MUST READ by Chris Floyd - 'Judge dread: John Roberts and enemy combatants

[springhill]

For example, on July 15, a panel of federal appellate court judges upheld Bush's sovereign right to dispose of "enemy combatants" any way he pleases, the Washington Post reports. In a chilling decision, the judges ruled that the Commander's arbitrarily designated "enemies" are non-persons: neither the Geneva Conventions nor American military and domestic law apply to such garbage. Bush is now free to subject anyone he likes to the "military tribunal" system he has concocted - a brutal sham that some top retired military officials have denounced as a "kangaroo court" that will be used by tyrants around the world to "hide their oppression under U.S. precedent."

One of the kowtowing jurists on the appeals panel was none other than John G. Roberts. Four days after he affirmed Bush's autocratic powers, Roberts was duly awarded with a nomination to the Supreme Court. Now he will be sitting in final judgment on this case - and any other challenges to Bush's peremptory commands. This is what is known, in the tyrant trade, as "a safe pair of hands."

The ruling by Roberts and his fellow Republican jurists ignores the fact that the Geneva Conventions - which lay down strict guidelines for the handling of any person detained by military forces, regardless of the captive's status - have been incorporated into the U.S. legal code, as Deep Blade points out. They cannot be abrogated by presidential fiat. And anyone who commits a "grave breach" of the Conventions - by facilitating the killing, torture or inhuman treatment of detainees (e.g., stripping them of all legal status and subjecting them to rigged tribunals) - is subject to the death penalty under American law.

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=22015&mode=nested&order=0

[wli]

1. c.f. Jose Padilla

They're already doing it to Americans.

[LibertyorDeath]

2. That ties in with this IMO

THE PENTAGON'S NEW ARMIES OF THE NIGHT


Foreign Correspondent
INSIDE TRACK ON WORLD NEWS
by international syndicated columnist & broadcaster Eric Margolis

The Pentagon's new spy arm will be largely excluded from Congressional oversight or media examination. Its special operations teams will roam the globe, killing or kidnapping at will, torturing suspects, and bringing down governments, all under cover of `deep black' missions of which no records will be kept, and no questions asked.

Equally worrying, the Pentagon's new special ops units are headed up by notorious religious fanatic and loudmouth, Lt. Gen. William Boykin, who calls the US Army, `the house of God,' and Islamic insurgents, `agents of Satan;' and told Muslims `my God is bigger than your god, which is an idol. '

Boykin's command will now dispatch post-modern Christian crusaders to cleanse the world of Satanic Muslims and other miscreants. The Pentagon's new special forces will be able to hire local armies and hit men, as well as run ops of which CIA knows nothing. The 9/11 Commission called for improved intra-agency cooperation and data sharing - what we will now get is far less cooperation, as the Pentagon goes its own, secret way.

Equally worrisome, the Pentagon's new `black' warriors will not be supervised by a normal military chain of command or some degree of Congressional oversight, as were CIA combat teams. These irregular forces will draw into their ranks rabid ideologists, uniformed bounty hunters, and Bible Belt mutants wearing t-shirts proclaiming, `kill em'all, let God sort'em out.' These militarized thugs and video arcade Rambos are sure to run amok, commit serious crimes, and drag America's once good name ever deeper into the mud.

More http://www.bigeye.com/fc020705.htm

[enough]

3. Almost too frightening to contemplate,

which I suppose is why most Americans won't contemplate it.

[geckosfeet]

4. This whole thing stinks. He has been a judge for 2 years? Now why I

wonder did he decide that after years of teaching, did he finally decide that he wanted to be a judge? This smells like political racketeering to me.

[WhiteTara]

5. kick

:kick:

[patdem]

6. Why Chris Floyd is not in ALL the American press is amazing..and

that he is only in the Moscow Times..and posted on blogs is just a shame! He is so much smarter than most journalists of the American press...because of that they should be ashamed!

[confuddled]

10. A shame,yes, but not amazing.

He is a stunning writer - and inclined to speak the truth from a unique perspective.

[anarchy1999]

7. AGREED! THIS IS A MUST READ!

I knew there was something really wrong.

[teryang]

8. The "path of action" for men of action

<It doesn't matter anymore if the president's orders to suspend the Conventions, construct a worldwide gulag, torture captives, spy on Americans, fabricate intelligence and wage aggressive war are illegal under the "quaint" strictures of the old dispensation; the courts, packed with Bushist cadres, are now affirming the new order, the "critical authority" of the Commander, beyond law and morality, on the higher plane of what Bush calls "the path of action.">

Law, who needs it?

[indepat]

9. This article chillingly describes why Americans are getting exactly the

government they so richly have earned and deserve, for if we the people did not deserve this government, we the people would not have allowed it, would have stopped all this cold in its tracks EOS.

[WhiteTara]

11. I hope moveon starts some commercials

that tell the truth about this piece of flotsam. I am ready to donate.