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Ref.: Civic Events
Ref.: Arts & Education Events
Ref.: Public Service Notices
05.19 How the Conservative Worldview Quashes Critical Thinking -- and What That Means For Our Kids' Future
05.19 As Schools Crumble: Quiet Call for Revolution in Philly
Ref. : Letters to the editor
05.22 A Fine Brine: New Desalination Technique Yields More Drinkable Water
05.22 Only renewables - not nuclear - could be too cheap to meter
05.21 Health Bargain Hunters Use Websites To Cut Doctor Bills
05.21 Rapid Climate Changes Turn North Woods into Moose Graveyard
05.20 Collateral Damage in the Marcellus Shale
05.18 Apple to Use Only Green Power for Main Data Center
05.18 New law makes Vermont the first state to ban fracking
05.18 Department of Energy Pretends that Low Levels of Radiation Are Safe
05.17 Only biofuels will cut plane emissions
05.17 Australasia has hottest 60 years in a millennium, scientists find
05.15 Horrific Injuries Linked to BP Dispersant Corexit
05.15 'Last Call at the Oasis': Why Time Is Running Out to Save Our Drinking Water
05.14 German Government to Oppose Fracking
05.11 Petition calls on Brazilian president to veto 'catastrophic' forest code
05.11 Bans on School Junk Food Pay Off in California
05.11 When half a million Americans died and nobody noticed
05.10 Game Over for the Climate
05.10 Pollution: the great leveller
05.10 New study: Amish prove raw milk promotes health in children
05.10 Big Agriculture's Big Secrets: 9 Things You Need to Know About the Food You Eat
Ref. High health-care costs: It’s all in the pricing - graphic
Ref. Dollars for Doctors - How Industry Money Reaches Physicians
Ref. 2010 Comparative Price Report Medical and Hospital Fees by Country - Graphics
Ref. Health at a Glance 2011 - OECD Indicators
Ref. : Why is Healthcare Absurdly Expensive in USA (Part 2) [Graphics] (Part 1 is here)
Video Health Care Systems in Less Corrupt Countries
05.22 It’s Official: Watching Fox Makes You Stupider
05.20 Corporate Media: Dan Rather on Real Time with Bill Maher [video]
Daily The Daily Howler
05.22 How America's death penalty murders innocents
05.17 Federal court enjoins NDAA
05.16 Is the filibuster unconstitutional?
05.15 MONEY UNLIMITED
05.11 How the Corporate Right Hijacked America's Courts to Enrich the Top 1 Percent
05.22 Krugman: Romney ‘really does not understand the economy at all’ [video]
05.22 Is Texas Waging War on History?
05.22 Today's GOP: Worst Political Party Since the Civil War
05.21 The Rise of the New Economy Movement
05.21 Psychiatrist who championed 'gay cure' admits he was wrong
05.16 5 Ways Conservatives are Destroying the Institution of Marriage
05.16 Congress: The TSA Is Wasting Hundreds Of Millions In Taxpayer Dollars
05.16 The Economic Case for Same-Sex Marriage
05.16 If Information Is Power, What Is Lack Of Information? [video]
05.15 IMAGE: It doesn't have to be true, just credible...
05.15 WEDDING BELLS
05.15 Memo to Mitt: Time to Fess Up on Bullying
05.14 “The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off.”
05.14 Hedges: How Our Demented Capitalist System Made America Insane
05.11 Why Atheists Have Become a Kick-Ass Movement You Want on Your Side
05.11 Fixable Error, New Insight, and Social Security
05.10 Ballot Access
05.10 Christian Conservatives vs. Sex: The Long War Over Reproductive Freedom
05.22 Today Germany Is the Big Loser, Not Greece
05.22 Europe is driving full-tilt, foot on the pedal, into a brick wall
05.21 Heist of the century: Wall Street's role in the financial crisis
05.21 MANIPULATIONS: FACEBOOK is a fiat stock, its valuation is no different than fiat money...
05.21 Obama pledges tough enforcement of Wall Street reforms
05.18 Barack Obama tells EU: boost growth now or face a global crisis
05.18 Bank runs intensifying in the Euro zone
05.18 The Dog That Didn’t Bark: Obama on JPMorgan
05.17 Inside Job, Narrated by Matt Damon (Full Length HD Documentary)
05.17 Nurses vs. High-Speed Traders
05.17 Paul Krugman’s Economic Blinders
05.16 “What Scares Me Isn’t $2 Billion Loss JP Morgan Made, What Scares Me is the Record $19 Billion in Profits” [video]
05.16 Republican Party suckles at the breast of Big Business
05.16 Weisbrot and Krugman are Wrong: Greece cannot pull off an Argentina
05.15 Greek deadlock heightens fears of full European economic crisis
05.14 Why We Regulate
05.11 Indentured Servitude for Seniors: Social Security Garnished for Student Debts
05.11 Breaking Up Four Big Banks
05.11 Wall Street’s immunity
05.11 How Wall Street Killed Financial Reform
05.10 Real Estate 4 Ransom -- locking up the Great American Dream
05.10 Quelle Surprise! Fed Defends Incompetent Bank Management Against Investors
05.10 Europe’s Problems Multiply
Ref. Nurses vs. High-Speed Traders
Ref. Inside Job, Narrated by Matt Damon (Full Length HD Documentary)
Ref. We’re More Unequal Than You Think – Graphic: Unequal rise in income
05.22 The Soviets showed the way to leave Afghanistan
05.21 US war veterans tossing medals back at Nato was a heroic act
05.21 Israeli settlers filmed firing guns at [unarmed] Palestinians
05.17 South Sudan slides towards destitution amid border conflict with Sudan
05.15 IDF closes Palestinian school to make way for West Bank training zone
05.14 Noam Chomsky on:
• WikiLeaks, Obama’s Targeted Assassinations and Latin America’s Break From the U.S. [video]
•
Occupy Wall Street "Has Created Something That Didn’t Really Exist" in U.S. — Solidarity [video]
•
Palestinian Hunger Strike a Protest Against "Violations of Elementary Human Rights" [video]
05.14 INFOGRAPHIC: Gas Spending Around The World
05.14 Graphic: Products of Slavery
05.14 Israel warned of volatile situation as Palestinian hunger strikers near death
05.14 How Right-Wing Extremists and Islamists Are the Same
05.14 Guatemala's land grab and massacre
05.11 U.S. Military Taught Officers: Use ‘Hiroshima’ Tactics for ‘Total War’ on Islam
05.11 Thousands of British police join anti-austerity protest
05.10 China Investment Corp. Stops Buying Europe Government Debt on Crisis Concern
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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.
