Tuesday, October 17
SFGate: World Views : Edward M. Gomez
Edward M. Gomez:
Emphasis in original. (via BoingBoing)Bush signs torture bill; Americans lose essential freedom
George W. Bush got what he wanted, ostensibly as a tool in his unfocused "war on terror": By signing into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006, Bush has made it legal for the C.I.A. to continue operating torture facilities in undisclosed, foreign countries, and for the writ of habeas corpus to be suspended for individuals who are designated "enemy combatants" against the U.S. (Designated by whom? That question remains unanswered.) The law also "establishes military tribunals that would allow some use of evidence obtained by coercion [that is, torture], but would give defendants access to classified evidence being used to convict them." (Reuters)
The provisions of Bush's new torture law mean that Americans have lost the key, constitutional right on which Anglo-American criminal law (and criminal-law procedures in true democracies in general) is founded; that's the basic right of an individual to know why he or she is being apprehended and detained. Now, technically, as in Stalin's Soviet Union, Hitler's Germany, Mao's China or Pol Pot's Cambodia, anyone labeled an "enemy combatant" - again, by whom; by Bush? - can be whisked away and never heard from again. That kind of authority, in the hands of corrupt or untruthful politicians, may or may not be an effective tool in some kind of "war on terror," but it certainly can be a useful tool when it comes to silencing their opponents.
I have to wonder how fast this is going to get shoved to the SCOTUS. And I have to also wonder just how much of this bill is actually going to stand. I guess we have a fight on our hands now over it.
I saw the President sign this today, or at least a video of it. I wasn't sure what was being signed. I had a feeling it was something ugly, and it was. Relevant Link Permanent link posted by bytehead @ 10/17/2006 10:39:00 PM
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