What hath Reichsfuhrer Ashcroft wrought now in AmeriKa?

Mystery Cloaks Couple's Firing as Risks to U.S.
By James Dao, December 12, 2004, The New York Times


MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - May 5, the day that changed Aliakbar and Shahla Afshari's lives, began like most others. They shared coffee, dropped their 12-year-old son off at Cheat Lake Middle School here, then drove to their laboratories at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a federal agency that studies workplace hazards.

But that afternoon, their managers pulled the Afsharis aside and delivered a stunning message: they had failed secret background checks and were being fired. No explanations were offered and no appeals allowed. They were escorted to the door and told not to return.

… They have been told they were fired for national security reasons that remain secret. When their lawyer requested the documents used to justify the action, he was told none existed. When he asked for copies of the agency's policies relating to the background checks, he received a generic personnel handbook.

… But what is most confounding to the Afsharis is how the government could consider them threats in the first place. Neither had access to classified documents or worked with banned biological or chemical toxins.

Moreover, none of their research was secret, much of it having been published in scholarly journals or presented at academic conferences.

… The case has also affected the Afsharis' friends, who say they remain mystified and angry about the way the couple has been treated.

"I've told Ali's story to a lot of people," said Travis Goldsmith, a computer engineer who worked with Mr. Afshari. "They don't believe that this could happen in this country."

I don’t believe it either. First we had “Driving while Black.” Now we have a new offense in AmeriKa: “Working while Islamic.” I’m surprised they haven’t been shipped off to Guantanamo Bay. They can’t appeal the charges because the charges are secret; the written policies relating to background checks aren’t the ones which apparently governed their checks. They don’t have access to any material which matters, but firing them is important to “national security.”

What’s next, Michelle Malkin’s internment camps? Goodness, this does make me something less than proud.