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.
