Video Player

National Security and Civil Liberties

Moderator: Kenneth Oye
Mike Honda
Barney Frank
Merrie Najimy
Margie Yamamoto
November 2, 2003
Running Time: 1:58:59
About the Lecture

About the Lecture

Merrie Najimy’s father told her that “making the right decision isn’t always popular but making the popular decision isn’t always right.” Each of the speakers on this panel has taken an unpopular stand following September 11th. Najimy believes that the Patriot Act codified anti-immigrant passions fired up by the terrorist attacks. She claims that more than 5,000 Arab and Muslim men are now in detention and 13 thousand have been deported – largely because of racial and religious profiling allowed by the new laws. Margie Yamamoto, who has known Congressman Honda since the 1960's briefly discusses details of the Honda family's internment and its aftermath.

Mike Honda, who was interned in 1942 at a Colorado camp with his family, says he had “flashbacks” to Pearl Harbor on 9/11. He anticipated that the same kind of civil rights violations suffered by the Japanese in the U.S. during World War 2 would be inflicted on Arabs and Muslims today. Honda says the Bush Administration and Republican leaders forged a Patriot Act that overreaches in terms of police powers. Barney Frank worries that the lack of judicial oversight in the bill has led to an erosion of basic rights, as witnessed by the indefinite detention of suspects not charged with any crime, the use of “sneak and peek” warrants and increased use of electronic surveillance.

    Lecture Details

  • Location: E25-111

“(on updated electronic surveillance) "What people put in emails is stunning. You never write when you can talk, you never talk when you can nod, you never nod when you can wink, so you’ll see no emails from me". ”

Congressman Barney Frank

Related Videos

About the Speakers

About the Speakers

Moderator: Kenneth Oye

Associate Professor, Political Science and Engineering Systems

Oye has served on the faculties of the Kennedy School at Harvard University, the University of California, Princeton University, and Swarthmore College. He received the 1998 MIT Graduate Student Council Outstanding Teaching Award in Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts for his research seminar in international relations and the 2003 MIT Technology and Policy Program Faculty Appreciation Award for his teaching and advising in science, technology and public policy.

He holds a B.A. in Political Science and Economics with Highest Honors from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D in Political Science with the Chase Dissertation Prize from Harvard University.

Mike Honda

Congressman, CA 15th District

Barney Frank

Congressman MA 4th District

Merrie Najimy

Massachusetts Chapter President, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

Margie Yamamoto

Past President, New England Japanese American Citizens League

Moderator

Speakers

About the Host

About the Host

Center for International Studies

Related Materials

Related Materials

Related Videos

The information on this page was accurate as of the day the video was added to MIT World. This video was added to MIT World on December 22, 2003.