Bush can label any of us "enemy combatants" and imprison us

[Eric J in MN]

for the rest of our lives without trial:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,168902,00.html

[incapsulated]

1. Yes, he can

Why do you hate freedom? Don't you love America?

[txaslftist]

2. Don't give him any ideas.

[Theres-a]

4. .

:spray:

[Dees]

3. Bring it Chimpy McMurderNuts

[freemen2005]

5. Read the post : We the people

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. When They Say They Hate Us for Our Freedom

They mean themselves. The Republicans love their freedoms. However they hate those pesky freedoms that lead to people photographing truths that make power rule more difficult. They hate those pesky freedoms such as the Second Amendment when poor African Americans get "uppity" by trying to use it themselves.

[JuniperLea]

7. There's no stadium big enough

to hold us all:)

[LiberalVoice]

8. Yeah.

But theres more then enough earth to dump the bodies into.

[JuniperLea]

11. Quit comparing him to Hitler!

:sarcasm:

[LiberalVoice]

20. Even if you werent being sarcastic.

Their are mass graves dug by US forces in afghanistan with undreds if not thousands of Taliban buried in them.

[Inland]

9. Oh, my God. Any idiot can see the logical fallacy of this opinion.

1) The president has the power to detain any person "closely associated with alqaeda"

2) the factual question of whether a person is or is not "closely associated with alqaeda" belongs to the president;

3) The legal question of the definition of an "enemy combatant" is completely within the president's determination;

4) The factual definition of whether a person fits the definition of "enemy combatant" belongs solely to the president.

Ergo, a person is imprisoned on the president's say-so. No defense is allowed, and indeed, no defense is possible.

And the conservative legal group says, "The courts are ill-equipped to second-guess the president when, acting in his capacity as commander in chief, he makes decisions implicating sensitive matters of foreign policy, national security, or military affairs." Here's an idea: LET'S STOP IMPRISONING AMERICANS BASED ON FIRST GUESSING, SECOND GUESSING OR THIRD GUESSING AND GIVE THE GUY A CHANCE TO DEFEND HIMSELF.

[politicat]

19. Sounds like a lettre du cachet to me....

And we know where those got Louis and Marie Antoinette.....

[mainegreen]

10. Erm, I don't think so.

Pretty sure you have to be picked up outside of the US territory, and since I don't think he had made it through customs, he wasn't yet in the US.

[Eric J in MN]

14. No, Jose Padilla was arrested in the US.

nt

[mainegreen]

18. It was at O'hare airport

But was it before or after customs. Makes a huge difference!

[Eric J in MN]

24. Not an issue in this case.

The judges didn't that it's ok to imprison him without trial because he wasn't truly in the US.

[Inland]

21. It would have been US customs. At O'Hare.

I don't think any
technicality of ON vs. OFF US soil can be relied upon, and from the news reports, it wasn't.

From what I saw reported, the court expressly acknowledged that he wasn't picked up on a battlefied, which, at least, is SOME evidence of him being a combatant.

[KansDem]

12. I wonder if he can do it like those Rev. Moon weddings: 1,000 at a time?

Moon can marry 1,000s of couples in one ceremony. Could Bush declare 1,000s of Americans "enemy combatants" with one declaration? Like, "I hereby designate those Americans whose names end with a vowel to be 'enemy combatants'!" Off to GitMo with the "Terrorists-whose-names-end-with-a-vowel" crowd!

[samsingh]

13. so can the next president

it will be interesting to see if a Democratic President can round up all the right wing fanatics and lock them up. It's a logical extension to the policy as these are dangerous people.

hmmm - isn't bush dangerous?

[Inland]

23. All they have to do is sign a piece of paper. nt

[jsamuel]

15. liberty has been shot

[RaleighNCDUer]

16. And what, exactly, happened to Habeus Corpus?

Hamdi was not native born so he could be pressured into renouncing citizenship and being exiled. Native born Padilla cannot do that, so he goes into internal exile -- isn't that what they called it in the gulag?

Even Renquist would not let this stand - but Roberts will. Renquist was a paleocon, but not a tool of the corporations.

[Inland]

22. All gone.

That's precisely the point of ruling that he need not be charged.

[mmonk]

17. From democratic republic

to dictatorship in 4 1/2 years.