Former Gov. Thomas Kean Photo by Robert Wiener
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Proud of my fatherApril 10, 2008
Former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean told a college audience in Union that the American people’s civil liberties are being seriously threatened by the Bush administration’s conduct of the war on terror.
In his April 7 lecture at Kean University, the chair of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States — informally known as the 9/11 Commission — said more must be done to protect human rights at home and abroad.
In a far-ranging address titled “Reflections on Injustices, Moral Apathy, and Rallied Conscience,” the former governor distinguished between the effects of earlier wars and those of today’s conflicts. During wars past, he said, “our freedoms bent, and they bent too far in most cases. But they didn’t break, and the saving grace was the good sense of the American people.”
“But today, the president says, ‘We are at war, and we have to sacrifice some of our liberties.’ Our liberties have always been restored after war,” said Kean, but “now, when is peace going to come?”
“When is the global war on terror going to come to an end? No one can say.
“No peace treaties are going to be signed. There will be no victory parades. Therefore, we have to act now. We can’t allow our civil liberties to erode in this kind of war because we don’t know when we will get them back.”
Kean said Congress, following a recommendation from the 9/11 Commission, created the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board within the executive branch.
The board’s record “has been a tremendous disappointment,” he said. “The board raised no objection to detention and interrogation practices and warrantless wiretapping, and its report was edited by the White House.
“As far as I’m concerned, the board was simply missing in action.”
‘Most ignored’
While Kean said the Bush administration has worked to consolidate some of its intelligence gathering in accordance with commission suggestions, Congress has failed to exercise checks and balances over those operations.
“Congressional oversight must be robust and effective and ask the right questions. Currently, it just isn’t,” he complained.
“When it comes to homeland security, we’ve made very little progress,” said Kean. The commission noted that the Department of Homeland Security reports to 88 different congressional committees and subcommittees. “Now, how can you have any proper oversight if you’ve got 88 bosses?” Kean asked. “In a spirit of half-hearted reforms, the number used to be 88; now it is 86.”
Kean, who served as governor from 1982 to 1990, said the commission’s “most ignored” recommendations concerned foreign policy.
“The United States needs to offer an example of moral leadership in the world. That means treating people humanely and abiding by the rule of law. We can defeat an extremist and hateful ideology if we offer leaders and citizens of the Muslim world a vision of a better future, education, economic opportunity, political participation, and tolerance,” he said.
He had harsh judgment of the treatment of prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. “No word is more poisonous to the reputation of the United States than ‘Guantanamo,’” Kean said. “Fundamental justice requires a fair legal process before the U.S. government detains people for a lengthy amount of time. The president and Congress haven’t provided one. Guantanamo Bay should be closed, and it should be closed now.”
Although he said the United States acted correctly in 2001 when it invaded Afghanistan in the weeks after 9/11, Kean said, “No conflict drains more time and treasure away from our counterterrorism efforts than the war in Iraq. It has become a powerful recruiting tool for Al Qaida. We have to all work together to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible conclusion.”
Looking at another trouble spot, the former governor said, “No question inflames the Arab world more than the Arab-Israeli situation. If we want to empower Arab moderates, we must try to take away the extremists’ most potent grievance: the idea that the United States couldn’t care less about anybody in Palestine. We have to make a vigorous diplomatic effort to have a peace in that part of the world. Not only would it be wonderful for Israel, but we would take away the biggest grievance in the Arab world.”
“We are deeply involved in three wars — the war on terrorism and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Kean said. “We are in a fight for our principles, and our first responsibility is to live by them.”
University president Dawood Farahi introduced the speaker and praised the work of the school’s Jewish Studies Program and Holocaust Resource Center.
The talk was part of a lecture/artist series, “The Bystander in a Post-Holocaust World,” sponsored by Kean University’s Jewish Studies Program in honor of its 10th anniversary
Proud of my father
Dennis Klein, director of the Jewish Studies Program and professor of history at Kean University, stands beside former Gov. Thomas Kean.
AS FORMER Gov. Thomas Kean finished speaking, Dennis Klein, director of the Jewish Studies Program and professor of history at Kean University, reminded the audience of words spoken by his late father, Congressman Robert W. Kean.
In March 1943, the elder Kean, a Republican from Essex County, rose in the House of Representatives and said, “We in the United States cannot but have the deepest sympathy for the plight of the Jewish population in Nazi-dominated Europe.” He pointed out that “those who are murdered in the immediate future cannot be brought back to life.”
“I’ve always been very proud of my father,” said the younger Kean. “He was the first member of Congress to go to the floor and say, ‘We must do something about what is happening in Germany. We have to do something about the Holocaust. We have to recognize that it is happening.’
“I don’t know why he did it. I am so sorry I never asked him before he died why he made that speech. But I’ve always been very proud of that.”
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