Posted on 11/29/2011 9:29:32 PM PST by Kartographer
James Madison, father of the Constitution, warned, "The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become instruments of tyranny at home."
Abraham Lincoln had similar thoughts, saying "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
During war there has always been a struggle to preserve Constitutional liberties. During the Civil War the right of habeas corpus was suspended. Newspapers were closed down. Fortunately, these rights were restored after the war.
The discussion now to suspend certain rights to due process is especially worrisome given that we are engaged in a war that appears to have no end. Rights given up now cannot be expected to be returned. So, we do well to contemplate the diminishment of due process, knowing that the rights we lose now may never be restored.
My well-intentioned colleagues ignore these admonitions in defending provisions of the Defense bill pertaining to detaining suspected terrorists.
Their legislation would arm the military with the authority to detain indefinitely - without due process or trial - SUSPECTED al-Qaida sympathizers, including American citizens apprehended on American soil.
I want to repeat that. We are talking about people who are merely SUSPECTED of a crime. And we are talking about American citizens.
If these provisions pass, we could see American citizens being sent to Guantanamo Bay.
This should be alarming to everyone watching this proceeding today. Because it puts every single American citizen at risk.
There is one thing and one thing only protecting innocent Americans from being detained at will at the hands of a too-powerful state - our constitution, and the checks we put on government power. Should we err today and remove some of the most important checks on state power in the name of fighting terrorism, well, then the terrorists have won.
Detaining citizens without a court trial is not American. In fact, this alarming arbitrary power is reminiscent of Egypt's "permanent" Emergency Law authorizing preventive indefinite detention, a law that provoked ordinary Egyptians to tear their country apart last spring and risk their lives to fight.
Recently, Justice Scalia affirmed this idea in his dissent in the Hamdi case, saying:
"Where the Government accuses a citizen of waging war against it, our constitutional tradition has been to prosecute him in federal court for treason or some other crime."
He concluded: "The very core of liberty secured by our Anglo-Saxon system of separated powers has been freedom from indefinite imprisonment at the will of the Executive
Justice Scalia was, as he often does, following the wisdom of our founding fathers.
As Franklin wisely warned against, we should not attempt to trade liberty for security, if we do we may end up with neither. And really, what security does this indefinite detention of Americans give us?
The first and flawed premise, both here and in the badly misname patriot act, is that our pre-911 police powers were insufficient to combat international terrorism.
This is simply not borne out by the facts.
Congress long ago made it a crime to provide, or to conspire to provide, material assistance to al-Qaida or other listed foreign terrorist organizations. Material assistance includes virtually anything of value - including legal or political advice, education, books, newspapers, lodging or otherwise. The Supreme Court sustained the constitutionality of the sweeping prohibition.
And this is not simply about catching terrorists after the fact, as others may insinuate. The material assistance law is in fact forward-looking and preventive, not backward-looking and reactive.
Al-Qaida adherents may be detained, prosecuted and convicted for conspiring to violate the material assistance prohibition before any injury to an American. Jose Padilla, for instance, was convicted and sentenced to 17 years in prison for conspiring to provide material assistance to al-Qaida. The criminal law does not require dead bodies on the sidewalk before it strikes at international terrorism.
Indeed, conspiracy law and prosecutions in civilian courts have been routinely invoked after 9/11, to thwart embryonic international terrorism.
Michael Chertoff, then head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division and later Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, testified shortly after 9/11 to the Senate Judiciary Committee. He underscored that, "the history of this government in prosecuting terrorists in domestic courts has been one of unmitigated success and one in which the judges have done a superb job of managing the courtroom and not compromising our concerns about security and our concerns about classified information."
Moreover, there is no evidence that criminal justice procedures have frustrated intelligence collection about international terrorism. Suspected terrorists have repeatedly waived both the right to an attorney and the right to silence. Additionally, Miranda warnings are not required at all when the purpose of interrogation is public safety.
The authors of this bill errantly maintain that the bill would not enlarge the universe of detainees eligible for indefinite detention in military custody. This is simply not the case.
The current Authorization for Use of Military Force confines the universe to persons implicated in the 9/11 attacks or who harbored those who were.
The detainee provision would expand the universe to include any person said to be "part of" or "substantially" supportive of al-Qaida or Taliban.
These terms are dangerously vague. More than a decade after 9/11, the military has been unable to define the earmarks of membership in or affiliation to either organization.
Some say that to prevent another 9/11 attack we must fight terrorism with a war mentality and not treat potential attackers as criminals. For combatants captured on the battlefield, I tend to agree.
But 9/11 didn't succeed because we granted the terrorists due process. 9/11 attacks did not succeed because al-Qaida was so formidable, but because of human error. The Defense Department withheld intelligence from the FBI. No warrants were denied. The warrants weren't requested. The FBI failed to act on repeated pleas from its field agents, agents who were in possession of laptop with information that might have prevented 9/11.
These are not failures of laws. They are not failures of procedures. They are failures of imperfect men and women in bloated bureaucracies. No amount of liberty sacrificed on the altar of the state will ever change that.
A full accounting of our human failures by 9/11 Commission would have proven that enhanced cooperation between law enforcement and the intelligence community, not military action or vandalizing liberty at home, is the key to thwarting international terrorism.
We should not have to sacrifice our Liberty to be safe. We cannot allow the rules to change to fit the whims of those in power. The rules, the binding chains of our constitution were written so that it didn't MATTER who was in power. In fact, they were written to protect us and our rights, from those who hold power without good intentions. We are not governed by saints or angels. Our constitution allows for that. This bill does not.
Finally, the detainee provisions of the defense authorization bill do another grave harm to freedom: they imply perpetual war for the first time in the history of the United States.
No benchmarks are established that would ever terminate the conflict with al-Qaida, Taliban, or other foreign terrorist organizations. In fact, this bill explicitly states that no part of this bill is to imply any restriction on the authorization to use force. No congressional review is allowed or imagined. No victory is defined. No peace is possible if victory is made impossible by definition.
To disavow the idea that the exclusive congressional power to declare war somehow allows the President to continue war forever at whim, I will also be offering an amendment this week to de-authorize the Iraq War.
Use of military force must begin in congress with its authorization. And it should end in congress with its termination. Congress should not be ignored or an afterthought in these matters, and must reclaim its constitutional duties.
The detainee provisions ask us to give up consist rights as an emergency or exigency but make no room for expiration. Perhaps the Emergency Law in Egypt began with good intentions in 1958 but somehow it came to be hated, to be despised with such vigor that protesters chose to burn themselves alive rather allow continuation of indefinite detention.
Today, someone must stand up for the rights of the American people to be free. We must stand up to tyranny disguised as security. I urge my colleagues to reject the language on detainees in this bill, and to support amendments to strip these provisions from the defense bill.
http://paul.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=390
“patient who had a secret stash of weapons”
After we moved and were filling out initial paperwork at our new doctor’s office, one of the questions was, “Do you have a gun in your home?” Sheesh. This type of info, combined with the Obama/GE commitment to a national medical database, is truly frightening.
Standard communist belief - any opposition to communism is a mental illness or defect.
It can be “treatable” with hard labor, and if not, elimination of the person is a mercy.
Guess now I know why the only two network shows played all day in communist China were “Leverage” and “House.”
And people here call Ron Paul a nut. Pathetic.
One day the LAW swept down and confiscated every bit of food because someone had dropped a dime on them, claiming they were “food hoarding”.
"Local calls placed from public phone booths in the United States cost a nickel in most places until the early 1950s ..." - Wikipedia :)
Whoa, I thought that only happened to us. The new doctor started asking the kids about the guns and how dangerous they were, blah, blah. I almost came unglued but noticed the kids were handling her quite well. Needless to say we filed a complaint and I'm guessing we weren't the only ones because she was gone shortly after that. Hey, we have junk food in the house, too.
The wrong Paul is running for president.
***We used to hardly see a dozen cars on the drive to town but now it’s constant traffic.***
Same here. I moved to the country because I could not stand city living. Last week the sheriff came by and told me I could not let my dogs run free as they were bothering the joggers. Only had joggers since the county paved the road, now, constant traffic and joggers, bicyclists, and others.
**8If they come beating on your door, give them the two buckets of wheat berries you have in your back closet,***
Wonder if they will accept a bucket of chicken scratch?
I guess that makes shopping at Costo a terrorist act.
Another point that people need to keep in mind - it’s easier to feed your neighbors than it is to fight them.
You should keep a couple of buckets of beans & rice to give out a cupful at a time for people who come begging.
“Do you have a gun in your home?”
ANSWER: Break in some night and find out!
“Local calls placed from public phone booths in the United States cost a nickel in most places until the early 1950s ...” - Wikipedia :)
Always a technocrat in the house! For all I know someone might have dropped by the law and reported him or even lifted the earphone receiver and twisted the handle, called the operator and asked to be dispatched to the local fed office.
Dropping a dime sounds better.
So much for telling us to store cans of tuna under our bed; or stock up for hurricanes, etc. Use to be they wouldn't touch home canned foods; afraid I guess. Wonder if that's still true?
Ummm, I assume this means Mormons, too. Don’t they prep in over-drive? Maybe that’s why they all want Romney so bad. just saying... what if he did make POTUS. Theoretically speaking, if he brought his preps to the WH would they get him too? Would he go after his preppping church? Oh how tangled this web could get...
If the gun is on your belt, and you’re sitting in the doctor’s office, then technically no, it’s not in your home ;)
Depending on the day I either give a fictitious number or tell them no.
So... let me guess.. if you’re planning a huge party for 20+ people that’s going to require a large amount of food items, you’ll come under suspicion of “hoarding?”
It’s in the video at the link which shows Rand Paul speaking. Someone who is missing fingers on their hands, someone who has guns, someone who has ammunition that is weatherproofed someone who has more than 7 days of food in their house can be considered a potential terrorist according to laws on the books now...
Even today non-stupid people who live in areas prone to ice storms, blizzards, tornadoes, or other disasters keep a pantry of food “just in case.”
Then, there are the Mormons. The whole state of Utah is suspect under this assumption.
Undoubtedly this is just one of several factors, much like Big Sis’s so-called right-wing terrorist report. Add in owning firearms, carrying around a copy of the Constitution, being pro-life, owning a Gadsden Flag (or for that fact even flying the Stars and Stripes), or as a previous poster mentioned home schooling and the person clearly becomes suspect. Or patriotic, but to the current political elites they’re one in the same.
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