Graham is quite the demagog! Why is he pushing "habeas corpus" amendment?

[flpoljunkie]

Why is Lindsay Graham flogging this unnecessary amendment to the Defense appropriation bill ?

The Democrats, plus Senator Specter, want to give enemy combatants the right to sue in federal courts, Graham insists. This is disingenuous, to say the least.

Levin says we do not need the amendment. "To what court would a death sentence be appealed," Levin asks? "Answer, no court, but to the three-judge panel appointed by Rummy."

[CottonBear]

1. Isn't Lindsay a Military Reserve JAG officer?

Can you say "conflict of interest?"

[flpoljunkie]

3. Indeed, he is.

[mitchum]

2. Gomer is indeed a lying demagogue

[Scoots]

4. I wonder...

According to some friends (I have no time to look this up myself) W's new excuse for letting people die in NOLA was that he was PREVENTED from acting by the Posse Commitatus act. The argument being, if we don't get rid of the act the National Guard cannot respond to national emergencies.

Now they're questioning habeas corpus? Regardless of how narrow the ammendment might be, this is really scary.

As I understand it, these are the two main provisions of MARTIAL LAW.

Anyone know how to properly fold a tin foil hat?

[flpoljunkie]

5. This is in regard to the enemy combatants being held in Guantanamo.

[Scoots]

6. Specifically at Guantanamo, or ALL enemy combatants?

I seem to recall the PATRIOT ACT was aimed at foreign terrorists, and yet provisions have been applied to take down small-time criminals.

I may be completely wrong here, and when I have more time (I'm in between classes) I'll look up the amendment, but I'm skeptical that the definition of enemy combatants is probably not narrow enough to keep this from being applied to American citizens in the name of security.

[flpoljunkie]

7. Apparently Guantanamo only. Article below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/11/politics/11detain.html?ei=5094&en=ef324454cb3a79c4&hp=&ex=1131771600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

November 11, 2005
Senate Approves Limiting Rights of U.S. Detainees

By ERIC SCHMITT

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 - The Senate voted Thursday to strip captured "enemy combatants" at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, of the principal legal tool given to them last year by the Supreme Court when it allowed them to challenge their detentions in United States courts.

The vote, 49 to 42, on an amendment to a military budget bill by Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, comes at a time of intense debate over the government's treatment of prisoners in American custody worldwide, and just days after the Senate passed a measure by Senator John McCain banning abusive treatment of them.

If approved in its current form by both the Senate and the House, which has not yet considered the measure but where passage is considered likely, the law would nullify a June 2004 Supreme Court opinion that detainees at Guantánamo Bay had a right to challenge their detentions in court.

<>Five Democrats joined 44 Republicans in backing the amendment, but the vote on Thursday may only be a temporary triumph for Mr. Graham. Senate Democrats led by Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico said they would seek another vote, as early as Monday, to gut the part of Mr. Graham's measure that bans Guantánamo prisoners from challenging their incarceration by petitioning in civilian court for a writ of habeas corpus.

[pmorlan1]

8. EMERGENCY ACTION! REVERSE DISASTROUS AMENDMENT ON DETAINEES

EMERGENCY ACTION! REVERSE DISASTROUS AMENDMENT ON DETAINEES


When the Graham amendment passed in the U.S. Senate yesterday, the clock began ticking on human rights in U.S. detention facilities. If we do not act now, non-citizens held by the Bush Administration in Guantánamo will lose the fundamental right to challenge their detention and know what they are charged with, and America will no longer be a country where everyone is equal before the law. The Graham amendment jeopardizes the rights of non-citizens everywhere in the world.

Join CCR in calling and writing your senators today and this weekend to tell them to support the Bingaman amendment – a critical amendment to the Graham amendment that may be introduced Monday. THIS IS A REAL EMERGENCY. STOP THIS ASSAULT ON THE RULE OF LAW, CALL YOUR SENATORS NOW!

The Graham amendment creates a legal black hole of almost unimaginable proportions for those swept up by the Bush Administration’s “war on terror.” The Supreme Court ruled last year in CCR’s case, Rasul v. Bush, that the detainees at Guantánamo have the right to challenge their detention in U.S. court – they did not want the Executive branch of the government to be able to lock people up and throw away the key. If the Bingaman amendment does not pass, the Bush Administration will have successfully stripped federal courts of jurisdiction to hear the cases of the Guantánamo detainees.

The last time this country suspended habeas corpus was for the internment of tens of thousands of Japanese Americans during World War II, a travesty that is now universally recognized as a blot on our nation’s history.

(more)

http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ccr/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1500

The above site has a sample email that you can easily send to Congress. It will only take you a moment and it is SO Important.

[No Exit]

9. That little sleazeball needs to get out of our government now.

The slippery slope is MUCH better-greased during this murderous regime. In no time at all, everyone will lose habeas corpus. I truly believe that.

I've been watching HBO's "Rome". What did they do to Caesar when he was getting too close to being a dictator?