Is this a true story?

Like so many others, everything changed for me after 9/11/01, but not in any
way that I expected.  But, my story really begins before that day.

In early 2001, we moved into our dream house.  It wasn't perfect, but it had
so much of what we wanted, and more.  It had a pool.  It had a finished basement.
It had a large fenced yard, which was important because we have dogs.
It had a first floor bedroom, which was essential because our oldest daughter
is confined to a wheelchair, and we wanted a first floor bedroom for her.
The house was also on a major street, which meant it was on a bus line.
I could take the bus right downtown to work everyday.
I could see the bus stop from our front door.

The house was in the same neighborhood as a local water reservoir.
I had never noticed the reservoir before, but once we started considering
the house to buy, I explored some.  I wasn't sure what a reservoir was.
I assumed it just held water, but I was not sure if any water processing or
filtering also occurred there.   I never noticed any smell, so I figured it couldn't
be a filtration plant.   I confirmed that it was a reservoir, and that's all-- not a
filtration plant.  I did some research about reservoirs, and decided that there
was no reason to let proximity to a reservoir keep us from buying the house
we wanted.  After that, I didn't give much thought to the reservoir.

That is, until after 9/11.  More accurately, I didn't even think about the
reservoir then.  But, later, when news of the Anthrax scares came out, I did
think about the reservoir, because there was some discussion about whether
terrorists might try to target local water supplies.  It was announced that
authorities would beef up security around all local water facilities.  That
actually made me feel safer.  We started noticing the helicopters patrolling
around the reservoir every night.  That was fine with me.  Made me feel safer.

Everything was going along fine for months.  Then, one day I came home from
work, and there were police in my driveway.  My wife and kids weren't home,
but there were people swarming all over the house and yard.  I wondered how
they had gotten in, if my wife wasn't home to let them in.   I approached to ask
what was going on, but before I could even ask, one of the officers stopped me
and said "you can't go in there, son, they are conducting a routine search."

Huh?  Search? For What? I thought.
"But it's my house" I explained.
"Doesn't matter.  You can't go in."  I was told.
"I need to let my dogs out" I said.  "They'll have to wait" I was told.

So, I waited.  And waited.  Boy, they sure seemed to be doing a lot of
searching.  Finally, they seemed to be done.  Everyone started coming out.
Then, the last man came out, and he approached me, and said those all too
familiar words: "You are under arrest.  Anything you say..." I didn't hear
much after that.  I was in shock.  I started screaming: "Arrested? For what?"
They tried to calm me down.  I tried to be calm, as they put handcuffs on me.
They put me in the back of a police car.

As we drove (where?  I didn't know, wasn't told), I asked "Why am I being arrested?".

"Can't tell you."

"Then can you tell me why you were searching my house?"

"No, can't tell you that, either."

"Can you tell me under whose authority you are working?"

"No, sir."

What?  What was going on?  I had no clue.

We drove to the local FBI headquarters, where I was taken to a holding cell.
I asked if I could make my phone call.  "Sure.  No problem.  We'll get you
to a phone as soon as we can."  I was never allowed to make a call.  I
wasn't booked or arraigned.  Just held in a cell, with no explanation.

I was held for fourteen days.  I can say that I was treated fairly well,
except that I was told nothing.  My family was told nothing.  For three
days, my wife did not even know where I was.  She called the local police,
because she learned from the neighbors that it was a local police car that I
had been taken away in, but they claimed to have no knowledge of any arrest,
search or anything.  They assured her that I had not been taken away in one
of their cruisers.  The neighbors assured my wife that I had.

My wife only found out where I was because I was able to beg one of my
guards to call and tell her.  The guard was very uncomfortable with the
whole situation, and did not like what the FBI was doing, so he was willing
to help, at great risk to his own job.  I gave him a code to use so that my
wife would know he was legitimate and that he had talked to me.   He called
and told her that I was being held at FBI Headquarters.  Of course, when she
called to ask if she could see me, the FBI denied that they had me.  My wife
explained that she knew they had me, and they assured her they did not.

My wife knew the guard must be right, because of the code he had told her.
Her belief was confirmed later when she read a story on the internet about
arrests by the Office of Homeland Security and saw this quote from a lawyer
representing someone who had been arrested: "They give no information.  They
allow no phone calls.  It is horrible what they put these people and their families
through.  The FBI is arresting, holding, charging and trying suspects in private,
and because its so secret, its almost impossible to challenge.  It is disgraceful."

Finally, I was allowed to see a lawyer.  It was a lawyer we had used for some
family business several years before.  My wife had called him and asked him to
help her.  He showed up at my cell completely unnanounced.  He knew as little
about my situation as I did.  "They won't tell me anything" he said.  He couldn't
figure who was holding me (he assumed the FBI, but they repeatedly denied it).
He couldn't learn why I was being held.  He couldn't learn if I was being charged.

Fourteen days I sat in that cell, feeling like I was living some kind of Kafka nightmare.
My wife tried to visit, even showing up at the building one day, but they would never
confirm to her that I was there.   Every day, my lawyer would show up, and tell me
that he was trying to figure out what was going on.

Finally, I was taken into a courtroom, where I was told to sit and wait.  No one else
was there except for me and a man guarding me.  Eventually, many others came in.
I assume they were the "tribunal" and the prosecutors.  The ones that I thought were
the prosecutors handed a file to the "tribunal". The members of the "tribunal" looked
it over.  Then my lawyer was ushered in.  I tried to ask him if he knew what was
going on, but I was told by the guard to keep quiet.  We sat there for what seemed
like forever while the "tribunal" looked at the file.  Every once in a while, one of the
members would point to something in the file and they all would chuckle.
I didn't know if that was a good sign or a bad sign.

Finally, the middle man in the "tribunal" said "We find the Defendant guilty as charged,
with a sentence of time served.  The Defendant is free to go." I didn't even know I was
"the Defendant" so I asked my lawyer "Does that mean me?".  He said, "I guess so"
and we got up to leave.  As we were leaving, I was handed a box by the one of the
prosecutors.  He said something like "Here, you can have these back."

I looked in the box, and there were two guns which I had kept in my attic. Two small
22 caliber handguns that had been given to me many years ago by my grandfather.
I never used them.  Didn't have any ammunition for them.  They were stored in the attic,
in a box with other crap I didn't know what to do with.  The box was under and behind
several other boxes.  They really had to look hard to find them.

I couldn't believe that this whole mess was because of those guns.

I eventually learned that the searches were conducted as part of a a routine search of
all homes in proximity to a potential terrrist target.  By policy, finding guns during such
a search earns an automatic arrest and the matter is then adjudicated by a military tribunal.
None of the proceedings, nor the entire program itself, is public.  Anyone charged has
no right to confront his accuser.  There is no appeal.  Although I was convicted
(because, technically, I did have guns within proximity of a potential terrorist target,
which had been secretly declared a crime), I was sentenced to time served and released
because the "tribunal" recognized that I was not a threat.

I imagine that those involved in setting up and running the military tribunals and the entire
program to search homes in close proximity to terrorists targets might say that my
experience proves that the system works because I was released when it was clear that
I was not a threat, and I suffered no excessive harm.  But, they would be wrong.

The entire episode ruined my life. I lost my job because I didn't show up for work for
two weeks.  My wife tried to call my office and explain the situation, but they told her
that because it was not authorized prior to my absence, it would only be acceptable if
I took it as sick leave and could provide a doctor's diagnosis concluding that I couldn't
work for the time I was absent.  Of course, I could provide no such diagnosis.  So, I was fired.
As a result of losing my job, we lost our house because we fell behind on the mortgage.
We are now living with my wife's parents because we can't afford to live on our own.

We also lost our health insurance.  Our oldest is on medication that she must take every
day to maintain any ability to live a normal life.  We are now paying for the entire cost of
the prescription, rather than just the co-pay.  I don't know what we will do if we can
no longer afford the medicine.

My children were traumatized when they returned home after the search because our
house had been ransacked.   Things were lying all over the place.  Some things were
destroyed.  There were shoe prints all over my daughter's bed!

During the search, the officers let our dogs out of the house.  But, the officers had also
left the gate open, and the dogs got loose.  One came home, but the other was hit by
a car and killed.  This also traumatized the children.

No one ever offered an apology.  I consulted a lawyer about whether it would be
worth it for me to file a lawsuit for false imprisonment.  He actually seemed pretty
gung ho on the case.  But, the first thing he tried to do was to obtain a copy of my
arrest record.  He never did get the record.  I don't even know if there is one.
I have nothing to prove my experience other than my own memory.  If the FBI
(or Office of Homeland Security, or whoever) was going to deny that they ever
took me into custody, how could we prove otherwise?  The lawyer politely
explained that he didn't think it would be worth pursuing my case.

When I try to tell people that the government is going overboard in their
efforts to eliminate terrorism, they say things like "well, they have to do
it, because we want them to stop terrorism before it happens."

We were never given any warning about the searches.  They just showed up,
broke open the door, and began searching.  The FBI did not have to obtain a
warrant, so no judicial officer had to ever consider whether the blanket search
of all homes in proximity to a potential terrorist target is Constitutional.  No one,
including the officers on the scene, had the discretion to look at the guns they had
found and say "well, those are practically toys; that's no threat."  Even the tribunal
had to find me guilty, although sentencing me to time served was the least onerous
punishment they could have issued.

The truth is that no one ever really considered me a threat.  Yet, because we have
accepted intrusions on our civil liberties in the name of the "War on Terror", for 14
days I was treated like a terrorist and the repurcusions will reverberate throughout
my life.  I worry about what repurcussions there may be for the future of our country.