Saturday, October 28, 2006
Back in June the US Supreme court decided it is ok to seize private property and give it to anyone who will pay more taxes than you do. Eminent domain has been around a long time, but it used to be there at least had to be a tag on it saying it was for public use. Now the government can take your property away and give it to a corporation or someone willing to build a store which will be subject to more taxes than you currently are paying on that property.
Bush just signed the Military Commissions Act 2006, which :
1. Takes away the right of detainees to habeas corpus (the traditional right of detainees to challenge their detention)
2. Gives the US President the power to detain indefinitely anyone—US or foreign nationals, from within the US, and from abroad—it deems to have provided material support to anti-US hostilities, and even use secret and coerced evidence (do any of you remember his speech where he said if you are not supporting me and my agenda then you are the enemy????)
3. Gives US officials immunity from prosecution for torturing detainees that were captured before the end of 2005 by US military and CIA.
Amnesty International says the legislation will lead to violations of international law and standards and accuses the US Congress of “failing human rights” by voting for this Act and says it “deeply regrets that Congress failed to resist this executive pressure and instead has given a green light for violations of the USA’s international obligations.”
Striping habeas corpus and other fundamental rights:
Strip the US courts of jurisdiction to hear or consider habeas corpus appeals challenging the lawfulness or conditions of detention of anyone held in US custody as an “enemy combatant.”
Prohibit any person from invoking the Geneva Conventions or their protocols as a source of rights in any action in any US court.
Permit civilians captured far from any battlefield to be tried by military commission rather than civilian courts, contradicting international standards and case law.
Limit the right of charged detainees to be represented by counsel of their choosing.
* Fail to provide any guarantee that trials will be conducted within a reasonable time.
* Permit the executive to convene military commissions to try “alien unlawful enemy combatants”, as determined by the executive under a dangerously broad definition, in trials that would provide foreign nationals so labeled with a lower standard of justice than US citizens accused of the same crimes. This would violate the prohibition on the discriminatory application of fair trial rights
* Establish military commissions whose impartiality, independence and competence would be in doubt, due to the overarching role that the executive, primarily the Secretary of Defense, would play in procedures and in appointments of military judges and military officers.
* Permit, in violation of international law, the use of evidence extracted under cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, or as a result of “outrages upon personal dignity, particularly humiliating or degrading treatment”, as defined under international law.
* Permit the use of classified evidence against a defendant, without the defendant necessarily being able effectively to challenge the “sources, methods or activities” by which the government acquired the evidence.
* Give the military commissions the power to hand down death sentences, in contravention of international standards…. The clemency authority would be … President Bush [who] has led a pattern of official public commentary on the presumed guilt of the detainees, and has overseen a system that has systematically denied the rights of detainees.
* Permit the executive to determine who is an “enemy combatant” under any “competent tribunal” established by the executive.
* Narrow the scope of the War Crimes Act by not expressly criminalizing acts that constitute “outrages upon personal dignity, particularly humiliating and degrading treatment” banned under Article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions.
* Prohibit the US courts from using “foreign or international law” to inform their decisions in relation to the War Crimes Act. The President has the authority to “interpret the meaning and application of the Geneva Conventions.”
* Endorse the administration’s “war paradigm”—under which the USA has selectively applied the laws of war and rejected international human rights law.
In the last five years the administration has systematically engaged in violations of international law that have included:
* Secret detention
* Enforced disappearance
* Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
* Outrages upon personal dignity, including humiliating treatment
* Denial and restriction of habeas corpus
* Indefinite detention without charge or trial
* Prolonged incommunicado detention
* Arbitrary detention
* Unfair trial procedures
Yet you keep hearing Bush and friends (there was a moose and a squirrel that had more credibility than the current administration.. ) keep portraying the USA as a nation of laws and one that in the “war on terror” is committed to what it calls the “non-negotiable demands of human dignity,” including the “rule of law.”
The newly signed Military Commissions Act of 2006 in fact violates international law. Thousands of detainees remain in indefinite detention without charge or trial in US custody in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo. In passing the Military Commissions Act, Congress has failed these detainees and their families. Congress has passed into law, the same way Germany did for Hitler, the means to the demise of the land of the free.
Bush just signed the Military Commissions Act 2006, which :
1. Takes away the right of detainees to habeas corpus (the traditional right of detainees to challenge their detention)
2. Gives the US President the power to detain indefinitely anyone—US or foreign nationals, from within the US, and from abroad—it deems to have provided material support to anti-US hostilities, and even use secret and coerced evidence (do any of you remember his speech where he said if you are not supporting me and my agenda then you are the enemy????)
3. Gives US officials immunity from prosecution for torturing detainees that were captured before the end of 2005 by US military and CIA.
Amnesty International says the legislation will lead to violations of international law and standards and accuses the US Congress of “failing human rights” by voting for this Act and says it “deeply regrets that Congress failed to resist this executive pressure and instead has given a green light for violations of the USA’s international obligations.”
Striping habeas corpus and other fundamental rights:
Strip the US courts of jurisdiction to hear or consider habeas corpus appeals challenging the lawfulness or conditions of detention of anyone held in US custody as an “enemy combatant.”
Prohibit any person from invoking the Geneva Conventions or their protocols as a source of rights in any action in any US court.
Permit civilians captured far from any battlefield to be tried by military commission rather than civilian courts, contradicting international standards and case law.
Limit the right of charged detainees to be represented by counsel of their choosing.
* Fail to provide any guarantee that trials will be conducted within a reasonable time.
* Permit the executive to convene military commissions to try “alien unlawful enemy combatants”, as determined by the executive under a dangerously broad definition, in trials that would provide foreign nationals so labeled with a lower standard of justice than US citizens accused of the same crimes. This would violate the prohibition on the discriminatory application of fair trial rights
* Establish military commissions whose impartiality, independence and competence would be in doubt, due to the overarching role that the executive, primarily the Secretary of Defense, would play in procedures and in appointments of military judges and military officers.
* Permit, in violation of international law, the use of evidence extracted under cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, or as a result of “outrages upon personal dignity, particularly humiliating or degrading treatment”, as defined under international law.
* Permit the use of classified evidence against a defendant, without the defendant necessarily being able effectively to challenge the “sources, methods or activities” by which the government acquired the evidence.
* Give the military commissions the power to hand down death sentences, in contravention of international standards…. The clemency authority would be … President Bush [who] has led a pattern of official public commentary on the presumed guilt of the detainees, and has overseen a system that has systematically denied the rights of detainees.
* Permit the executive to determine who is an “enemy combatant” under any “competent tribunal” established by the executive.
* Narrow the scope of the War Crimes Act by not expressly criminalizing acts that constitute “outrages upon personal dignity, particularly humiliating and degrading treatment” banned under Article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions.
* Prohibit the US courts from using “foreign or international law” to inform their decisions in relation to the War Crimes Act. The President has the authority to “interpret the meaning and application of the Geneva Conventions.”
* Endorse the administration’s “war paradigm”—under which the USA has selectively applied the laws of war and rejected international human rights law.
In the last five years the administration has systematically engaged in violations of international law that have included:
* Secret detention
* Enforced disappearance
* Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
* Outrages upon personal dignity, including humiliating treatment
* Denial and restriction of habeas corpus
* Indefinite detention without charge or trial
* Prolonged incommunicado detention
* Arbitrary detention
* Unfair trial procedures
Yet you keep hearing Bush and friends (there was a moose and a squirrel that had more credibility than the current administration.. ) keep portraying the USA as a nation of laws and one that in the “war on terror” is committed to what it calls the “non-negotiable demands of human dignity,” including the “rule of law.”
The newly signed Military Commissions Act of 2006 in fact violates international law. Thousands of detainees remain in indefinite detention without charge or trial in US custody in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo. In passing the Military Commissions Act, Congress has failed these detainees and their families. Congress has passed into law, the same way Germany did for Hitler, the means to the demise of the land of the free.
