOL: Nonsense.

ROVE: Name one instance.

JENKINS: The, [UNCLEAR] belabor me all day with lists of people who have vanished. Vanished.

ROVE: You know-

KRISTOL: Well, that-

ROVE: This is on the border of lunacy, with all due respect.

JENKINS: But you didn’t need to do it, you didn’t need to do it-

ROVE: We didn’t do it!

(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)

Posting the exchange — to highlight what he saw as Jenkins’ idiocy — on Contentions, Abe Greenwald dismissed Jenkins’ claims as “therapeutic mythologies” that were part of “Bush-villification.” “With their vanishing Muslims, torture chambers, and evil corporate overlords, Bush haters are better suited to the Dungeons and Dragons, sci-fi convention circuit than to the political sphere,” Greenwald wrote.

The specific targeting of Muslims in America is hardly a myth:

In a secret meeting of top Justice Department officials hours after the [9/11] attacks, then-immigration chief James Ziglar rebuked those in the room for proposing a “roundup” of Arabs and Muslims. “I’m not going to be part of this if we’re going to do things that blatantly violate the law,” Ziglar declared, according to people there. [Knight Ridder, 6/15/03]

The Census Bureau’s decision to give to the Department of Homeland Security data that identified populations of Arab-Americans was the modern-day equivalent of its pinpointing Japanese-American communities when internment camps were opened during World War II, members of an advisory board told the agency’s top officials Tuesday. “This for the Arab-American community is 1942,” said Barry Steinhardt, a civil liberties lawyer and member of the panel, the Decennial Census Advisory Committee. “Thousands of Arab-Americans have been rounded up and deported.” [New York Times, 11/10/04]

83,310: Number of foreign visitors from 24 predominantly Muslim nations who registered with the government after U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft required them to do so. (North Koreans also required to register.)

13,740: Number of those 83,310 who were ordered into deportation proceedings.

0: Number who were publicly charged with terrorism, although officials say a few have terrorism connections. [Chicago Tribune, 11/16/03]

One of the most high-profile detainees was an American citizen — who was held for 21 months on a naval brig before being given access to a lawyer. Jose Padilla was held for over three years before being formally charged with a crime, and by the time he had been convicted, he had already served 5 1/2 years. What’s more, his harsh confinement left him with severe mental disabilities from which psychologists warned he may never recover.

• 
• Social bookmarks
• 
• Email this article
• 
• Print this page

Comment Terms Of Use

6 Responses to “Rove, Kristol Laugh At Idea U.S. Arrested American Muslims Without Trial: ‘We Didn’t Do It!’”

1. Alex (not Jones) Says:
   December 5th, 2008 at 6:04 am

   Kristol is on my personal revolution list.

2. Not on My Watch Says:
   December 5th, 2008 at 7:06 am

   From what I can see they are jumping ship out of the country.Bush to Paraguay and Cheney to Dubai.We should keep track of them as it would be much better not to rout out skunks too close to your own home and befoul your yard.I’m pretty sure no other country would miss them all that much.We need a database like thiers complete with a section to download and examine documents, another for tracking maps, and a third for an open forum on how to proceed.Then those acrossed the globe can contribute evidence and also review it.If they stay here they are too well covered.Out there they are then vulnerable.The irony is that they have obscured themselves from the masses to an extent that thier absence would go hardly noticed.With Rove we should make sure that woman from code Pink is there.She earned that right when she showed a nation of men what guts are and tried to arrest him.Treasonous bastards.We can’t take any offensive action at present.We have to wait until they have fully incriminated themselves.Perhaps selling “Tellall ” books bragging and thinking they are safe.These 2 I would recommend prolonged punishment without reprieve.Fair is fair.I say give them to the Arabs to punish.She can tell Rove that he would have been much better off just letting her do things her way.For now we must be content to watch , wait , and prepare.I wouldn’t bother stockpiling weapons or doing anything “Illegal”.When the time comes the blind will then being given sight……. Provide us with thier own.When you guys set up some central sight like I mentioned let me know .I have been gathering the documents Alex mentions and other evidence from a variety of resources.

3. CriticalReviews Says:
   December 5th, 2008 at 9:51 am

   Criminals very often laugh when confronted about their crimes. These particular traitors were unarguably complicit in the selling of the war in Iraq using the Neocon false flag operation that was conducted by the Bush cabal and the military industrial complex on 9/11. Let them all laugh their way to everlasting destruction because real soon liars, thiefs and murders will get their just reward from God Almighty. Jesus Christ will be here to set up God’s government and Kingdom here on Earth in less than three years. Their trechery, their lies, and murders will forcefully be met with the well deserved punishment that God has promised Satan’s army.

4. Johnathan Douglas Says:
   December 6th, 2008 at 5:54 am

   There’s your list Karl … somewhere in the 60 or so links in the bottom of this post … the This, this, this, part right after Mr. “Conservative” says …

   “Mr. “Conservative”: What you have is an anti-Bush agenda in that Bush has done nothing to be investigated for.”

   Read ALL of my answer to him … I dare ya … It’s the very last quote there from mr. “conservative”!!!

   http://intwain.wordpress.com/2...../#more-182

   There’s MY answer to mr “ROVE” and everyone just like him ….

5. dirtbag Says:
   December 6th, 2008 at 12:52 pm

   Here in Canada we now have some type of dictatorship. No more democratic voting in the parliament of Canada. Pm office shut down the govt because they were gonna lose a vote to the majority libs. Now the “defeated” pc govt seized control until jan 27 to do as they wish with our country and people. They have no legitamite claim to power as they only got 35% of the vote the other 65% were about to toss them out. Stopping the govt and locking out our representatives just to keep power and control over our tax funds for 8 weeks. We are in a dire crisis and it just got worse, neocons destroyed the usa and are now creating a banana republic here. Destabilization is in progress and we are truly fuked. Prepare yourself for anarchy.

6. Anon. of Ibid. Says:
   December 6th, 2008 at 3:38 pm

   ” If it doesn’t make you laugh, then it’s not true.” —Hagbard Celine in Robert Anton Wilson’s ” Illuminatus! Trilogy “.