Torture in the United States
In July 2003, George Bush said in a speech: "The United States is committed to worldwide elimination of TORTURE, and we are leading this fight by example. Freedom from TORTURE is an inalienable human right. Yet torture continues to be practiced around the world by rogue regimes, whose cruel methods match their determination to crush the human spirit."
GW Bush now has the power to decide who gets TORTURED and what that torture is, circumventing ALL Christian principles and teachings, as well as circumventing International Laws proscribing torture.
Our representatives in Congress have just passed legislation that:
* Establishes a new judicial system to try a wide variety of people in military commissions
that lack the minimal safeguards regarding coerced evidence may deny the right of the
accused to examine evidence against them. A person could be sentenced to death under
this flawed system.
* Strips prisoners in Guantanamo and other alleged enemy combatants
in U.S. custody -- of the ability to file a writ of habeas corpus and challenge their
detention. Many of these prisoners have been held for almost five years without charges
or meaningful judicial review
* Expands the definition of unlawful enemy combatant to allow the U.S.
government to detain people on or off the battlefield indefinitely
without charge or access to judicial review for an act as minor as writing a check.
* Provides retroactive immunity to those who may have been implicated in creating policies
or participating in abuse and other acts that most of us would consider torture and other
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
(We have restrained from showing bloody, gory images of torture victims by the sadists who practice torture. These images are readily available through search engines if you have the stomach to view these atrocities. Of course, every news paper and television newcast should carry these images every day to wake Americans up to the crimes against humanity that are being practiced and used in our name.)
" Fellow citizens, this bill throws out legal and moral restraints as the president deems it necessary-these are fundamental principles of basic decency, as well as law.
I'd like those supporting this evil bill to spare me one affliction: Do not, please, pretend to be shocked by the consequences of this legislation. And do not pretend to be shocked when the world begins comparing us to the Nazis." Molly Ivins
" It just keeps getting worse. This morning, esteemed Yale Law professor Bruce Ackerman published this fine essay in the Los Angeles Times. His lead? "Buried in the complex Senate compromise on detainee treatment is a real shocker, reaching far beyond the legal struggles about foreign terrorist suspects in the Guantanamo Bay fortress. The compromise legislation, which is racing toward the White House, authorizes the president to seize American citizens as enemy combatants, even if they have never left the United States. And once thrown into military prison, they cannot expect a trial by their peers or any other of the normal protections of the Bill of Rights."
"This dangerous compromise," Professor Ackerman continued, "not only authorizes the president to seize and hold terrorists who have fought against our troops 'during an armed conflict,' it also allows him to seize anybody who has 'purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States.' This grants the president enormous power over citizens and legal residents. They can be designated as enemy combatants if they have contributed money to a Middle Eastern charity, and they can be held indefinitely in a military prison."
This Time, Congress Has No Excuse By Andrew Cohen
With the elimination of HABEAS CORPUS, this past Thursday by Congress, we, the people, no longer have the protection of this Constitutional Right.
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