Enemy Aliens [Hardcover]

David Cole (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 26, 2003

As part of the war on terrorism, the federal government has detained over 5,000 foreign nationals, engaged in guilt by association and ethnic profiling, and conducted secret searches and wiretaps without probable cause of criminality.

These measures have been sold to the American public on the grounds that they affect only foreign nationals. In Enemy Aliens, award-winning author and civil liberties lawyer David Cole argues that in balancing liberty and security we have consistently relied on a double standard, imposing measures on foreigners that we would not tolerate if applied more broadly to us all. Cole warns that while such a double standard is politically easy (the 20 million non-citizens living in the US can't vote), it is constitutionally suspect, counterproductive as a security measure, and ultimately illusory, because history shows that acceptance of such treatment for outsiders paves the way for similar measures against American citizens.

Coming on the heels of his multi-award winning No Equal Justice, which exposed race- and class-based double standards in the criminal justice system, Enemy Aliens brings Cole's keen intelligence, constitutional acumen, and personal litigation experience to bear on the character of constitutional freedoms in the war of terrorism.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

About 5,000 foreign nationals have been detained by the United States since September 11 and denied basic constitutional rights in the name of "wartime" expediency. Cole, who has litigated civil liberties cases on behalf of resident aliens and writes for the Nation, argues that denying foreigners rights within our legal system usually ends with citizens being stripped of those same rights. Cole (No Equal Justice) documents how this process has already started and discusses provisions of the Patriot Act that he believes will allow for even further government encroachment on our freedom. He also provides detailed historical examples of the government's record of persecuting opposition voices in the name of security against a foreign menace. He argues for the moral and pragmatic importance of avoiding a double standard and according foreigners the same rights as citizens.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Argues that what the government does to foreigners today paves the way for what happens to the rest of us tomorrow. -- Legal Times, Seth Stern, 3 November 2003

A compassionate and compelling book about the US government's discrimination against aliens. -- FindLaw.com, Elaine Cassel, 31 October 2003

Cole's indictment of the way we have handled foreign captives is accurate and sears the conscience. -- New York Times Book Review, Ethan Bronner

David Cole's lucid, reasoned writing is a forceful antidote to the current round of xenophobic zeal. -- Village Voice, Kareem Fahim, 12 September 2003

If there is a flaw in Cole's logic, it escapes me. -- Los Angeles Times Book Review, John W. Dean, 21 September 2003

One only hopes that Cole's superb book somehow finds its way into the Supreme Court's inner sanctum. -- In These Times, Craig Aaron

The most convincing view that I have read of the legal/bureaucratic threats that now face immigrants and visitors to America. -- New York Review of Books, Anthony Lewis, 23 October 2003

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: New Press, The (September 26, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565848004
• ISBN-13: 978-1565848009
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,114,128 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Cole is a professor at Georgetown University Law Center and a volunteer staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. He is also legal affairs correspondent for The Nation and a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books. He is also the author of the American Book Award-winning Enemy Aliens; Less Safe, Less Free (with Jules Lobel); The Torture Memos; and Terrorism and the Constitution, all published by The New Press. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We Are All Americans, February 1, 2004

By 

Pierce O'Donnell and delores valdez (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Enemy Aliens (Hardcover)

David Cole has authored a masterful and compelling book about the discriminatory and abusive treatment of non-citizens in the wake of 9/11, the Patriot Act, and the Bush Administration's resort to the modern-day version of W.W.I Palmer Raids. A distinguished Georgetown University Law Center Professor, David Cole writes with a lucidity and command of facts that makes this major work on civil liberties in time of crisis such a powerful indictment of the federal government's Unamerican-like disrespect for the Constitution and laws. The author's use of historical antecedents shows that we have not really learned many valuable lessons from our checkered history of shortchaning individual rights in time of war and national emergency. That so few of the thousands of immigrants rounded up by the Justice Department's indiscriminate dragnet were in fact guilty of any criminal conduct(much less terrorist activities)exposes Attorney General John Ashcroft's craven pandering to public fear and hysteria. Co-author of the outstanding book "Terrorism and The Constitution," Professor Cole warns that American citizens should care deeply about what happens to non-citizen residents who are our neighbors and co-workers. Why? Because it is only a short step for the government to rationalize the abuse of the rights of citizens in the same ways that it has oppressed non-citzens--all in the name of national security. For proof, all you need to note is President Bush's illegal detention without charges, counsel or trial of two American citizens suspected of terrorist associations (Hamdi and Padilla)for almost two years. Everyone who cares about striking a proper balance between civil liberties and national security should read "Enemy Aliens."

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Book, February 16, 2004

By 

F. Shaiq (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Enemy Aliens (Hardcover)

Professor Cole writes an excellent book, hitting many points that are usually left out. He examines the way Arabs and Muslims are being treated today post-9/11 and parallels it with our nation's past abuses of foreigners, bringing in examples of the Japanese internment during WWII and many others. Professor Cole is dead on when he writes about the loss of legitimacy faced by law enforcement in the Muslim community, stepping into a mosque shows it to be quite evident. Cole's analysis of what the United States should be doing to make our country safer rather than an indiscriminate dragnet of immigrants shows the professor's wisdom. This book was recommended to me by Wayne Cornelius, Director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, San Diego, an expert in his field...a recommendation that I would like to pass on.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read, August 9, 2005

By 

not a gavagai - See all my reviews

This review is from: Enemy Aliens (Hardcover)

A previous reviewer stridently denounces Cole's supposed reliance on "fabricated instances of government abuses." I wonder if he or she has even read the book, which is based on a law review article with several hundred footnotes. Perhaps he thinks all of the citations are to the liberal mainstream media and so cannot be trusted? The "Constitution is very clear about citizen/non-citizens," the previous reviewer also writes. I agree. The Fifth Amendment says, in relevant part, "no person shall . . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." Person, not citizen.

The Supreme Court has resoundingly rejected the position that a state of war is a blank check for the President. The rule of law and the due process requires, at a minimum, that unlawful combatants be given a fair opportunity to rebut the basis for their classification as such before a neutral and independent decisionmaker, not a sham status review tribunal.

As citizens in a representative democracy, it is our obligation to be informed of what is being committed in our names. Cole's book offers a terrifying and timely glimpse into how the Administration is pursuing the global war on terrorism.