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09.25 State Elections Boards Seeks Volunteers to Help Process Unprecedented Number of Voter Applications
09.18 Reviewing Danny Schechter's "Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal"
Ref. : Letters to the editor
09.30 To Joe Biden: Time for Confession
09.28 Open Letter to Senator Barack Obama
09.26 Bailout Package Must be Transparent to the American People
09.18 Possible $2 Million Donation to Support Md. Slots Sends Wrong Message
10.10 Ayers = Keating?
10.02 Project Censored's Media Democracy Advocacy
09.23 Satire: Louella Reads the Baltimore Sun
09.22 CBS Cheats on Tax Coverage
09.10 Post's Post-Convention 'Balancing' Act
09.10 McCain/Palin Campaign Relies on Lazy Thinking and Prejudice to Win
09.10 The Rising Cost of the Iraq 'Surge'
10.09 McCain-Palin Put 'Country Last'
10.07 GOP Judges Aid White House Cover-up
10.07 Voting the Fate of the Nation
10.07 Alaska GOP's Last-Ditch Palin Defense
10.07 Election '08: Here Comes the Sludge
10.02 John McCain v. The Truth
10.02 Drinking at the Public Fountain
10.01 Who won the Mississippi debate? Obama—but for different reasons than you think
09.30 The Shadow of the Pitchfork: Elite Panic Attack as Bailout Goes Bust
09.29 The Resurrectionists: Beltway's Big Money Cultists Bail Out the Dead
09.29 We Have the Money
09.27 Debate Evades Dark Realities
09.26 Alaskan Officials Allege Palin Cover-up
09.24 Don’t Worry, Be Happy
09.24 Text of Draft Proposal for Bailout Plan
09.24 Hey, Government! How About Calling on Us?
09.23 Coming Attractions: War Without End, Amen
09.22 The Evolution of John McCain
09.21 Palin's 'Troopergate' Battle Rages
09.19 Burning the First Amendment
09.15 Subverting Democracy Through Electoral Fraud
09.15 Military Industrial Complex 2.0
09.13 Acceptable Sacrifice: For the Right to Endorse
09.13 Why More Soldiers from Alaska?
09.12 Experience is Over-Rated
09.10 Obama Must Call for Palin's Removal from the Ticket
09.10 9/11 Plus Seven
09.10 Palin's Strange Probe of a Trooper
09.10 Dear Democrats: Integrity Won’t Win this Election
10.09 The Surge That Failed
10.08 The Orwellosphere: Anglo-American Drive to 'Total Security State' Rolls On
10.08 Justice for Yemini Sheik
10.06 The Wounded Shark: 'Good War' Lost, But the Imperial Project Goes On
10.02 U.S. Army Troops To Serve As U.S. Policemen?
09.25 Life on the Ledge
09.16 "Awakening" Into Nightmare: Seeding More Sectarian War in Iraq
10.06 Thinking About Treason
10.06 The Fleecing of America
10.03 Can a bailout succeed?
10.02 Empire of Greed
10.02 No Surprise in the Senate Bailout Vote
10.02 How Wall Street Can Bail Itself Out Without Destroying The Dollar
10.02 The Specter of Wall Street
10.01 We Need to Demand Hearings!
09.30 Surprise! Congress Listened to the Voting Public!
09.29 Thinking About Gyrations
09.29 Grand Theft America
09.26 Seizing America by Withholding the Mother’s Milk of Politics
09.26 Framing the $700 Billion Question
09.26 Bail Out NO, Buy Out YES
09.26 Just Say "No" to Any Immediate Bailout
09.26 Has Deregulation Sired Fascism?
09.25 Don't Fuel the Fire: Fire the Arsonists
09.25 America Pays the Piper, Big Time
09.24 Just Thinking Aloud Here
09.23 What Nobody's Saying: The Bailout Will Kill the Dollar
09.22 Thinking About Escalations
09.18 US Economy: Rudderless and Reeling From Direct Hits
09.18 US Economy: Rudderless and Reeling From Direct Hits
09.17 Creative Destruction: The Solid Core Behind the Financial Crisis
09.16 You Can't Feel Blue About the Economy If You Want To. There Are No Blue Chips Anymore
09.15 Thinking About Spotlights
09.15 U.S. Economy—Temporary Respite, Permanent Decline
10.10 Another Israeli West Bank Land Grab Scheme
09.26 Annals of Liberation: Sex is Death in a Darkened Land
09.25 New Coup D'Etat Rumblings in Venezuela
09.22 Remembering Edward Said Five Years On
09.20 Filter Tips: Distortion and Demonization on the Iran Beat
09.11 Wall Street and Washington
COMMENTARY:
Shame on Us All
From the noble American ideal of each human being possessing “unalienable rights” as declared by the Founders 230 years ago amid the ringing of bells in Philadelphia, the United States effectively rescinded that concept on a dreary fall day in Washington.
At a crimped ceremony in the East Room of the White House, President George W. Bush signed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 while sitting behind a sign reading “Protecting America.”
“It is a rare occasion when a President can sign a bill he knows will save American lives,” Bush said. “I have that privilege this morning.”
But the new law does much more. In effect, it creates a parallel “star chamber” system of criminal justice for anyone, including an American citizen, who is suspected of engaging in, contributing to or acting in support of violent acts directed against the U.S. government or its allies anywhere on earth. The law strips “unlawful combatants” and their alleged fellow-travelers of the fundamental right of habeas corpus, meaning that they can’t challenge their imprisonment in civilian courts, at least not until after they are brought before a military tribunal, tried under special secrecy rules and then sentenced.
One of the catches, however, is that with habeas corpus suspended these suspects have no guarantee of a swift trial and can theoretically be jailed indefinitely at the President’s discretion. Given the endless nature of the “global war on terror,” suspects could disappear forever into the dark hole of unlimited executive authority, their fate hidden even from their families. While incarcerated, the “unlawful combatants” and their cohorts can be subjected to coercive interrogations with their words used against them if and when they are brought to trial as long as a military judge approves.
The military tribunals also could use secret evidence to prosecute a wide range of “disloyal” American citizens as well as anti-American non-citizens. The procedures are similar to “star chambers,” which have been employed historically by absolute monarchs and totalitarian states. Even after the prosecutions are completed, the President could keep details secret. While an annual report must be made to Congress about the military tribunals, the President can conceal whatever information he chooses in a classified annex.
But the law goes much further when it addresses what can happen to people alleged to have given aid and comfort to America’s enemies. According to the law’s language, even American citizens who are accused of helping terrorists can be shunted into the military tribunal system where they could languish indefinitely without constitutional protections.
“Any person is punishable as a principal under this chapter who commits an offense punishable by this chapter, or aids, abets, counsels, commands, or procures its commission,” the law states. “Any person subject to this chapter who, in breach of an allegiance or duty to the United States, knowingly and intentionally aids an enemy of the United States, or one of the co-belligerents of the enemy [presumably U.S. military allies, such as Great Britain and Israel], shall be punished as a military commission ... may direct. ...
“Any person subject to this chapter who with intent or reason to believe that it is to be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of a foreign power, collects or attempts to collect information by clandestine means or while acting under false pretenses, for the purpose of conveying such information to an enemy of the United States, or one of the co-belligerents of the enemy, shall be punished by death or such other punishment as a military commission ... may direct. ...
“Any person subject to this chapter who conspires to commit one of the more substantive offenses triable by military commission under this chapter, and who knowingly does any overt act to effect the object of the conspiracy, shall be punished, if death results to one or more of the victims, by death or such other punishment as a military commission ... may direct, and, if death does not result to any of the victims, by such punishment, other than death, as a military commission ... may direct.” [Emphases added]
In other words, a wide variety of alleged crimes, including some specifically targeted at citizens with “an allegiance or duty to the United States,” would be transferred from civilian courts to military tribunals, where habeas corpus and other constitutional rights would not apply.
Under the military tribunal law, a judge “may close to the public all or a portion of the proceedings” if he deems that the evidence must be kept secret for national security reasons. Those concerns can be conveyed to the judge through ex parte – or one-sided – communications from the prosecutor or a government representative.
The judge also can exclude the accused from the trial if there are safety concerns or if the defendant is disruptive. Plus, the judge can admit evidence obtained through coercion if he determines it “possesses sufficient probative value” and “the interests of justice would best be served by admission of the statement into evidence.”
The law permits, too, the introduction of secret evidence “while protecting from disclosure the sources, methods, or activities by which the United States acquired the evidence if the military judge finds that ... the evidence is reliable.”
During trial, the prosecutor would have the additional right to assert a “national security privilege” that could stop “the examination of any witness,” presumably by the defense if the questioning touched on any sensitive matter.
The prosecution also would retain the right to appeal any adverse ruling by the military judge to the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia. For the defense, however, the law states that “no court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider any claim or cause of action whatsoever ... relating to the prosecution, trial, or judgment of a military commission under this chapter, including challenges to the lawfulness of procedures of military commissions.”
Further, the law states “no person may invoke the Geneva Conventions or any protocols thereto in any habeas corpus or other civil action or proceeding to which the United States, or a current or former officer, employee, member of the Armed Forces, or other agent of the United States is a party as a source of rights in any court of the United States or its States or territories.”
In effect, that provision amounts to a broad amnesty for all U.S. officials, including President Bush and other senior executives who may have authorized torture, murder or other violations of human rights.
Beyond that amnesty provision, the law grants President Bush the authority “to interpret the meaning and the application of the Geneva Conventions.”
In signing the Military Commissions Act of 2006, Bush remarked that “one of the terrorists believed to have planned the 9/11 attacks said he hoped the attacks would be the beginning of the end of America.” Pausing for dramatic effect, Bush added, “He didn’t get his wish.”
Or, perhaps, the terrorist did.
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This story was published on October 18, 2006.
