Americans celebrate each July the excellent idea of freedom in one's homeland. A lump in the throat during the singing of the National Anthem is par for the course. We wave our flags, support wars, and promote our beliefs in places foreign and often resistant. However, since the September 11 terrorist attacks, patriotism, both enforced through the Patriotism Act and among citizens, has created an atmosphere of suspicion and fear. Things have changed, and in some ways not to anyone's benefit.
Steven T. Wax, a sixth term Federal Public Defender for the District of Oregon, is on a tour for his debut book, "Kafka Comes to America: Fighting for Justice in the War on Terror." He will be at the Community Library, 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, July 29 to read from and sign his book. Wax was a key part of the Brooklyn, N.Y. District Attorney's prosecution of David Berkowitz, a.k.a. "The Son of Sam."
Though non-fiction, "Kafka Comes to America" reads like a thriller as Wax peers into the erosion of civil liberties. He deftly and with persuasive documentation follows the stories of two men he represented, both victims of post-9/11 counter-terrorism measures.
An Oregon lawyer, husband and father, Brandon Mayfield was arrested by the FBI in May 2004 as a suspect in the Madrid train station bombings two months previously. A latent fingerprint found on the scene was mistakenly traced back to him. Mayfield had no criminal record and had not left the country in 10 years when he was arrested.
Born in Massachusetts, Mayfield, whose wife is Egyptian, converted when he married her. Several times before being arrested they sensed that someone had stealthily been in their house and had searched papers, though nothing was missing. Then it changed.
Wax writes: "People living under a host of dictatorships around the world, from Russia to Latin America to North Korea, have learned to dread the 'knock on the door' from the KGB, Cheka, or Stasi. But here in America it is not something we have had to fear since the 'visits' from government agents and recruitment of informers during the Communist witch hunts in the late 1940s and early 1950s by Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee. Even then, the fear was never widespread. When Brandon answered the knock on his office door in Beaverton that day, his worst nightmare turned real."
From nightmare to nightmare: At the time, the Bush administration claimed it had the power to detain American citizens without charge or trial. Wax recalls the sense of shock when he was "sitting in the county jail in Portland, Oregon, actually telling a client that he might disappear."
Eventually the evidence against Mayfield was determined to be wrong. He was released and won a $2-million settlement from the government because of its misconduct.
When Wax volunteered to represent a number of Guantánamo Bay detainees he had no idea whether his clients would be innocent or guilty.
One of his clients was Adel Hamad, father, husband, teacher and a Sudanese hospital administrator. While working in Pakistan in 2002, he was taken in the middle of the night from his apartment and held in a succession of nasty prisons. He had both a valid passport and work visa, and Pakistani intelligence found nothing incriminating in his home. No allegations were ever made against Hamad regarding terrorism or the support of terrorists. In 2003, he was flown in chains to Guantánamo, where he was held, with no charge, for five years.
The only thing Hamad and Mayfield had in common was their religion: both are Muslims.
In an interview with themoderatevoice.com, held earlier this year, Wax discussed the realities of the age of anti-terrorism.
"I believe it is very difficult for Americans to accept that the Administration that is sworn to keep us safe is willing to manipulate the truth as blatantly as it has and is as inept as it has been in so many areas. To accept that is to recognize that we may not be as safe as we want to be. Underlying all this is fear," he said. "The Patriot Act amendments and the most recent (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) amendment that gave immunity to the telephone companies have not, in my judgment, made anything better."
Wax and his team are currently representing seven other men held in Guantánamo as "enemy combatants."
"Kafka Comes to America," by Steven T. Wax. Other Press. 380 pgs. $25.95
