That day is today. The President signed the
Military Commisions Act this day. Democracy is dead Jim and it will take a herculean effort to bring it back to life. Now the only thing that stands between the America of yesterday and the America of today is the whim of a half-wit and the whims of future Presidents, whether they are Democracts or Republicans.
Follow me down the rabbit hole, Oh Chosen Ones!
Crossposted to Ruins of Empire.
How could this have happen? More importantly, why did it happen? Fear, that's why it happened. Americans are afraid of the world, of jihadist, of foreigners, of imigrants, of a changing culture and world. They are afraid and thus they choose to remain silent. In recent years I have been an ardent critic of the American goverment, but it is because I am an equally ardent supporter of its basic ideals of freedom and democracy.
What will happen next is anyone guess. But don't count on Congress, even a Democratic Congress to overturn this, nor will a frontloaded Supreme Court deem it necesarry to fulfill their constitutional duty.
Here a few choice quotes:
(1) UNLAWFUL ENEMY COMBATANT- (A) The term `unlawful enemy combatant' means--
`(i) a person who has engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States or its co-belligerents who is not a lawful enemy combatant (including a person who is part of the Taliban, al Qaeda, or associated forces); or
`(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.
Note, this is not a definition of an alien unlawful enemy combatant. It is only applies to unlawful enemy combatants. Ask Padilla what that really means.
`(4) The Secretary of Defense shall prescribe regulations providing for the manner in which trial counsel and military defense counsel are detailed for military commissions under this chapter and for the persons who are authorized to detail such counsel for such commissions.
Yeah, Rummy can't call a spade a spade or an insurgency and insurgency, are you going to thrust him with the ability to define anything?
`(b) Exclusion of Statements Obtained by Torture- A statement obtained by use of torture shall not be admissible in a military commission under this chapter, except against a person accused of torture as evidence that the statement was made.
`(c) Statements Obtained Before Enactment of Detainee Treatment Act of 2005- A statement obtained before December 30, 2005 (the date of the enactment of the Defense Treatment Act of 2005) in which the degree of coercion is disputed may be admitted only if the military judge finds that--
`(1) the totality of the circumstances renders the statement reliable and possessing sufficient probative value; and
`(2) the interests of justice would best be served by admission of the statement into evidence.
Of course, we know that torture is relative. In George Bush world, torture means whatever the hell he wants it to mean. And that is saying a lot.
Do your self a favor and read the whole act and then decide, as an American, what are you going to do about it?