Civil Liberties
Ali Saleh Kahlah
al-Marri
Where to begin on this? The suspension of habeas corpus? Illegal wiretapping?
Torture? Library surveillance? "Sneak and peak" searches? Extraordinary rendition?
"Administrative letters"? Telecom immunity?
Six years. So far. No charge. Charleston.
Suffice it to say the Bush administration, along with its accomplices in Congress both witting and otherwise, has done greater violence to American principles than Osama bin Laden could have ever hoped.
And just so somebody's mentioned it somewhere, a "no-fly" list is outlandish. Since when does a government employee get to arbitrarily decide who is or isn't going to engage in a common and entirely legal activity? Someone you'll never meet, sitting in an office you'll never see, for whatever reason puts your name on a list and you can no longer travel by air. No crime, no charge, no jury, no trial. Take the bus. Assuming we still let you do that. Right here in America.
And "Department of Homeland Security" just plain sounds creepy.
Military Commissions Act
Representative
Robert 'Bob' D. Inglis
Military Commissions Act
(Yea)
The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison
without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny
him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the
foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist. -Winston
ChurchillRobert 'Bob' D. Inglis
Military Commissions Act
(Yea)Pursuant to the Military Commissions Act of 2006, an "unlawful enemy combatant" is essentially a legal non-person. He or she can be imprisoned, tortured, and/or killed at the sole discretion of the executive branch.
And what makes someone an "unlawful enemy combatant"?
"Sec. 948a. Definitions
`(1) UNLAWFUL ENEMY COMBATANT-
(A) The term `unlawful enemy combatant' means--
`(ii) a person who, before, on, or after the date of the enactment of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, has been determined to be an unlawful enemy combatant by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal or another competent tribunal established under the authority of the President or the Secretary of Defense."
You are by law an unlawful enemy combatant if they say you are.
Right here in America.
Not making any of that up.
Patriot Act
That's step one.
Violent Radicalization
and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 (whew)
VRHTPA 2007:The internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens.
... guess we can't have that.
addendum:
(9/9/06) In this morning's Greenville News-
As I read our Constitution, our elected leaders are empowered to do whatever is necessary to protect and defend all Americans ... I will cheerfully allow the government to listen to my phone calls, read my electronic and "snail" mail, to do whatever it takes to protect my family. I have nothing to hide ... In this nuclear age, it's better to temporarily give up a few freedoms than to be dead.
Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you, Al.
Better yet, move to Russia.
Where I have been.
And you have not.
And besides which Al, is the nuclear age supposed to be "temporary"? Does your kind have any sense at all?
(insert Ben Franklin quote here)
But seriously, everybody. Ever wonder why we have a Constitution? It's because freedom needs a firmer foundation than all the Al Elworthys of the world. And they're definitely out there.
addendum2:
(8/13/07) Yahoo News- Jose Padilla had no history of mental illness when President Bush ordered him detained in 2002 as a suspected Al Qaeda operative. But he does now. The Muslim convert was subjected to prison conditions and interrogation techniques that took him past the breaking point, mental health experts say.
Two psychiatrists and a psychologist who conducted detailed personal examinations of Mr. Padilla on behalf of his defense lawyers say his extended detention and interrogation at the US Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, S.C., left him with severe mental disabilities. All three say he may never recover.
... Without charge, without trial, over a period of 3 1/2 years an American citizen was taken "past the breaking point" by the American government, right here in South Carolina.
"The government in the strongest terms denies Padilla's allegations of torture – allegations made without support and without citing a shred of record evidence," writes Navy Commander J.D. Gordon ...
only ...
"Information about Padilla's detention and interrogation at the brig is classified",
except we know ...
"He is not the same man who was taken into custody in 2002," says Angela Hegarty, a forensic psychiatrist in New York who spent 22 hours examining Padilla. "Whatever happened to him in there has radically changed him."
Stuart Grassian, a Boston psychiatrist, says Padilla's experience in the brig has left members of his family stunned and frightened. "People who have known him and loved him before his military detention don't feel they can even bear to see him because he is so clearly mentally ill."
It happened Right. Here. In. America.
addendum3:
(11/14/07) Here's an account of the now extraordinary sweep of government surveillance in the finance industry, to the point of making private citizens de facto government agents liable to imprisonment for insufficient paranoia. Reading it, I was flashing back to a security briefing years ago in which I was in all seriousness told to report any rumors of ... what was the phrase again ... I think it was "sexual deviance", or that was at least the gist. I clearly recall my request for clarification went unfulfilled. The truth is that not a few of the frothing security people have not a few problems they own selves. I think it's kind of funny really. As long as it stays a joke. Which it's getting to be less and less of.
addendum4:
(3/3/08) Glenn Greenwald does a good job of laying out the shift over the last three decades toward greater government surveillance in The "liberal" position on the Surveillance State.
addendum5:
(4/12/08) The Washington Post reports today that the Bush administration intends to begin using sophisticated spying technology inside the US, in a program conducted by the new National Applications Office. According to the Post, "Democrats say Chertoff has not spelled out what federal laws govern the NAO, whose funding and size are classified."
Let me go look this up ... US Constitution, Article I, Section 9.7 -"No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time." Yet here we are 220 years later, plainly violating this plain mandate in plain view, in the name of warrantless domestic spying.
(9/9/06) In this morning's Greenville News-
As I read our Constitution, our elected leaders are empowered to do whatever is necessary to protect and defend all Americans ... I will cheerfully allow the government to listen to my phone calls, read my electronic and "snail" mail, to do whatever it takes to protect my family. I have nothing to hide ... In this nuclear age, it's better to temporarily give up a few freedoms than to be dead.
Al Elworthy/Greer
Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you, Al.
Better yet, move to Russia.
Where I have been.
And you have not.
And besides which Al, is the nuclear age supposed to be "temporary"? Does your kind have any sense at all?
(insert Ben Franklin quote here)
But seriously, everybody. Ever wonder why we have a Constitution? It's because freedom needs a firmer foundation than all the Al Elworthys of the world. And they're definitely out there.
addendum2:
(8/13/07) Yahoo News- Jose Padilla had no history of mental illness when President Bush ordered him detained in 2002 as a suspected Al Qaeda operative. But he does now. The Muslim convert was subjected to prison conditions and interrogation techniques that took him past the breaking point, mental health experts say.
Two psychiatrists and a psychologist who conducted detailed personal examinations of Mr. Padilla on behalf of his defense lawyers say his extended detention and interrogation at the US Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, S.C., left him with severe mental disabilities. All three say he may never recover.
... Without charge, without trial, over a period of 3 1/2 years an American citizen was taken "past the breaking point" by the American government, right here in South Carolina.
"The government in the strongest terms denies Padilla's allegations of torture – allegations made without support and without citing a shred of record evidence," writes Navy Commander J.D. Gordon ...
only ...
"Information about Padilla's detention and interrogation at the brig is classified",
except we know ...
"He is not the same man who was taken into custody in 2002," says Angela Hegarty, a forensic psychiatrist in New York who spent 22 hours examining Padilla. "Whatever happened to him in there has radically changed him."
Stuart Grassian, a Boston psychiatrist, says Padilla's experience in the brig has left members of his family stunned and frightened. "People who have known him and loved him before his military detention don't feel they can even bear to see him because he is so clearly mentally ill."
It happened Right. Here. In. America.
addendum3:
(11/14/07) Here's an account of the now extraordinary sweep of government surveillance in the finance industry, to the point of making private citizens de facto government agents liable to imprisonment for insufficient paranoia. Reading it, I was flashing back to a security briefing years ago in which I was in all seriousness told to report any rumors of ... what was the phrase again ... I think it was "sexual deviance", or that was at least the gist. I clearly recall my request for clarification went unfulfilled. The truth is that not a few of the frothing security people have not a few problems they own selves. I think it's kind of funny really. As long as it stays a joke. Which it's getting to be less and less of.
addendum4:
(3/3/08) Glenn Greenwald does a good job of laying out the shift over the last three decades toward greater government surveillance in The "liberal" position on the Surveillance State.
addendum5:
(4/12/08) The Washington Post reports today that the Bush administration intends to begin using sophisticated spying technology inside the US, in a program conducted by the new National Applications Office. According to the Post, "Democrats say Chertoff has not spelled out what federal laws govern the NAO, whose funding and size are classified."
Let me go look this up ... US Constitution, Article I, Section 9.7 -"No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time." Yet here we are 220 years later, plainly violating this plain mandate in plain view, in the name of warrantless domestic spying.
