Urge Congress to undo the
damage: reinstate the rule of law
Wed Dec 6, 2006 19:10
Google News Alert for: Military Commissions Act of 2006
Urge Congress to undo the damage: reinstate the rule of law
http://www.delmarvanow.com/deweybeach/stories/20061206/2352249.html
Joyce Mullins We're in this together
It's not easy to prioritize my wish list for the incoming Congress. Its members, new and old alike, face so many crucial issues.
Undoing the damage to the Constitution has to be at the top of the list and at the very top of that is undoing the shameful Military Commissions Act of 2006, which I am going to call MCA for short.
This is the bill that says the CIA may continue to yank people off the streets anywhere in the world, shove bags over their heads and sneak them out on planes to countries where torture is a daily habit.
No matter how George W. Bush sees himself, he and his administration will "go down in history," as they say, not with glory, but with dishonor for this shameful act.
You've got to give them credit for their mastery of the use of fear. These guys hung everything they did on the deep terror engendered by the horror of 9/11.
Fearful, yes, but most Americans - indeed most members of Congress - were repelled by the idea of torture.
I remember a leading Republican senator, South Carolina's Lindsey Graham, sternly warning anyone who would listen in interview after interview on TV that the United States would suffer if Americans used torture.
Bush & Company turned up the fear factor and the Republican majority in Congress let this disgraceful bill get to his desk.
What this bill does is shatter the rule of law that is America's rock bed foundation. The MCA suspends habeas corpus, saying, "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 has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination."
Look again at the wording. Who is doing the determining here? Not the courts whose responsibility it should be.
What happened to the separation of powers? And what about that last killer phrase - "or is awaiting such determination"?
I'm not sure what made Graham change his mind, but he did.
He's among those thanked personally by George W. during the hoopla at the White House when the bill was signed in October.
Go to www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/10/20061017-1.html. You'll find all the names singled out for special mention - each and every one given his due in that cowboy style George W. uses to such popular effect.
It's Don and Al, Mike and Pete and Jim - not Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, Michael Hayden, Peter Pace and James Sensenbrenner in the record books. Any "honoree" whose name could be "de-formalized" got the cowboy treatment.
There is so much evil in the MCA to haunt us for years to come. America used to be the standard-bearer for human rights. The world looked up to us.
The MCA nullifies that promise. It will also put any of our children in the military in peril in ways they have never been before.
An America without the rule of law is scarier than anything Bush & Co. throws at us.
There's hope, though.
Sen. Christopher J. Dodd has introduced a bill, S.4060, to amend the MCA. Check out his thoughts about the bill at www.dodd.senate.gov.
# Joyce Mullins has worked for newspapers in Delaware for more than 30 years. Send feedback to: jmullins03@comcast.net.
Originally published Wednesday, December 6, 2006
==============================================
Google News Alert for: Military Commissions Act of 2006
Democrats Cave on Gates Nomination
Consortium News - USA
... remaking the Middle East, whether he endorsed the Military Commissions Act’s elimination ... of American support there for the Iraqi military and that ...
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/120506.html
Specter, Leahy Introduce Bill to "Restore" Habeas Corpus
Secrecy News - Washington,DC,USA
The bill would repeal two provisions of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 enacted in September that limit habeas corpus. "Habeas ...
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2006/12/specter_leahy_introduce_bill_t.html
Fine Print in Defense Bill Opens Door to Martial Law
Infoshop News - USA
... example, the John W. Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2006, named for ... against the United States,” in the language of the Military Commissions Act (PL 109 ...
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20061206105853380
Two Presidents and Two Lies
OpEdNews - Newtown,PA,USA
... American citizen's without going through due process, for the "Rendition" of innocent people, for pushing the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that has ...
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_timothy__061206_two_presidents_and_t.htm
=================
APFN INFO AND LINKS:
Military Commissions Act of 2006
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/mca.htm
Urge Congress to undo the damage: reinstate the rule of law
http://www.delmarvanow.com/deweybeach/stories/20061206/2352249.html
Joyce Mullins We're in this together
It's not easy to prioritize my wish list for the incoming Congress. Its members, new and old alike, face so many crucial issues.
Undoing the damage to the Constitution has to be at the top of the list and at the very top of that is undoing the shameful Military Commissions Act of 2006, which I am going to call MCA for short.
This is the bill that says the CIA may continue to yank people off the streets anywhere in the world, shove bags over their heads and sneak them out on planes to countries where torture is a daily habit.
No matter how George W. Bush sees himself, he and his administration will "go down in history," as they say, not with glory, but with dishonor for this shameful act.
You've got to give them credit for their mastery of the use of fear. These guys hung everything they did on the deep terror engendered by the horror of 9/11.
Fearful, yes, but most Americans - indeed most members of Congress - were repelled by the idea of torture.
I remember a leading Republican senator, South Carolina's Lindsey Graham, sternly warning anyone who would listen in interview after interview on TV that the United States would suffer if Americans used torture.
Bush & Company turned up the fear factor and the Republican majority in Congress let this disgraceful bill get to his desk.
What this bill does is shatter the rule of law that is America's rock bed foundation. The MCA suspends habeas corpus, saying, "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 has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination."
Look again at the wording. Who is doing the determining here? Not the courts whose responsibility it should be.
What happened to the separation of powers? And what about that last killer phrase - "or is awaiting such determination"?
I'm not sure what made Graham change his mind, but he did.
He's among those thanked personally by George W. during the hoopla at the White House when the bill was signed in October.
Go to www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/10/20061017-1.html. You'll find all the names singled out for special mention - each and every one given his due in that cowboy style George W. uses to such popular effect.
It's Don and Al, Mike and Pete and Jim - not Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, Michael Hayden, Peter Pace and James Sensenbrenner in the record books. Any "honoree" whose name could be "de-formalized" got the cowboy treatment.
There is so much evil in the MCA to haunt us for years to come. America used to be the standard-bearer for human rights. The world looked up to us.
The MCA nullifies that promise. It will also put any of our children in the military in peril in ways they have never been before.
An America without the rule of law is scarier than anything Bush & Co. throws at us.
There's hope, though.
Sen. Christopher J. Dodd has introduced a bill, S.4060, to amend the MCA. Check out his thoughts about the bill at www.dodd.senate.gov.
# Joyce Mullins has worked for newspapers in Delaware for more than 30 years. Send feedback to: jmullins03@comcast.net.
Originally published Wednesday, December 6, 2006
==============================================
Google News Alert for: Military Commissions Act of 2006
Democrats Cave on Gates Nomination
Consortium News - USA
... remaking the Middle East, whether he endorsed the Military Commissions Act’s elimination ... of American support there for the Iraqi military and that ...
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/120506.html
Specter, Leahy Introduce Bill to "Restore" Habeas Corpus
Secrecy News - Washington,DC,USA
The bill would repeal two provisions of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 enacted in September that limit habeas corpus. "Habeas ...
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2006/12/specter_leahy_introduce_bill_t.html
Fine Print in Defense Bill Opens Door to Martial Law
Infoshop News - USA
... example, the John W. Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2006, named for ... against the United States,” in the language of the Military Commissions Act (PL 109 ...
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20061206105853380
Two Presidents and Two Lies
OpEdNews - Newtown,PA,USA
... American citizen's without going through due process, for the "Rendition" of innocent people, for pushing the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that has ...
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_timothy__061206_two_presidents_and_t.htm
=================
APFN INFO AND LINKS:
Military Commissions Act of 2006
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/mca.htm
