Posts Tagged ‘enemy_combatant’
Freedom Alert
This issue ties in with my post a couple of days ago regarding whether the war is good. The Military Commissions Act of 2006 was upheld by a federal appeals court (in a 2 to 1 decision) last week. Habeas corpus is now on life support. The case was regarding those “enemy combatants” at Guantanamo Bay. All they were asking for was the right to appear before one’s accusors in a public court room. You know, that right that we are all “suppose” to have.
This act was slipped in right before the midterm elections. Bush and his cronies knew it would never pass once the Democrats took over. The Supreme Court has ruled in the past that we could NOT detain non-US citizens without charging them with something. And the current adminstration thumbs its’ nose and says, “Oh, yes we can and we will”.
This wonderful act ignores the courts and basically says that if we designate you as an enemy combatant then a special court will decide what we will do with you. Of course, the Supreme Court said you can’t do that. Of course, they did it anyway.
To add insult to injury, the reasoning by this administation is that such rules do not apply because they are “enemy combatant” and they are not being held on US soil. What a crock. They aren’t being held here for that very reason. They didn’t get to choose to be sent to Gitmo. I guess we don’t have to abide by our OWN laws.
The part that kills me in all of this is that the people who determine you are an “enemy combantant” are the same people accusing you. I can see in a very short time that US citizens will be silenced by calling them this term. Oh wait, it has already happened.
Be Afraid, Be Very Very Afraid
I just came across this article. In Febuary, Halliburton (you remember who they are, right?) was given a contract to build detention centers. They basically are concentration camps for those deamed enemy combatant. And we remember that the rules for that are pretty fuzzy. Basically, if Bush doesn’t like you or wants to make a scapegoat of you, well we won’t be seeing you anymore. You can be held without a trial FOREVER!!!
Also, a new little piece of crap was added to the Patriot Act. It now allows the Secret Service to arrest and jail protesters accused of breaching any security perimeter, even if the President or any other protected official isn’t present. The definition of ‘free speech zones’ can be shifted around loosely and this would open the floodgates for protesters to be grabbed and hauled away in any circumstance at the whim of the Secret Service. Nice, huh?






6 Days Left 