Shame.

I don't know if this is good or bad news. The New York Times reports that the United States has settled a civil rights law suit filed by Ehab Elmaghraby by agreeing to pay him $300,000.

Mr. Elmaghraby was 'detained' for almost a year following the 9/11 attack. He was "an Egyptian who was among dozens of Muslim men swept up in the New York area after 9/11, held for months in a federal detention center in Brooklyn and deported after being cleared of links to terrorism."

The settlement came after the government had argued that the lawsuits should be dismissed without testimony because the extraordinary circumstances of the terror attacks justified extraordinary measures to confine noncitizens who fell under suspicion, and because top officials need governmental immunity to combat future threats to national security without fear of being sued. However U.S. District Judge John Gleeson said "Our nation's unique and complex law enforcement and security challenges in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks do not warrant the elimination of remedies for the constitutional violations alleged here."

See this Link for the whole story.

It is shameful when we arrest and detain people based on race or religion out of fear. I suppose it is good that we agreed to pay this man a settlement. However, we should be outraged that here in our country, someone can be locked up for A YEAR, held in relative isolation, and abused the way this man was. This case alone merits a congressional investigation and removal from office for those who flaunted the Constitution and allowed these abuses to occur.