[Vision2020] No Speculation: "Deal" Bans Habeas Corpus, If It Becomes Law

[Ted Moffett]

Bruce et. al.

I take back my earlier suggestion that I was speculating that the
congressional deal on torture and the Geneva Convention re-write was used to
"sneak" in an undermining of habeas corpus.  The facts are plain, whether
you think the slant of the media focus on the issue was a deliberate smoke
screen or not.

The media for the most part did not expose in detail the ban on habeas
corpus which disagreed with the Supreme Court ruling in Hamden vs Rumsfeld.
The fact this proposed legislation contradicts this Supreme Court ruling on
how habeas corpus applies to detainees caught up in prosecuting the war on
terror should have been headlines.  Either the media was deliberately
irresponsible, or... as often, just chasing the rating/advertising revenue
game, again the public in the USA is oblivious to critical issues the US
Congress is deciding on human rights issues, in a decision that contradicted
the US Supreme Court.

If the article below is correct (see also the posted information from the
"Institute For Public Accuracy" today on Vision2020 subject headed "Habeas
Corpus & the Amnesty-For-Torturers-Act?"), the congressional deal on
"torture," while upholding aspects of the Geneva Convention, as it was
portrayed in the media, included undermining of habeas corpus, allowing
indefinite detainment (life in prison?) under suspension of habeas corpus,
contradicting the Supreme Court ruling in Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld:

http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/nhentoff.htm

Quote from the article at the web link above:

There was considerable applause -- and much concern by the president and his
supporters -- when the Senate Armed Services Committee passed a bill more in
line with the Geneva Conventions than the president's proposals. But Sens.
John Warner, John McCain and Lindsey Graham also included prohibition of
habeas corpus petitions by detainees -- contrary to this June's Supreme
Court decision that federal courts have the authority to hear their claims
on the lawfulness of their imprisonment and, and conditions of treatment
(Hamdan v. Rumsfeld).

And if the prohibitions on habeas rights become law -- the prisoners can be
held for the rest of their lives on the secret evidence and the coerced
interrogations that the three senators tried to remedy in their bill.
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Ted Moffett
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