Enemy Combatants R US

[John J. McCarthy]

Based upon the following article, I would deduce that myself and others on this forum may now be classified as 'enemy combatants' for simply questioning and disagreeing with this administrations policies, and publically saying so.

Well, I for one am going down with the ship. Screw them and their Texas Mafia!

Bests,

John McCarthy

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September 30 / October 1, 2006

A Constitutional Shredding

Rounding Up U.S. Citizens

By MARJORIE COHN

The Military Commissions Act of 2006 governing the treatment of detainees is the culmination of relentless fear-mongering by the Bush administration since the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Because the bill was adopted with lightning speed, barely anyone noticed that it empowers Bush to declare not just aliens, but also U.S. citizens, "unlawful enemy combatants."

Bush & Co. has portrayed the bill as a tough way to deal with aliens to protect us against terrorism. Frightened they might lose their majority in Congress in the November elections, the Republicans rammed the bill through Congress with little substantive debate.

Anyone who donates money to a charity that turns up on Bush's list of "terrorist" organizations, or who speaks out against the government's policies could be declared an "unlawful enemy combatant" and imprisoned indefinitely. That includes American citizens.

The bill also strips habeas corpus rights from detained aliens who have been declared enemy combatants. Congress has the constitutional power to suspend habeas corpus only in times of rebellion or invasion. The habeas-stripping provision in the new bill is unconstitutional and the Supreme Court will likely say so when the issue comes before it.

Although more insidious, this law follows in the footsteps of other unnecessarily repressive legislation. In times of war and national crisis, the government has targeted immigrants and dissidents.

In 1798, the Federalist-led Congress, capitalizing on the fear of war, passed the four Alien and Sedition Acts to stifle dissent against the Federalist Party's political agenda. The Naturalization Act extended the time necessary for immigrants to reside in the U.S. because most immigrants sympathized with the Republicans.

The Alien Enemies Act provided for the arrest, detention and deportation of male citizens of any foreign nation at war with the United States. Many of the 25,000 French citizens living in the U.S. could have been expelled had France and America gone to war, but this law was never used. The Alien Friends Act authorized the deportation of any non-citizen suspected of endangering the security of the U.S. government; the law lasted only two years and no one was deported under it.

The Sedition Act provided criminal penalties for any person who wrote, printed, published, or spoke anything "false, scandalous and malicious" with the intent to hold the government in "contempt or disrepute." The Federalists argued it was necessary to suppress criticism of the government in time of war. The Republicans objected that the Sedition Act violated the First Amendment, which had become part of the Constitution seven years earlier. Employed exclusively against Republicans, the Sedition Act was used to target congressmen and newspaper editors who criticized President John Adams.

Subsequent examples of laws passed and actions taken as a result of fear-mongering during periods of xenophobia are the Espionage Act of 1917, the Sedition Act of 1918, the Red Scare following World War I, the forcible internment of people of Japanese descent during World War II, and the Alien Registration Act of 1940 (the Smith Act).

During the McCarthy period of the 1950s, in an effort to eradicate the perceived threat of communism, the government engaged in widespread illegal surveillance to threaten and silence anyone who had an unorthodox political viewpoint. Many people were jailed, blacklisted and lost their jobs. Thousands of lives were shattered as the FBI engaged in "red-baiting."

One month after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, United States Attorney General John Ashcroft rushed the U.S.A. Patriot Act through a timid Congress. The Patriot Act created a crime of domestic terrorism aimed at political activists who protest government policies, and set forth an ideological test for entry into the United States.

In 1944, the Supreme Court upheld the legality of the internment of Japanese and Japanese-American citizens in Korematsu v. United States. Justice Robert Jackson warned in his dissent that the ruling would "lie about like a loaded weapon ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a plausible claim of an urgent need."

That day has come with the Military Commissions Act of 2006. It provides the basis for the President to round-up both aliens and U.S. citizens he determines have given material support to terrorists. Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Cheney's Halliburton, is constructing a huge facility at an undisclosed location to hold tens of thousands of undesirables.

In his 1928 dissent in Olmstead v. United States, Justice Louis Brandeis cautioned, "The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." Seventy-three years later, former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, speaking for a zealous President, warned Americans "they need to watch what they say, watch what they do."

We can expect Bush to continue to exploit 9/11 to strip us of more of our liberties. Our constitutional right to dissent is in serious jeopardy. Benjamin Franklin's prescient warning should give us pause: "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security."

Marjorie Cohn, a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, is president-elect of the National Lawyers Guild, and the U.S. representative to the executive committee of the American Association of Jurists. Her new book, Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law, will be published in 2007 by PoliPointPress

[Guest Stephen Turner]

John, one of the most worrying aspects of this bill is the shear reach it affords the chicken-hawks, in their determination to crack down on any, and all discenting voices, whether American, or otherwise. We share the same concerns on this side of "the pond"as Blair, and his Neo-Cons, thinly disguised as Labour whittle away at centuries of hard won rights, and freedoms. Bans on protest marches, attempts to end the right to trial by Jury, threatened impossition of identity cards, etc, etc. As George Orwell said "When Fascism comes to England, it will come with a smile on its face, and be all the more deadly for it." Steve.

[John J. McCarthy]

John, one of the most worrying aspects of this bill is the shear reach it affords the chicken-hawks, in their determination to crack down on any, and all discenting voices, whether American, or otherwise. We share the same concerns on this side of "the pond"as Blair, and his Neo-Cons, thinly disguised as Labour whittle away at centuries of hard won rights, and freedoms. Bans on protest marches, attempts to end the right to trial by Jury, threatened impossition of identity cards, etc, etc. As George Orwell said "When Fascism comes to England, it will come with a smile on its face, and be all the more deadly for it." Steve.

Steve,

I don't think we have ever been closer to military revolt/revolution. If the Supremes allow this dictatorial action to stand, I think it won't be long before 'enough is enough' takes root.

The miscalculation of the current pencil pushing necons is exactly the same as thinking that the Contras would be supported by the population of Nicaragua. That ignorant assumption sealed the fate of that war.

The vast majority of the Contras were made up of former "Guardia Nationale" under the repressive regime of Anastasio Samoza, who just happened to be Al Haig's classmate at West Point Class of '46.

The Sandinista, who took their name from General Sandino, assassinated by Anastasio's father after stacking arms in a truce in 1929, had the support of the population.

The Guardia Nationale had been so repressive to the Nicaraguan's that they never forgot it.

Accordingly, the miscalculation that the sheeple will roll over and be complacent in this latest move to rape the Constitution and the Declaration of Independance is going to haunt the new breed of Nazi's all the way to the gallows, ala Nuremberg. As in all coups, the military will be the point of the spear.

Take a look at how many combat units are in close proximatey to Washington......none. They think that is their security blanket. Shame on them.

And, as in other coups around the world, the first people to 'go' will be the judges, lawyers, cops and the legislators. Those that allow this Patriot Act II cannot hide.

The Declaration of Independence gives us the authority to take that action necessary to take back America.

Bests,

John McCarthy

[Guest Stephen Turner]

John, as you point out Americans are constitutionally obliged, and empowered to overthrow any attempt at tyrany, as Costner says in JFK "Just a little further out west"We have no such constitution, being subjects, rather than citizens.

Another anti libiterian measure by the Blairites has been ASBOs (Anti social behavior orders) These have become crucial to New Labours crack down on dissent, and legitimate protest, on the 26th of August two Women were issued with asbo's for peacefully handing out leaflets against a major arms manufacturer in Richmond town centre, once public, mow a privatised mall, which allows such behaviour to be criminalised, even if no member of the public protests. Under the definition of "Dispersal of intimidating gangs" How easy it will be to use ASBOs against trade unions, or any form of protest in the future..Steve.

[John J. McCarthy]

Steve,

Is there not a gentleman who places himself in front of one of the government buildings in London and protests activities on a continuing basis?

Bests,

John McCarthy

Edited October 3, 2006 by John J. McCarthy

[Guest Stephen Turner]

John, there sure is, or i should say was, he was protesting our involvement in the Iraq fiasco, he has recently been moved on, using the anti-terrorist laws to do so. I hope you can appreciate the irony implicite in this

[John J. McCarthy]

Habeus Corpus day is tomorrow, Tuesday, October 10, 2006.

Yes, The Military Commissions Act 2006 or The Erosion of Democracy and Freedom in America

http://johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com/id812.html

See ya later Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and the Constitution. I wonder who conspired to arrange all of this in one felt swoop?

Is al Quaeda getting a kickback from Halliburton or RMK?

If there are a bunch of terrorists running around and conspiring to do harm why are they not already in the concentratiion camps being built to accomodate those falling into the catagory of 'enemy combatants' (aka US citizens)?

Bests,

John McCarthy