Customs `camps' cause for concern By Tom Hennessy, Columnist

[Guest guest]

http://www.presstelegram.com/search/ci_3470080

 

2/02/2006 11:19 PM

 

Customs `camps' cause for concern

By Tom Hennessy, Columnist

Long Beach Press Telegram

 

 

 

Maybe a lifetime in the news business makes one paranoid. Or maybe it

was just a matter of timing.

 

The story showed up in Tuesday's Press-Telegram, as I was reading

" Night, " Elie Wiesel's horrifying autobiography of a teenager in

Buchenwald and Auschwitz.

 

Appearing on page A5, the story said the federal government had

awarded a $385 million contract for the construction of " temporary

detention facilities. " These would be used, the story said, in the

event of an " immigration emergency. "

 

Jamie Zuieback, an official with U.S. Immigration and Customs

Enforcement (ICE), explained such an emergency like this: " If, for

example, there were some sort of upheaval in another country that

would cause mass migration, that's the type of situation that the

contract would address. "

 

That sounds a tad fuzzy, but let's concede that the camps do have

something to do with immigration, illegal or not. In fact, there

already are thousands of beds in place at various U.S. locations for

the purpose of housing illegal immigrants.

 

But for anyone familiar with history U.S. or European the construction

of detention camps for whatever purpose should prompt a chilling scenario.

 

Same folks

The new detention camps will be built by Kellogg, Brown and Root

(KBR), a subsidiary of Halliburton. The latter, as you likely know, is

the defense-related corporate giant with fists full of contracts

involving the war in Iraq.

 

Halliburton was led by Vice President Dick Cheney from 1995 to 2000.

Democrats in Congress have accused the administration of favoring the

company via no-bid contracts. But KBR says the detention contract was

competitive.

 

Tuesday's story also said the contract was awarded by the Army Corps

of Engineers. However, Halliburton says it was awarded by the

Department of Homeland Security in support of ICE.

 

The contract is for a year, but includes four one-year options. It is

a renewal of an existing ICE contract, notes Halliburton.

 

KBR, in fact, had the $9.7 million contract to build the detention

facility at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. This facility, popularly

dubbed " Gitmo, " holds 660 prisoners classified by the government as

" enemy combatants. "

 

Anyone care?

This column is written with the distinct feeling that not many people

will give a hoot about any or all of this. But as already noted, a

news story about construction of government detention centers should

give us all pause.

 

Considering what took place in Nazi Germany, as well as the shameful

incarceration of Japanese-Americans in 1942, no detention camp should

be built without the widest possible public scrutiny.

 

Bottom line: The contract cries out for greater attention. So far, the

government's expressed reason for building them is insufficient and

ill-defined. And even if the camps do relate to illegal immigration,

their purpose could be changed overnight.

 

This is an instance in which we could be well served by our

representatives in Congress. They need to look at this and give

constituents a better picture of what is going on.

 

Let's not have it said, years from now, that no one ever questioned this.

 

Tom Hennessy's viewpoint appears Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

He can be reached at (562) 499-1270 or by e-mail at Scribe17