ustxtxb_obs_1995_08_11_50_00022-00000_000.pdf

gaagitte* But in the 204 years since, Madison’s prediction has often proved true. Only seven years later, at a time when war with France seemed Imminent, French refugees living In America were feared as a potentially subversive and traitorous element. Public hysteria fanned by President John Adams mounted, and national origin became a proxy for real evidence of criminal conduct or espionage. re red by this law; in en one Gen eral govern imprisoned. The First ter.:Hysteria prevailed. Public anc ocent Americans were pun litical beliefs. :h e last time such hysteria would prevail over ion. During World War I, a similar frenzy took ace against German and Italian immigrants. And after Pearl Harbor, over 100,000 JapaneseAmerican citizens were arrested and incarcerated, not on the basis of criminal vidence but rather on suspicion based solely on their national origin. No espionage was uncovered and public e 19 to convert dissent into disloyalty. The BI spie d infiltrated hundreds of organizations and people were pun ishedlost their jobs or their libertyon the basis of polit ical beliefs and associations instead of criminal evidence. In the turbulent 1960s, the government again engaged in widespread infiltration and surveillance of people opposed to the Vietnam war and those fighting for e ual rights for “114”. WNW suspec o name of civil came a target of go told us it was protec t broad authority to inves inal conduct. Americans w bought this argument. But th e wiretap Martin Luther King. aw In each of these inciden t abandoning or diluting the s tr a trigger for government s was no longer required, it wa s origin or political beliefs and a inals were uncovered. The pu t %. 22 AUGUST 11, 1995