Dec 16, 2011

So no Veto then, Obama?

The branches of the US Government should be following. Due Process, the Geneva Convention, no indefinite and arbitrary detention, but instead Obama signs this bill, in a battle over Executive or Congressional power of arbitrary detention instead of the debate, which believers in rights, freedom and the Bill of Rights want is that there should not be indefinite and arbitrary detention. In creating is the same rights-less environment that despotic regimes exhibited, every country with detainees held, uncharged, without due process of law will have their own MIA/POW flags representing their nationals held by the USA (though not necessarily in the USA).

It's also alarming how many of the steps enumerated by Naomi Wolf are already checked off her list/blueprint for turning a democracy into a dictatorship. The only hope now is a rights-respecting congress removes the provision in a future bill (not likely except for a few intellectually strong individuals), or the Supreme Court gets to decide the Constitutionality. Specifically, the Sixth Amendment is of concern here:

"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense."

Which makes no distinction of citizenry, the form of accusation, etc.

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