During his DHS confirmation hearing, Michael Chertoff will likely receive heavy criticism for his role in the DOJ round-up of Middle Eastern illegal aliens in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Daily News has launched the first volley in what is likely to become a meme:

[W]hile Chertoff may lack the whiff of sex scandal that would put the NY tabloids on the case, he’s arguably a worse choice than Kerik. In the days after 9/11, Chertoff — as head of the criminal division under John Ashcroft — was architect of some of the most regrettable policies of Bush I.

It was Chertoff, as assistant atttorney general overseeing the initial 9/11 probe, who OK’ed and then defended the detention of hundreds of “material witnesses” of Arab descent — even though it would later be determined that none — that’s right, none — of the detainees had anything to do with the terrorist attacks of 2001.

Chartoff’s actions during this period would later be roundly criticized in a report from the Justice Department’s own Inspector General. It found that immigrants were rounded up in an “indiscriminate and haphazard manner,” held for months while denied access to attorneys and sometimes mistreated behind bars.

The report noted that Chertoff “urged immigration officials to ‘hold these people until we find out what’s going on,’ despite the fact that many had been swept up and detained on minor immigration charges.”

I first addressed these arguments nearly two years ago, when I wrote that the criticism of the DOJ’s conduct is “rife with false claims, exaggerations and foolish belittlement of the continuing national security threats posed by lax immigration enforcement.” I argued then, and continue to believe today, that the round-up of illegal aliens, almost all of them Muslim Middle Eastern men, was entirely appropriate and responsible given the concern about follow-up attacks.

My column noted errors in the MSM’s coverage of the DOJ Inspector General’s report, prompting the following correction from the Los Angeles Times:

A June 4 editorial on a report by the Justice Department’s inspector general incorrectly stated that most post-Sept. 11 detainees were held for months without charges. In fact, 60% of the 762 immigrants detained after the 9/11 attacks were charged within 72 hours.

My effort to secure a similar correction from the New York Times, however, was–surprise–unsuccessful. Power Line’s Big Trunk had excellent analysis of the overblown coverage of the detention controversy here and here. And Heather Mac Donald also dissected media coverage of the OIG report here.

The bottom line is that allowing illegal alien terror suspects to roam free in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks would have been a dereliction of duty. Chertoff and his boss, John Ashcroft, have been (and will continue to be) heavily criticized by the civil liberties Chicken Littles and hindsight hypocrites what needed to be done. But no matter how much the elite media may try to spin the truth, these men deserve praise for their unapologetic commitment to national security.

(Prediction: It won’t take 15 minutes into the hearing before one of the Dems challenges Chertoff over the illegal alien roundup and invokes the Japanese internment.)

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