Civil Rights Groups Ask Bush to Remove Appointee After Comments on Arab-Americans

Civil Rights Groups Ask Bush to Remove Appointee After Comments on Arab-Americans
By Will Lester Associated Press Writer
Published: Jul 22, 2002

WASHINGTON (AP) - Two civil rights groups asked President Bush Monday to remove Peter Kirsanow from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights after he said people might demand internment camps for Arab-Americans if Arab terrorists strike the United States again.

Officials with the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee wrote Bush to complain about the Cleveland attorney's comments during a commission meeting Friday in Detroit. Kirsanow made the comments after hearing testimony from Arab-American leaders who said the government violated civil rights following Sept. 11.

Kirsanow, who was appointed by Bush and finally took his seat in May after a heated legal fight with the commission chairwoman, said if there was another attack by Arabs on U.S. soil, "not too many people will be crying in their beer if there are more detentions, more stops and more profiling."

"There will be a groundswell of public opinion to banish civil rights," Kirsanow added. "So the best thing we can do to preserve them is by keeping the country safe."

Kirsanow said his comments have been taken out of context.

"Under no circumstances did I ever say, nor do I believe in, detention camps or that the government should consider such detention camps," Kirsanow said Monday. "I am adamantly opposed to the concept. I was trying to emphasize that an effective war on terrorism and preserving civil liberties are not mutually exclusive."

The civil rights' groups said in their letter to Bush, "You have reminded people on a number of occasions that we are engaged in a war against terrorism, not a war against Arabs or Islam, and certainly not against Arab Americans."

The letter asked the president "to repudiate and disavow these remarks" and remove Kirsanow from the Civil Rights Commission.

"Unlike you, Mr. President, Mr. Kirsanow appears to be condoning collective guilt and seems open to the idea of the mass internment of an entire community," the letter said.

White House spokeswoman Anne Womack said: "Peter Kirsanow has assured the White House that he was discussing the important role that security plays in guaranteeing civil rights of all Americans."

Kirsanow aides said his comments came after some made comparisons between current practices in the war on terror and the practice during World War II of confining Japanese-Americans to internment camps.

Late last year, Bush appointed Kirsanow to serve on the commission, but Commission Chairwoman Mary Frances Berry disputed whether the seat held by then-commissioner Victoria Wilson was open. After a legal fight, Kirsanow was seated in May.

The appointment of Kirsanow, a conservative attorney, shifted the commission's makeup from a 5-2 split that generally favors Berry to a 4-3 split, with one vacancy. The panel has no enforcement power; its main tool is investigating civil rights complaints and publicizing its findings.

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On the Net:

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights: http://www.usccr.gov/

Leadership Conference on Civil Rights: http://www.civilrights.org/

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee: http://www.adc.org/

AP-ES-07-22-02 1940EDT


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