McCain and Lieberman's "Enemy Belligerent" Act Could Set U.S. on Path to Military Dictatorship

[Joanne98]

By Liliana Segura, AlterNet
Posted on March 19, 2010, Printed on March 19, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/146081/

On March 4th, Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman introduced a bill called the "Enemy Belligerent Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010" that, if passed, would set this country on a course to become a military dictatorship.

The bill is only 12 pages long, but that is plenty of room to grant the president the power to order the arrest, interrogation, and imprisonment of anyone -- including a U.S. citizen -- indefinitely, on the sole suspicion that he or she is affiliated with terrorism, and on the president's sole authority as commander in chief.

The Act begins with the following (convoluted) requirement:

Whenever within the United States, its territories, and possessions, or outside the territorial limits of the United States, an individual is captured or otherwise comes into the custody or under the effective control of the United States who is suspected of engaging in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners through an act of terrorism, or by other means in violation of the laws of war, or of purposely and materially supporting such hostilities, and who may be an unprivileged enemy belligerent, the individual shall be placed in military custody for purposes of initial interrogation and determination of status in accordance with the provisions of this Act.

In other words, if at any point, anywhere in the world, a person is caught who might have done something to suggest that he or she is a terrorist or somehow supporting a terrorist organization against the U.S. or its allies, that person must be imprisoned by the military.

http://www.alternet.org/rights/146081/mccain_and_lieberman%27s_%22enemy_belligerent%22_act_could_set_u.s._on_path_to_military_dictatorship

[notesdev]

1. We are already on that path

They're doing it by the boiled frog method. Unless we stand up and definitively put a stop to it, it is simply a matter of time... and not as much time as you think.

[The Genealogist]

2. This is a very bad law

What will "terra" be next week? Next month? Next year? Ten years from now? What happens when someone from a political extreme in America (more than likely that would be someone on the right) decides that his or her opposition are "terraists?" I hate to go down the slippery slope, but I am seeing no limits on defining what "terrorism" is.

[Me.]

3. And Will Some Dem Put A Hold On This McCarthyite Bill

or will they get all weak kneed about terrorism? Of course there will be legal challenges by outside groups and it will be thrown out but it just goes to show what lengths despicable McCain will go to to get re-elected.