Anonymous Report This Comment Date: October 18, 2006 02:07PM
That's ok...it wasn't working that well anyway.
HellBent Report This Comment Date: October 18, 2006 07:35PM
---------------------------------------------------
Bush signs torture bill; Americans lose essential freedom
---------------------------------------------------
George W. Bush got what he wanted, ostensibly as a tool in his unfocused
"war on terror": By signing into law the Military Commissions Act of
2006, Bush has made it legal for the C.I.A. to continue operating torture
facilities in undisclosed, foreign countries, and for the writ of habeas corpus
to be suspended for individuals who are designated "enemy combatants"
against the U.S. (Designated by whom? That question remains unanswered.) The law
also "establishes military tribunals that would allow some use of evidence
obtained by coercion [that is, torture], but would give defendants access to
classified evidence being used to convict them." (Reuters -[
thestar.com.my] )
The provisions of Bush's new torture law mean that Americans have lost the key,
constitutional right on which Anglo-American criminal law (and criminal-law
procedures in true democracies in general) is founded; that's the basic right of
an individual to know why he or she is being apprehended and detained. Now,
technically, as in Stalin's Soviet Union, Hitler's Germany, Mao's China or Pol
Pot's Cambodia, anyone labeled an "enemy combatant" - again, by whom;
by Bush? - can be whisked away and never heard from again. That kind of
authority, in the hands of corrupt or untruthful politicians, may or may not be
an effective tool in some kind of "war on terror," but it certainly
can be a useful tool when it comes to silencing their opponents.
"Officially, the Military Commissions Act protects detainees from blatant
abuses during questioning, such as rape, torture and 'cruel and inhuman'
treatment, but it does not require that any of them be granted legal
counsel....Bush said that it was 'fair, lawful and necessary.'" (Times -
[
www.timesonline.co.uk] )
During the bill-signing ceremony yesterday, religious groups protested outside
the White House. Demonstrators declared, "Bush is the terrorist" and
"Torture is a crime."
In an Orwellian pronouncement dutifully reported by Voice of America, the
taxpayer-funded "news" service that acts as a mouthpiece for the
administration, Bush said: "The United States does not torture....It is
against our laws and it is against our values. By allowing the C.I.A. program to
go forward, this bill is preserving a tool that has saved American lives."
Bush's claim flies in the face of numerous reports of torture conducted by
American officials at U.S. military prisons or secret locations overseas. (See
Human Rights Watch - [
www.hrw.org] )
China's Xinhua
(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-10/17/content_5216124.htm), the
state-controlled news agency of a country that knows a thing or two about
suppressing human rights, reports: "Of the hundreds of detainees being
jailed at the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, only ten have been
selected for trial. The indefinite detention of others has been condemned by
human-rights groups as violating international law." Xinhua adds:
"Some or all of the 14 suspects held by the C.I.A. in secret prisons
[outside the U.S.] and recently transferred to military custody at Guantánamo
might also be tried." (And then again, given the imprecision of Bush's new
law and the ever-greater power that he keeps claiming as president, they might
not.)
Xinhua observes: "Three weeks before the midterm congressional elections,
[Bush's] signing of the bill was believed to be a deliberate move aimed to shift
public attention...from the scandals that could cost Republicans their control
of Congress."
Posted By: Edward M. Gomez (Email) | October 17 2006 at 12:42 PM
Listed Under: "War on Terror" | [
sfgate.com]
Jordan1st Report This Comment Date: October 18, 2006 10:53PM
its funny that kinnda reminds me of saddam husaina's regime,
remember 3 years ago, when 250,000 soligers invaded iraq to stop saddam killing
and tourturing the iraqi people! to inforce democracy and human rights, to make
haliburton "cheny & bush.co" richer.
well i dont see any diffrence between the two... well at least saddam has
diginty.
Anonymous Report This Comment Date: October 19, 2006 06:15AM
Olbermann: The Day Habeas Corpus Died
Crooks & Liars | October 18 2006
Today, 135 years to the day after the last American President (Ulysses S. Grant)
suspended habeas corpus, President Bush signed into law the Military Commissions
Act of 2006. At its worst, the legislation allows President Bush or Donald
Rumsfeld to declare anyone — US citizen or not — an enemy combatant, lock
them up and throw away the key without a chance to prove their innocence in a
court of law. In other words, every thing the Founding Fathers fought the
British empire to free themselves of was reversed and nullified with the stroke
of a pen, all under the guise of the War on Terror.
Jonathan Turley joined Keith to talk about the law that Senator Feingold said
would be seen as "a stain on our nation's history."
Turley: "People have no idea how significant this is. Really a time of
shame this is for the American system.—The strange thing is that we have
become sort of constitutional couch potatoes. The Congress just gave the
President despotic powers and you could hear the yawn across the country as
people turned to Dancing With the Stars. It's otherworldly..People clearly don't
realize what a fundamental change it is about who we are as a country. What
happened today changed us. And I'm not too sure we're gonna change back anytime
soon."
Anonymous Report This Comment Date: October 19, 2006 06:40AM
Is everyone in the USA comfortable with "security camera's"
everywhere, all the time, look at the dumbasses in london for instance, piles of
camera's at every street corner, are you going to be comfortable with things
like having to scan your eye and or your hand to do anything(it's convenient and
helps us keep extra safe) how about having the future generations of this
country getting rfid (tracking device) put inside them, you know for there
safety, and if anyone wants to deny this kind of shit happening, just remember,
your kids and great grandkids may be able to read your bullshit when they are
directly involved in it. Whatever, no big deal, just silliness............. Oh
yeah, passing that law just opened lots more doors for THEM, now if you go
against THEM when signing the next piece of paper, they can throw you away , no
rights, the end............. You don't have to get worked up about this weird
stuff but you do need to check up on the real facts.
Terror Storm (video)
[
video.google.com]