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Posted on 04/18/2010 7:09:37 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) has introduced a bill that would allow the President to imprison an unlimited number of American citizens (as well as foreigners) indefinitely without trial. Known as The Enemy Belligerent Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010, or S. 3081, the bill authorizes the President to deny a detainee a trial by jury simply by designating that person an “enemy belligerent.”
The bill, which has eight cosponsors, explicitly names U.S. citizens as among those who can be detained indefinitely without trial:
An individual, including a citizen of the United States, determined to be an unprivileged enemy belligerent ... may be detained without criminal charges and without trial for the duration of hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners in which the individual has engaged, or which the individual has purposely and materially supported, consistent with the law of war and any authorization for the use of military force provided by Congress pertaining to such hostilities. [Emphasis added.]
Note that the Bush administration once said that the so-called “war on terror” would last a generation or more, and the U.S. military has officially classified many former Guantanamo detainees, such as England's Tipton Three, as having “returned to the battlefield” for merely granting an interview for the movie The Road to Guantanamo. Another five innocent Uighur (Ethnic Turkish Muslims from China) detainees had been listed as having “returned to the battlefield” after their release because their lawyer had written an op-ed protesting their prolonged detention without trial after they had been mistakenly picked up by a greedy bounty hunter. Writing an opinion or speaking an opinion against the party in power in Washington can — and already has — made some people “enemy belligerents.”
The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires that “No person shall ... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,” and the Sixth Amendment stipulates the due process of law that all are required to receive:
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
The requirement for a jury trial has no exceptions for military reasons, and doesn't even exempt foreigners. It simply employs the phrase “all criminal prosecutions,” words that unequivocally apply to the military and civilian justice systems, as well as to both citizens and foreigners. The Founding Fathers truly applied Christ's command to “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you,” but John McCain's new bill wouldn't even do to American citizens what we would assume were basic rights. There is no greater tyranny than indefinite imprisonment at the whim of an executive without legal recourse, and that is precisely what McCain and eight other senators would impose upon America.
McCain defended his bill in a speech on the Senate floor March 4, stating:
The legislation would authorize detention of enemy belligerents without criminal charges for the duration of the hostilities consistent with standards under the law of war which have been recognized by the Supreme Court. Importantly, if a decision is made to hold a criminal trial after the necessary intelligence information is obtained, the bill mandates trial by military commission where we are best able to protect U.S. national security interests, including sensitive classified sources and methods, as well as the place and the people involved in the trial itself.
In other words, the right to trial by jury guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution would no longer be a right. The bill would mandate “military commissions” rather than a jury trial, if and when the President deems to hold a “trial.” Under McCain's legislation, trial by jury wouldn't just be a privilege that the President could withdraw at a whim, the President would be required to deny jury trials. The right to trial by jury would be denied entirely! Of course, any American could be held for decades without trial or even being charged with a crime under McCain's bill.
Cosponsors of the bill include Democrat/independent Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Republicans Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, David Vitter of Louisiana, George LeMieux of Florida, and Roger Wicker of Mississippi. Those cosponsoring this outright attack on the Bill of Rights are those same Republican neo-conservatives who have dominated the GOP for the last decade or more. Conservative constitutionalists need to reassert control of the Republican Party and purge this cancer from the party and the U.S. Senate, if they wish to retain their freedoms.
Under international law, terrorists, soldiers out of uniform, and spies can be shot out of hand. Gen. Loan's execution of the notorious Viet Cong captain caught shooting up Gen. Loan's men's housing area was in fact lawful.
Note that this bill incorporates the Geneva Convention to U.S. law, or vice versa. Not sure I'm pleased about that:
An individual, including a citizen of the United States, determined to be an unprivileged enemy belligerent under section 3(c)(2) in a manner which satisfies Article 5 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War may be detained without criminal charges and without trial for the duration of hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners in which the individual has engaged, or which the individual has purposely and materially supported, consistent with the law of war and any authorization for the use of military force provided by Congress pertaining to such hostilities. [Emphasis supplied.]
Not sure I'm really wild about their putting that into the law. It's one thing to observe the conventions, and another entirely, to write them into U.S. law.
I despise McCain. That being said, this article so distorts the bill as to be little more than a propaganda piece.
The bill is selectively quoted. Here is the ACTUAL wording:
“
An individual, including a citizen of the United States, determined to be an unprivileged enemy belligerent under section 3(c)(2) in a manner which satisfies Article 5 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War may be detained without criminal charges and without trial...”
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s111-3081
The bill is about how they are to decide who is “an unprivileged enemy belligerent;” and how they are to be treated. Also, it keeps any trial of such OUTSIDE the US. Although it is obviously flawed, it is NOT as depicted in this article. Please read the bill at the link provided, and discuss the REALITY, not this distortion.
DG
Exactly. What were George Patton and Omar Bradley supposed to do with the thousands of Waffen SS prisoners they took? Mirandize them?
The Constitution does provide for suspension of habeas corpus in emergencies -- and I think 9/12 would have qualified for sure.
What do you do about suspension of habeas corpus in the face of a protracted, "low-intensity" guerrilla/terror campaign against the People by a foreign power or NGO (i.e. illegal combatant power), to force a change in U.S. policy or government? This is nasty stuff, and I'm sure it would furrow even Hamilton's and Jefferson's brows.
That's actually lenient treatment, compared to what they could get (shot!). See my post above.
One of those things he must have learned in that North Vietnamese POW camp.
“Anything which CAN be abused, will be abused. This is an Unconstitutional usurpation of power, amounting to the negation of habeas corpus. While that has been done before, we were engaged in the war we do not want to repeat, if possible.
The ‘stroke of a pen, law of the land’ set has no compunction about abusing power—they have already done so. I believe your faith is unfounded. The proposal says what it says, the potential for abuse is written in, and there are no safeguards there.
It is bad legislation, and imho, shows McCain to be unfit for office. “
On this we agree!
B U M P
Yep, the internment prison camps already exist:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P-hvPJPTi4
They are just sitting there, waiting for residents to occupy them.
Sarah appears to be tone-deaf on some basic issues.
Unpriveleged enemy belligerent- that would be most FReepers...
And Sarah Palin is backing this clown?
Calling me a coward after I sign off.
This from someone who is a full time government subsidized student, who doesn't hold a job, has probably never had a girlfriend, and is notoriously well kown for posting hyperbole from really stupid sources.
Glad this idiot didn’t get elected.
So, she has commented on this bill????
Maturity should bring clearer thinking.
The facts that the birch society presents are usually unsettling or downright frightening, but they are always correct, whether you are able to deal with it or not.
Its high time that we all quit trying to kill the messenger every time bad news comes along.
This bill is a huge mistake as written, and largely unnecessary and feckless WRT terrorists, since we already have adequate statutes on the books to deal with them. The problem is not a lack of laws, but a lack of desire on the part of the left to enforce them.
This is not a tool that will be used on terrorists; it will be used on patriotic Americans, by unpatriotic Democrat regimes, as we have already learned under Carter, and Clinton. We don’t dare allow something like this to fall into the hands of Obama & Co.
“Sean is beyond useless at times when it comes to his RINO buddies: McLame, Newt, Huckebee, and Romney!”
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Yep!
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We are looking at a time when an innocent US citizen -- think about how easy it would be for our uncontrolled government to "designate" you an "enemy belligerant" -- might be detained indefinitely, without charges and without trial, yet the real terrorists who kill Americans in war must be granted the priveleges of an American citizen!
It's pure, undiluted insanity!
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