After reading this excellent piece about the White House continuing to adopt, utilize, and refer to various Nazi propaganda and other parallels, I really started to think. For some reason, it took me a few minutes to figure out which group the current administration could define as the enemy of “our kind” like the Jews were to the Nazis. It couldn’t be the media- as much as the media has been vilified, that’s more of a related story, “trust me not them,” rather than that they are the actual enemy. It’s not the Jewish or African American populations- again, often marginalized, but not opposed. It’s not Mexicans, who are being painted more as an inconvenience to taxpayers than an enemy of the people.
I don’t know why it took me as long as it did to figure out- it’s “radical Islamic terrorists,” more commonly known as Muslims.
They are sticking harder to the Muslim ban than they did to repealing the ACA. It was one of their first acts, if not the first, once this administration took over. After having been swatted down twice as being unconstitutional, the so-called-president lashed out as he always does, and mentioned that he wished it were a tougher law. There’s been no backing down, no attempt at compromise.
But that’s just the start. For a good look at what may be to come, let me talk a little bit about the nominee for FBI director, Christopher Wray.
His resume seems pretty squeaky-clean. In that above article, the only possible eyebrow-raising could be from this passage:
"As the head of the nation's largest federal prosecutor's office, I led and managed over 400 prosecutors and over 900 total employees in nearly all areas of federal criminal law," Wray wrote, about his years as an assistant attorney general, heading the DOJ's criminal division. "Our highest priority was protecting America from the threat of terrorism and strengthening our national security. Leadership of the counterterrorism and counterespionage sections consumed the greatest portion of my time and attention during that period."
My emphasis. Certainly not a scandal, as this occurred shortly after 9/11. But if you look at how he felt it necessary to protect America, it gets a little darker.
[Wray] was at the center of a controversial immigrant detentions in the immediate wake of 9/11, when dozens of people were spirited away to maximum security prisons and kept from communicating with their families and lawyers––sometimes for weeks.
…
The INS detained more than 700 people who the FBI suspected could have been linked to the 9/11 attacks…. They had all committed some sort of immigration violation, either staying longer than their visas allowed or entering the U.S. illegally.
Sound familiar? The rounding up of minor immigration violators has already begun, only it has predominately been immigrants from Mexico who have been caught up in these activities. A trial run, perhaps?
That report noted that if those men had been arrested just because of the immigration violations, they either wouldn’t have been detained at all or would have been put in immigrant detention centers with access to visitors and attorneys. Instead, though, they were put in maximum security prisons and, at first, couldn’t communicate with their family or lawyers. It was a “communications blackout,” according to the report. The detainees’ families and lawyers didn’t know where they were or why they had been locked up.
And that’s how Wray wanted it.
My emphasis.
Darker still? You bet. Graphic photo there.
President Donald Trump’s choice for FBI director was notified months before the public knew about the death of a detainee at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2004, and was at the very least on the fringes of discussions on the legality of military interrogation techniques in 2003, documents from Wray’s time in the post- 9/11 Bush administration show.
…
[D]uring his period as assistant attorney general in charge of the Department of Justice Criminal Division, Wray was notified early about the ongoing Central Intelligence Agency investigation of abuse at Abu Ghraib. Notably, he was alerted to the suspected homicide of a captive who came to be known as the iceman because of lurid, leaked photos showing the corpse of Manadel al-Jamadi packed in ice.
It is a very long and detailed article, I will do my best to paraphrase the rest here.
Navy Seals captured al-Jamadi during a raid, and three months later, he died in their custody. A picture of his dead body in ice was circulated, highlighted by a US soldier squatting next to him giving a “thumbs-up.” Wray was notified of his death, and three months after receiving this notification he appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify about what was being done to protect captives.
He lied. A lot.
In a nutshell, what we have is a nominee to lead the FBI, with the following history:
1. a willingness to deny or delay rights to immigrants, and/or to suspected terrorists, or people who look like they may be suspected terrorists, or may be related to people who look like suspected terrorists;
2. a willingness to condone torture to gain information from these captives or detainees, and;
3. a willingness to lie to Congress about these activities.
It is clear to me that Muslims, whether here or abroad, will be increasingly targeted as “the enemy” by this administration, in much the same way as Jews were targeted early on in Nazi Germany. With this man as the head of the FBI, I have no reason to doubt that the FBI will adopt a sort of informal “white people are not the enemy” mission statement, and focus more of their energies on Radical Islamic Terrorism and not so much on Russian money laundering and election interference.
I certainly hope our Senators will bring these questions up at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday. They may need to be reminded. Senator Leahy (D-VT) led the questioning in his prior hearing, I’m sure he remembers.