Compare this:
"The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it."
-US Constitution, Article 1, Section 9,
To this:
"No court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained by the United States who--(A) is currently in United States custody; and (B) has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination."
-S.3930 Military Commissions Act of 2006, Section 6a
Unless Vermont secedes or Afghanistan invades us, what the Republicans are doing is not only unjust but unconstitutional... and utterly unnecessary. It makes me furious. The President has all the tools he needs to fight terrorism right now. If he can't do the job, he should step aside and let someone who can.
6 comments:
I agree 100%. Blanket suspensions of habeas corpus are not constitutional. They also violate a tradition reaching back eight centuries.
// posted by LTG
Rape is defined as a war crime as follows:
"Any person subject to this chapter who forcibly or with coercion or threat of force wrongfully invades the body of a person by penetrating, however slightly, the anal or genital opening of the victim with any part of the body of the accused, or with any foreign object, shall be punished as a military commission under this chapter may direct."
I'm so proud. We can't say "vagina"? Genital opening?? Too bad blowjob at gunpoint doesn't qualify.
// posted by LTG
By the way, the rest of the bill is a substantial improvement from the prior Bush kangaroo courts. For what it's worth, the suspension of habeas corpus is only for aliens.
Here's the other travesty:
"No person may invoke the Geneva Conventions, or any protocols thereto, in any habeas or civil action or proceeding to which the United States, or a current or former officer, employee, member of the Armed Forces, or other agent of the United States, is a party, as a source of rights in any court of the United States or its States or territories."
Compare this with 28 USC 1350, passed in 1792, "The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States." Back when we were a weaker country seeking respect, we guaranteed foreign nationals the right to sue in US courts for violations of international law and treaties. US Citizens, by the way, do not have that right. That right has now been abrogated for foreign nationals, along with habeas corpus.
All they get is a very limited post-conviction right of appeal.
// posted by LTG
So basically, even though the military admits that 80% of the people they detained in prisons in Iraq were innocent, we are trusting the military to correctly identify who the "bad people" are and based on that military judgment, their most fundamental rights to contest that accusation are taken away.
We have to stop these people! At ever level in every election - vote Democrat in November! The World needs us now more than ever!
// posted by Raised By Republicans
Words can't describe how disheartened and disappointed I feel.Bin Laden accomplished exactly what we wanted. He turned us into them.
Then NPR reported today that Gingrich stood up and a conference led by Sandra Day O'Connor and said that the US Supreme Court should not have final say over laws or their constitutionality in this country.
I am not even sure impeachment is punishement enough. I do not think any of these people will ever be held to count. None of them were for the Iran Contra affaire. The only president other than Nixon who has faced the music of his mistakes was Clinton. The people in this administration have all committed treason as far as I am concerned and they should all face the appropriate punishment, then be sent to the Hague. How unfortunate that some punishments can only be delievered once.
// posted by USwest
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