Letters to the Editor

What are our U.S. representatives and Sens. Murray and Cantwell going to do to protect the rights of Jose Padilla, a 31-year-old U.S. citizen being held incommunicado by the U.S. military because of "information" obtained from an informant?

Padilla has essentially been "disappeared." There is no presumption of innocence. No charges are filed. Padilla is denied access to a lawyer. He can't communicate with his family. We are told he can be held for an indefinite period of time, without an opportunity to face his accusers or defend himself. Did I mention that Padilla is a U.S. citizen?

If he can be denied his rights as a U.S. citizen, then so can your children. Someone with a grudge, or even a president who needs to look less incompetent, could accuse your sons or daughters, and they could be disappeared for an indefinite period of time -- even forever -- and you would be powerless to obtain justice for them. Like Padilla's parents, you couldn't even visit your child. Did I mention he's a U.S. citizen?

The great Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas once wrote, "As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. It is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air -- however slight -- lest we become victims of the darkness."

Kris DeWeese
Port Townsend

Better airport security might have prevented 9/11

A recent letter stated it was beyond imagination that, given what was known, anything could have been done to thwart the hijackers of 9/11. This also seems to be the position of the FBI, CIA, the Justice Department and the Oval Office.

I took a plane trip recently. If the airport security that is in place now had been in place on 9/11, I doubt very much that the hijackers could have made it on board with their knives. That's all that was needed to prevent the hijackings, no dots to connect and no e-mails with names, dates and time.

Lax security at airports had been a major issue of several media stories prior to last fall's tragedy. Tightening security is the kind of response that could have been made without a specific threat. It also didn't take much of an imagination to think of it. I can only assume that even this administration at least considered the idea. It would be interesting to find out why it failed to take these simple steps to protect Americans.

Paul Schwartz
Seattle

Would ACLU step up to protect hijackers' rights?

If the airlines had stopped the hijackers from boarding their respective planes on Sept. 11 because they looked suspicious, would the ACLU have sued those airlines for violating the civil liberties of the highjackers?

Norman R. Schultz
Kirkland

Americans deserve to know: Who is our enemy?

So the terrorists have won. We have discarded constitutional protection of citizens (an American assumed guilty until proven innocent, charged with thinking about a crime, held in the hands of the military) in order to further a so-called war against -- not an enemy -- but a method of attack. Guess what? Anyone with a beef is capable of carrying out terrorism.

If this is a war, let Congress declare it and let's define an enemy, not an "ism." Are we fighting al-Qaida? Osama bin Laden? Do conservative Christian leaders want to declare war on conservative Islamic leaders? It's taxpayer money that's being spent, so we deserve to know who the enemy really is.

The American people have been told that bin Laden is to blame, yet no concrete evidence has actually been presented to link him with the terrorist attacks. Deeper intrusions into our privacy in the name of fighting this war will not stop a surprise attack of an unexpected nature; it only proves that the September terrorist attacks worked exactly as planned.

If this is indeed a war, let's not make our rights the enemy.

Steve Land
Seattle

Something fishy about telling us six weeks later

So, in an effort to regain virtue in the eyes of the public, John Ashcroft dusts off a six-week-old file on a U.S. citizen suspected of hatching a dirty-bomb plot and proudly holds it up for all to see, like holding up the winning salmon in a fishing derby.

What's next for Ashcroft? Is he going to inform us the FBI also got John Dillinger and Ma Barker? I want to know what the people in charge of this country's security are doing today, not what they did six weeks ago.

T. Skylar Tennent
Auburn

Police must have left search warrants home

Having read your article about the State Patrol searching cars at ferry terminals, I am highly concerned about this violation of Fourth Amendment rights protecting us from unreasonable searches and seizures. My understanding is that for the police to search your home or car, particularly without any reason for suspicion, they require a search warrant. Random searches without evidence are the actions of dictatorships, not democracies. Worries about terrorism do not excuse sacrificing the rights that make this country special.

Paul Campbell
Tukwila

HOMELESSNESS

Federal agency doesn't pay attention to situation

Homelessness is not a regional problem; it is a national catastrophe. To solve that problem, we must make our national government responsible. The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development has done little to alleviate homelessness. HUD has done nothing to create low-rent housing but it has allowed for the demolition of housing for "urban development."

In downtown Seattle (and elsewhere), HUD encouraged and supported the destruction of single-room occupancies that housed many now homeless people. HUD has not kept up with our growing population that needs low-rent housing. HUD fails the reality test of what is affordable; its median income levels and its fair-market rent levels fail to recognize what is happening in today's America. If HUD continues to ignore the signs of homelessness, America will provide sleeping space on the streets, never mind shelters.

Public housing is the answer. A renewed vigor of creating housing for people by the thousands of units, not Band-Aids or temporary housing, is needed to eliminate homelessness. We need our government to build habitable, safe and decent housing. We must not let HUD or the real estate industry continue their failure to supply basic housing.

Many of us need a "lift-up" at some time in our lives; public housing is the answer.

Mamie Jackson
Seattle

Whale not only mammal who needs to be rescued

All the community attention and resources being poured out for the sake of one whale is pretty disturbing to those of us wishing we could get a few more human beings into a church basement or warehouse someplace.

Where are our priorities? The city of Seattle is reporting more than 7,300 homeless people every night; hundreds have no emergency shelter and end up sleeping on the street or in a car. We give our pensioners $600 a month and expect them to survive. Unemployable people get even less.

I see homeless people working at Mariners games, on construction sites, at the video store, but they still cannot afford the average rent in King County, which is now $869 a month. We are reaching disaster proportions. Every night people are looking for shelter who have never before been homeless.

Move the whale, but there are other mammals who need help.

Rev. Rick Reynolds
Operation Nightwatch
Seattle

MISSING

Local woman didn't make the news till she was found

How is it that we see gobs of stories about missing girls in Oregon, California and Utah and, of course, about Chandra Levy, but we saw zero about the missing woman in Silverdale?

Vernita Frazier, 67, wandered off 12 days ago, Kitsap Search and Rescue looks for three days, gives up ... and then she's found June 9 in a woodlot.

You would think that a mysterious disappearance might receive some news coverage when the person first went missing. But a search of your online archives turned up exactly one story about Frazier's disappearance and it was filed June 10.

I'm appalled at your news judgment.

Andy Walgamott
Woodinville

Add P-I Opinion headlines to