If you are one of the millions of Americans who recently canceled your subscription to the New York Times, you may not know that we are in the middle of a civil-liberties emergency. Apparently, in the weeks following the terrorist attack of 9-11, the FBI rounded up a lot of Muslim men who were in this country illegally. Not only that, but some were actually questioned.

These, my friends, were only some of the atrocities detailed in a "frank and blistering" report plastered all over the New York Times a few weeks ago. The report, released by the inspector general of the Department of Justice, was showcased on the front page of the Times; it was excerpted in the national section; and it was the subject of the lead editorial that day, somberly titled "The Abusive Detentions of Sept. 11."

The laboriously assembled report includes such shocking revelations as these:

• "[T]he Sept. 11 attacks changed the way the department, particularly the FBI and the INS, responded when encountering aliens who were in violation of their immigration status."

• "In other times, many of these aliens might not have been arrested or detained for these violations."

• And in the searing words of the New York Times: "Had it not been for the attacks, 'most if not all' of the arrests would probably have never been pursued."

In other words, under Attorney General John Ashcroft, the FBI, the INS and the Department of Justice are so out of control that they have actually begun to enforce U.S. immigration laws.

Also according to the report, guards at a Brooklyn detention facility – weeks after the attack and within sight of ground zero – subjected illegal immigrant Muslim detainees to "physical and verbal abuse." As the Times described it, "Detainees reported being slammed against the wall, or being subjected to such verbal taunts as 'You're going to die here.'" To quote Tony Soprano: You don't say.

Does anyone at the Times even know any normal people? Continued...