<br>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 5/4/08, <b class="gmail_sendername">keely emerinemix</b> <<a href="mailto:kjajmix1@msn.com">kjajmix1@msn.com</a>> wrote:</span></div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">
<div><br> I feel a glow of pride in my country when I reflect on the fact that detainees cannot legally be hit, tortured, verbally abused, ... I've been accused of being unpatriotic, but I'm damned proud that whatever its myriad other faults, my country offers basic civil liberties to prisoners and detainees. I'm so sorry Donovan can't join me in that.<br>
<br>Keely</div></blockquote>
<div> </div>
<div>I wish I could share Keely's glow of pride in the US's respect for basic civil rights, but in fact I am dismayed, disappointed and, when considering the gravity of the changes, shocked at the undermining of basic civil liberties by our government. I think it is easy to forget or downplay what has really happened to the guarantees of civil rights that many assume are respected by the world's leading "democracy." The changes are so incredible, denial is an understandable response. Of course, many people have never been fully aware of the full extent of the weakening of civil rights in the US.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Someone correct me if I misunderstand the current legal climate in the US regarding basic civil liberties, but I think the evidence demonstrates "basic civil liberties" have been recently, and still can be, denied to prisoners and detainees, both on US soil, and on "foreign" soil either under US control (Guantanamo), or transported to foreign soil by agents of the US to be held by foreign agents (rendered for interrogation using torture, in some cases, conducted by non-US agents, such as in Syria).</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Unless the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, and other actions passed by the US Congress, and relevant executive orders issued by the Bush administration, have been voided, "basic civil liberties," banning torture, and assuring the protections of habeas corpus and the Fourth Amendment, and other Bill of Rights protections, can be denied to "detainees" and in fact to US citizens:</div>
<div> </div>
<div>At the URL below is a summary of changes to US law in recent years (post 9/11) regarding civil rights, with URLs to numerous sources on this subject:</div>
<div> </div>
<div><a href="http://freedomfromfear.us/filemanager/active?fid=5"><font color="blue" size="2">http://freedomfromfear.us/filemanager/active?fid=5</font></a><br>---------------</div>
<div>More commentary on the undermining of basic civil rights by our government:</div>
<div> </div>
<div><a href="http://www.llrx.com/extras/militarycommissions.htm">http://www.llrx.com/extras/militarycommissions.htm</a></div>
<p>The Military Commissions Act threatens not just terrorists, but, as Senator Leahy noted in his <a href="http://judiciary.senate.gov/member_statement.cfm?id=2416&wit_id=2629"><font color="#143d80">testimony</font></a> September 26, it</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em class="c4">would permit the President to detain indefinitely - even for life - any alien, whether in the United States or abroad, whether a foreign resident or a lawful permanent resident, without any meaningful opportunity for the alien to challenge his detention. The Administration would not even need to assert, much less prove, that the alien was an enemy combatant; it would suffice that the alien was "awaiting [a] determination" on that issue. In other words, the bill would tell the millions of legal immigrants living in America, participating in American families, working for American businesses, and paying American taxes, that our Government may at any minute pick them up and detain them indefinitely without charge, and without any access to the courts or even to military tribunals, unless and until the Government determines that they are not enemy combatants.</em></p>
<p><em class="c4">Detained indefinitely, and unaccountably, until proven innocent.</em></p></blockquote>
<p>Others have gone further to state that it threatens American citizens. Marjory Cohn (<a href="mailto:marjorie@tjsl.edu"><font color="#143d80">email</font></a>, <a href="http://www.tjsl.edu/faculty_m_cohn"><font color="#143d80">website</font></a>), professor at <a href="http://www.tjsl.edu/about_tjsl"><font color="#143d80">Thomas Jefferson School of Law</font></a> in San Diego and president of the <a href="http://www.nlg.org/about/aboutus.htm"><font color="#143d80">National Lawyers Guild</font></a>, writing September 30, 2006 for the Legal Television Network, noted in her article, <a href="http://www.legalnews.tv/commentary/the_military_commissions_act_unintended_consequences_20060930.html"><font color="#143d80">"Military Commissions Act: Unintended Consequences?"</font></a></p>
<blockquote>
<p><em class="c4">Because the bill was adopted with lightning speed, barely anyone noticed that it empowers Bush to declare not just aliens, but also U.S. citizens, "unlawful enemy combatants."</em></p></blockquote>
<p>She added,</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em class="c4">Anyone who donates money to a charity that turns up on Bush's list of "terrorist" organizations, or who speaks out against the government's policies could be declared an "unlawful enemy combatant" and imprisoned indefinitely. That includes American citizens.</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>In addition to both those criticisms, the Center for Constitutional Rights added in its <a href="http://ccr-ny.org/v2/legal/Docs/MCA_Signing_Briefing_Paper.pdf"><font color="#143d80">briefing paper</font></a> notes that:</p>
<blockquote><em class="c4">The definitions of rape and sexual assault are narrower than under international<br>law and have higher thresholds for proof.</em> </blockquote>
<p>It adds that the law authorizes:</p>
<ul class="c6">
<li class="c5">
<div><em class="c4">authorizes the President to determine what constitutes torture;</em> </div>
<li class="c5">
<div><em class="c4">authorizes the use of evidence obtained by coercion;</em> </div>
<li class="c5">
<div><em class="c4">authorizes the use of hearsay; and</em> </div>
<li class="c5">
<div><em class="c4">authorizes retroactive immunity for U.S. military and intelligence officials for<br>abuses that occurred at sites such as, Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo, Bagram and secret CIA facilities.</em> </div></li></li>
</li></li></ul>
<div>-------------------------------------------</div>
<div>Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett<br> </div>