Friends, something very, very important is about to be rammed through Congress. New legislation that strips the due-process rights of every American, establishes military tribunals, and grants retroactive immunity for everyone that engaged in torture is on track to be passed by the end of the month.
It was covered in good detail on DemocracyNow this morning:
BARBARA OLSHANSKY: You know, there are several. The President’s speech came along with a series of documents: a Department of Defense directive, a new Army field manual that was revised, and this bill. If you put them all together, it says some very interesting things. First, there is the admission, like you said, of the existence of secret prisons, which we knew and they have categorically denied, all across Europe and all across the United States.
But this idea of the CIA program, that language that the President used, we know that that program is a codeword for the use of torture. There's just no doubt about it, because we know how badly people were tortured in Iraq, in Afghanistan and in Guantanamo, and we know that not just from detainees' testimony, but from the testimony of FBI officials, CIA officials. Lots of people have come forward. And the President then is asking the American public and Congress to approve a program of torture going forward.
....
Well, that one is really on the same -- in the same arena.
It is retroactive immunity for everyone that engaged in torture. And the fact is that torture policy really specifically came down from the highest on the high. And in fact, the President, in his speech yesterday, admitted that, that he authorized it, that Rumsfeld put it into effect. And so now we know everyone did it. They said it. And, you know, that idea of being authorized from the top, well, we now know that that happened. And soldiers who follow a policy that violates the law, you know what, we don't exonerate them, because that idea of “they told me to do it,” you know, that principle went out in Nuremburg in the Second World War when it was used by Nazi soldiers. We don't abide by that. No one in the world does. And that's what the President is asking for now: immunity for everyone who is going to say, “My superior told me so.”
....
Yeah. And this was something that really we have had a number of conversations about, you know, with people on the Hill, some people in the White House, about the fact that an administration bill that was leaked included the word “people” instead of the word “aliens,” because the President's November 13th military order in 2001 said “non-citizens.”
Well, now, the language says an unlawful enemy combatant can be any individual. And it's very clear that that means Americans. It can mean anyone in the world. There is no exclusion, you know, for Americans. And the language of who can be an enemy combatant has been tremendously expanded. So it could be, you know, not only al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, but other associated forces and just others who are unnamed.
And it's any hostile act, not necessarily a military act. Am I hostile by talking about what's wrong with this, by sitting here with you? How are we going to know that? And then I end up in Guantanamo in a military commission, where the death penalty can result? This is astounding stuff.
....
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/07/1350230 Now what does this have to do with "Path to 9/11"? Well, there are many
Republicans as well as Democrats who oppose this beast. So the President will need bi-partisan support to ram it through. How will that be achieved?
By painting Democrats as weak on terrorism. And when Democrats are successfully painted as "weak on" anything, they vote for the damnest things.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
