Posted on 01/23/2007 4:31:03 AM PST by IrishMike
Sen. Arlen Specter continues to campaign for giving habeas corpus rights to terror-war prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. The Philadelphia Republicrat is wrong.
The Military Commissions Act provides that noncitizen unlawful enemy combatants are not entitled to the writ of habeas corpus. A prisoner may not plead to a federal judge that his detention is unlawful.
Prisoners at Guantanamo are entitled to a process that is due under the circumstances. Hundreds of suspected terrorists have been released after their cases were investigated.
Prisoners of war typically are not entitled to habeas corpus. But Mr. Specter would give unlawful enemy combatants, who target civilians, greater legal rights even though the latter have rejected the laws of war. They do not wear uniforms and do not carry arms openly.
This tactic treats civilians as camouflage, shields and fodder, subjecting them to great risk because it is difficult to distinguish between fighter and nonfighter.
Specter was quite angry over the defeat of an amendment giving habeas corpus rights to the Guantanamo prisoners. But he voted for the commissions bill anyway.
Again, he calls for aiding terrorists -- after failing to record his principles in the vote that counted.
If the president must justify war-making to judicial officers, he will find his valid authority compromised and will be hamstrung in protecting the nation.
(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...
Why is Arlen Specter so damned concerned about conveying rights to terrorists and illegal civilian combatants? Rights that they don't/shouldn't have?
And why was Specter so insistent on making a fool of himself over an obscure provision of Scots law, in order to excuse himself from voting "guilty" at Bill Clinton's 1999 impeachment trial?
Does he just feel like he has to act like a Democrat in order to get reelected in Pennsylvania? If so, why bother caucusing with the Republicans? Why not just cross the aisle and have done?
But meanwhile, why does he think we need to treat Osama Bin Laden and his followers as if they're all juvenile delinquents in a Stateside juvy hall?
All good questions that I cannot answer for two reasons, I don't have answers and I'm not a Pennsylvania resident.
When the voters of the keystone state gave Rick Santorum the door, in disbelief I think there is something very wrong with the water.
I am not from Pennsylvania,but I willtry to answer your question.
Arlen Sphincter is an anti-American traitor and a Clymer.
Sphincter was a demonRAT and crossed the line to run as a pubbie but he never changed.
I live in PA, among the braindead who think they elected the long dead former Governor of PA, to replace Santorum, and I can answer your question. Specter is a poster boy and puppet of Theresa Heinz, Soros et al, and like some other poster said, he is a Democrat in RINO clothing. It's just like the coming Presidential election - if Theresa and Soros can own both the Republican and Democrat candidates, they can't lose. (Rudy vs. Hillary)
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