...and spreads...

TalkLeft has a link to the Washington Post's story on Benamar Benatta, who has been held since September 2001, much of that time in solitary confinement, on an immigration charge - even though the FBI concluded just two months after his arrest that he had no connection to terrorism. "Benatta has yet to have his deportation hearing, and he has been unable to post a $25,000.00 bond," TalkLeft says.

What struck me most, however, was this clip from the Post article:

Benatta was among the 1,200 or so men detained by U.S. law enforcement agents in the frenzied weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He had a most unfortunate résumé: He was an Algerian and a Muslim and an avionics technician, and - like most of the others - he lacked proper immigration papers.

It was as though Benatta became invisible. His name never appeared on lists of detainees. His family in Algeria believed he had vanished. No defense attorney knew of his existence until a federal defender in Buffalo was assigned his case in late April 2002.

It was the generals who ruled Argentina who have been bitterly credited with turning "disappeared" into a transitive verb. Apparently the US government does believe in multiculturalism.