Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Times, The Post, and the Fake News of Internment Camps
NewsBusters.org ^ | November 20, 2016 | Jeffrey Lord

Posted on 11/20/2016 6:00:46 PM PST by Kaslin

So the latest round of sheer nuttiness from the mainstream media?

The idea that President-elect Trump intends to resurrect the infamous and quite decidedly racist “internment camps” established for Japanese-American citizens in 1942. How did this start?

It started last week on FNC’s The Kelly File during a segment with Trump surrogate and former Navy Seal Carl Higbie (whom I know). Kelly cited this story from Reuters: “Immigration hardliner says Trump preparing plans for wall, mulling Muslim registry”

The story goes on to say that Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach informs Trump advisers “had discussed drafting a proposal for his (Trump’s) consideration to reinstate a registry for immigrants from Muslim countries.” 

The specific program mentioned was the Bush administration’s National Security Entry-Exit Registration System or, in the vernacular of government, NSEERS. NSEERS was “abandoned” in the Obama era after protests from civil rights groups and others.  

That was the story. That was it. That was all.

Returning to Higbie, Kelly referred to the story and Higbie replies as follows: “It is legal. They say it’ll hold constitutional muster. I know the ACLU is going to challenge it, but I think it’ll pass… We did it during World War II with Japanese, which, you know, call it what you will, maybe —“

Kelly then replied: “Come on. You’re not — you’re not proposing we go back to the days of internment camps, I hope.”

Higbie immediately shot back: “I’m not proposing that at all. But I’m just saying there is precedent for it.” He also accurately reminded viewers that he was not “proposing that at all” but that there was precedent for a registry.

My fellow Trump supporter confirmed personally to me the following night that he most assuredly was not proposing internment camps, but the hysteria was already kicked into high gear with the liberal media pouncing with help from ultra-liberal celebrity George Takei leading the way by relaying the story of he and his family be interned back in WWII (to somehow hint that history would repeat itself under Trump).

From The New York Times came this headline: “Trump Camp’s Talk of Registry and Japanese Internment Raises Muslims’ Fears”

The story began this way:

A prominent supporter of Donald J. Trump drew concern and condemnation from advocates for Muslims’ rights on Wednesday after he cited World War II-era Japanese-American internment camps as a “precedent” for an immigrant registry suggested by a member of the president-elect’s transition team.

This was, of course, a flat-out lie. Higbie never mentioned the Japanese internment camps.

The Washington Post followed suit, but of course, headlining this way: “Japanese American internment is ‘precedent’ for national Muslim registry, prominent Trump backer says”

Said The Post:

A former spokesman for a major super PAC backing Donald Trump said Wednesday that the mass internment of Japanese Americans during World War II was a “precedent” for the president-elect’s plans to create a registry for immigrants from Muslim countries.

Again, another flat out lie. Out on the West Coast, The Los Angeles Times headlined: “Trump supporter cites Japanese American internment to justify registering Muslim immigrants”

Began the LA Times: “A prominent supporter of President-elect Donald Trump cited the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II as a legal justification for creating a national registration list ‘for immigrants from Muslim countries.’”

Yet again a lie. All of this flowing from a wildly erroneous assumption.

One can only ask. Well aside from the flat-out liberal bias against Trump from the three named papers, they all seem utterly clueless to the real precedent for a registry of immigrants from terrorist countries that has absolutely zero — say again zero — to do with the despicable Japanese-American internment camps. Internment camps that were upheld in the Supreme Court by progressive Democrats on the Court — the lone Republican Justice, Owen Roberts, opposing them. 

With the opinion saying the internment camps were constitutional written by a liberal (Justice Hugo Black) who also had a “gold passport” lifetime membership in the Ku Klux Klan. Which is to say a racist organization infamous for judging their fellow Americans by race.

The real precedent has nothing whatsoever to do with the internment camps. It has to do with the Alien Enemies Act….of 1798. Signed into law by, yes, President John Adams. The target? Unnaturalized French immigrants in the new United States who were sympathetic to the violence of the French Revolution and were suspected of plotting a French-style revolution against the US government. 

Moving on, President James Madison — the “Father of the Constitution” — invoked the law against British immigrants who were not naturalized American citizens when they were suspected of support for the invading British army in the War of 1812. 

On December 8, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt invoked the law again, this time targeting 
unnaturalized Japanese, German and Italian immigrants in the US who were suspected of aiding their respective native countries in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor and Hitler and Mussolini’s declaration of war against the United States. 

The three presidential proclamations numbered presidential proclamations 2525, 2526 and 2527 were named successively “Aliens: Japanese”, “Aliens: Germans” and “Aliens: Japanese.” They had nothing — zero — to do with internment camps, an idea that came later from the leaders of the same party that had previously supported slavery and was still, in the 1940’s actively supporting segregation, lynching and the Klan.

What did the presidential proclamations do? Here’s a sample, all three proclamations saying:

…all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of the hostile nation or government, being of the age of fourteen years and upward, who shall be within the United States and not actually naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as alien enemies. The President is authorized in any such event, by his proclamation thereof, or other public act, to direct the conduct to be observed, on the part of the United States, toward the aliens who become so liable; the manner and degree of the restraint to which they shall be subject and in what cases, and upon what security their residence shall be permitted, and to provide for the removal of those who, not being permitted to reside within the United States, refuse or neglect to depart therefrom; and to establish any other regulations which are found necessary in the premises and for the public safety.

As the Italian American Museum of Los Angeles notes in part of the effect this had on unnaturalized Italian immigrants in the US: 

Nationwide, approximately 600,000 Italian-born residents of the United States were declared enemy aliens. The term “enemy alien” was not unique to World War II. The classification traces its roots to the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which stated that if the United States was at war with a country then any “natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of the hostile nation” residing in the United States who were not naturalized citizens were considered “enemy aliens.” In the weeks following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, enemy aliens were ordered to surrender cameras, short-wave radios and radio transmitters. Other contraband items were flashlights, boats, binoculars and weapons, including hunting rifles. Enemy aliens were prohibited from traveling outside of a five-mile radius of their homes, even for employment, and were banned from entering “strategic areas” such as power stations and airports. In San Francisco, Giuseppe DiMaggio, father of baseball great Joe DiMaggio, could not visit his son’s restaurant because it was located in a prohibited zone.

In other words? In other words this is called precedent. And it is a precedent that dates to 1798 — when it was signed into law by the nation’s second president, a “Founding Father” which has nothing whatsoever to do with Japanese Internment camps.

In all the conversation about “fake news” it is crystal clear that The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post dished exactly that to their readers. These “news” stories that a Trump surrogate — Carl Higbie — was citing Japanese internment camps as a precedent was false. Not to mention the implication that the Trump administration is planning internment camps for Muslims is fake. From beginning to end.

But bet on this in the course of the next four years when it comes to “fake news” stories about the Trump administration.  Expect more of them — from the mainstream liberal media.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 1789; alienenemiesact; aliens; carlhigbie; donaldtrump; fakenews; fdr; georgetakei; higbie; illegals; immigration; internmentcamps; jamesmadison; japanese; media; mediamanipulation; megynkelly; msm
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-34 last
To: Hugin
I don't doubt race was a factor, but was it "quite decidedly racist"?

Most people don't realize we also interned some German- and Italian-Americans during WWII.

http://www.thc.texas.gov/preserve/projects-and-programs/military-history/texas-world-war-ii/japanese-german-and-italian
21 posted on 11/20/2016 8:49:17 PM PST by fr_freak
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Roger Kaputnik

Glad I dont work near her office :)

Where did Fox find her?

She’s a big reason I stopped watching the entire channel.


22 posted on 11/20/2016 9:55:49 PM PST by dp0622 (IThe only thing an upper crust conservative hates more than a liberal is a middle class conservative)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: willk

Agree. It was incredibly stupid to say that the Japanese internment was precedent to anything. Japanese internment was a cynical political move by FDR; even J. Edgar Hoover opposed it. Ronald Reagan formally denounced it. The instant Higbie mentioned it as a precedent for a Muslim registry I knew that it would be misconstrued. Conservatives should be able to relate when they consider how well they react to calls for a national gun registry.

Whether Trump’s people like it or not, there are minorities who fear his presidency. His spokespeople should go to great lengths to avoid saying anything that could be construed as confirming their fears.


23 posted on 11/20/2016 10:59:11 PM PST by Skepolitic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Jeffrey Lord did some good research on the subject of modern “internment camps” but he left out some things, one possibly due to a type (Enemy Aliens - Italians).

I played a minor role in helping to quash a Clinton/Democrat plan to make a big issue out of the internment of Italian nationals in the US during WW2 as “enemy aliens”. The Clintonestas, hoping to get a large Italian voter bloc of support, tried to say that the US was wrong to intern Italian enemy aliens and that they numbered in the tens of thousands.

As I showed the leader of the commission on this subject, most Italian citizens and resident non-citizen Italians who were arrested/rounded up, were picked from Italian fascist support groups, some sailors who were unlucky enough (or perhaps very lucky) to be in an American port when war was declared on the Axis Powers.

The total number of those interned was roughly 1,500 or so, possibly including a few deported from Latin American countries (most deportees from LA countries were German nationals, some naturalized citizens who were Nazi supporters, and German agents (see the Office of Naval Intelligence files at the National Archives on who the saboteurs and spies were. Good police work got them, not the nationality of their names).

At least one Italian was arrested in the US as a spy, and so was at least one Argentinian who was photographing US dams (also in the Archives files).

There was a never officially totaled great amount of both passive and active acts of sabotage in the U.S. factories that turned out armaments and supporting items. The major method of sabotage was to throw something into the gear systems, even on ships as they were built, or to loosen parts in the hope of causing a plane to crash or a gun to malfunction. Lots on this in the National Archives files too.

There were acts of sabotage of railroad tracks and bridges (wooden ones were burnt down), and at the Alcoa Plant at Messina, NY, company guards fired at unknown persons attempting to get into that crucial facility (also one of the targets of the German saboteurs who landed from a sub in New Jersey.

My Police Science teacher was the FBI agent who actually took the first call from German saboteur Daesch who wanted to turn himself in, and did, with the result that the whole team was arrested, tried, and a couple, shot, for their actions).

Megan Kelly is dumb as dog-crap on too many subjects, a little like Bill O’Reilly (who at least covered the “streets” of reality). A little reading on her part would have shown her just how stupid she sounded.

Hey Megan. It is never too late to read a good, factual history book.

Oh, just FYI, most Japanese Americans living on the East Coast were NOT interned, with some of them actually working in war industries. The problem was trying to separate the real Japanese enemies on the West Coast from the general population. J. Edgar Hoover told Congress and FDR that his organization had the situation on the West Coast under control, as did a leading Immigration official, but FDR listened to his Democrat liberal advisors and signed the internment orders.

The Democrat Party conveniently likes to leave out this blatant racism on the part of FDR and company when they talk about how great a leader he was. He wasn’t so great but the myth they created about him was and still endures until today.


24 posted on 11/20/2016 11:36:22 PM PST by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Skepolitic
His spokespeople should go to great lengths to avoid saying anything that could be construed as confirming their fears.

"Isn't it a beautiful morning!!"



25 posted on 11/21/2016 3:06:05 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
 
 
 
 

The Democrat Party conveniently likes to leave out this blatant racism on the part of FDR and company when they talk about how great a leader he was.


26 posted on 11/21/2016 3:08:42 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: boop

“It would be like a Jewish person voting for the Nazis a mere seven years after the end of WWII. “

Jews voted 77% for Obama. So, yes, they do vote for those that desire their demise.


27 posted on 11/21/2016 3:14:33 AM PST by CodeToad (Ding Dong, the Bitch is Dead!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Freedom'sWorthIt

One almost wonders whose side a “conservative” who provides such material to a “journalist” is actually on. IMHO, he is either a moron or not conservative.


28 posted on 11/21/2016 4:02:33 AM PST by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

It is very interesting how self-involved and self-righteous USA Japanese are about the very benign “concentration camps” the US government imposed on Japanese citizens during WWII. It is interesting how quick they are to cast blame....for a very real concern our government had about saboteurs, both Japanese and German. I have heard very few Germans moan about that time as they truly understood the fear and they, too, were not nicely treated. So...
.
Let’s talk then about how wonderful the Japanese were toward civilians, men, women and children during WWII in the FAR EAST including the Philippine Islands. I, one of my brothers and my parents were POWs in the Philippine Islands beginning with the bombing of Clark’s Field (coincident with Pearl Harbor). We then spent 3 years in 2 very separate concentration camps. Finally people are beginning to write about it:

The most recent book, a #1 Best Seller, NY Times by Bruce Henderson, was titled “Rescue at Los Banos” and published in 2015. You ought to read it sometime. You will not meet many of us, the survivors. We are increasingly rare.

Neither Japan nor the USA has apologized for our imprisonment yet the court case, United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, 04-5017 Marcia Fee Achenbach and 597 other similarly situated plaintiffs v United States, Defendant-Appellee, Appeal from the United States Court of Federal Claims in 02-CV-894, Judge Emily C. Hewitt, is very, very clear how it was the USA decided we would be imprisoned.

STuff like this happens. I think the Japanese and their kids should suck it up just like we have had to do. The universe certainly doesn’t care and neither do Japan or the United States. Just cannon fodder. Just cannon fodder—except we didn’t die. Perhaps so we can talk about it. Maybe we who survived the SE Asia decimation to skeletanization should talk to the USA Japanese who still got to eat real food while incarcerated.


29 posted on 11/21/2016 8:11:16 AM PST by Bodega (elective, therapeutic abortion sequelae)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Bodega

A dear friend of mine read recently the Japanese killed 100,000 civilians during WWII. I am trying really hard to remember if the USA killed any incarcerated Japanese.

Big difference in value of human life I would say.


30 posted on 11/21/2016 8:18:22 AM PST by Bodega (elective, therapeutic abortion sequelae)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: Elsie

Don’t get me wrong: I don’t care one bit about what SJWs think. They’re idiots.


31 posted on 11/21/2016 9:14:42 AM PST by Skepolitic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Skepolitic

“Japanese internment was a cynical political move by FDR; even J. Edgar Hoover opposed it. Ronald Reagan formally denounced it. The instant Higbie mentioned it as a precedent for a Muslim registry I knew that it would be misconstrued. Conservatives should be able to relate when they consider how well they react to calls for a national gun registry.”

While it may be viewed as a “cynical” move, it was the correct and just move. The internment did prevent sabotage and spying and protected the west coast. The magic intercepts certainly lend credence to a spy ring among the Japanese on the west coast.


32 posted on 11/21/2016 1:10:27 PM PST by ConsCA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
I saw this live. Kelly completely blew it by interrupting and overreacting to something that came out of her own imagination.

Higbie was not referring to internment. Rather, when Kelly interrupted him, he was in the middle of talking about wartime (WWII period) restrictions on movements of German, Italian and Japanese nationals ... NOT about American citizens who happened to be of German, Italian, or Japanese ethnicity.

33 posted on 11/21/2016 3:12:18 PM PST by shhrubbery! (NIH!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ConsCA

http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Moab/Leupp%20Isolation%20Centers%20(detention%20facility)/ (the lat-long are WRONG in this article. those cords put you in the middle of the Moab graveyard!)

Nothing much left to see at the Dalton Wells/Moab site.

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.7117291,-109.7013239,282m/data=!3m1!1e3


34 posted on 11/22/2016 4:58:06 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-34 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson