Guilty Until Confirmed Guilty - NYT Edit Blasts New Law

[kpete]

Editorial
Guilty Until Confirmed Guilty


Published: October 15, 2006

When President Bush rammed the bill on military commissions through Congress, the Republicans crowed about creating a process that would be tough on terrorists but preserve essential principles of justice. “America can be proud,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the bill’s architects.

Unfortunately, Mr. Graham was wrong. One of the many problems with the new law is that it will only make it harder than it already is to separate the real terrorists from the far larger group of inmates at Guantánamo Bay who were bit players in the Taliban or innocent bystanders. Mr. Graham and other supporters of this dreadful legislation seem to have forgotten that American justice does not merely deliver swift punishment to the guilty. It also protects the innocent.

..............

............The Military Commissions Act of 2006 makes it virtually impossible to contest a status tribunal’s decision. It prohibits claims of habeas corpus — the ancient right of prisoners in just societies to have their detentions reviewed — or any case based directly or indirectly on the Geneva Conventions. Even if an appeal got to the single appeals court now authorized to hear it, the administration would very likely argue that it cannot be heard without jeopardizing secrets, as it has done repeatedly.

The new law dangerously expands the definition of illegal enemy combatant and allows Mr. Bush — and the secretary of defense — to give to anyone they choose the authority to designate a prisoner as an illegal combatant. It also allows Mr. Bush to go on squirreling prisoners away at secret C.I.A. camps where none of the rules apply.

more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/opinion/15sun1.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

[annabanana]

1. Glad this is in the Times.... Sorry that they chose to delve

AFTER the damn thing was passed. . .
I will never, never, never understand how so many Dems let this monster go by them without a stink..

[Kierkegaard]

3. The Hypnotist Administration at work.

That's the only explanation I can come up with. They have managed to inflict an amazing level of damage on our entire way of life. I still can't understand how so many have stood by, deaf, dumb and blind to the costs. It's just surreal...

[Parisle]

4. May as well face the facts...

---- In acquiescing to this bill, the democrats failed to protect the American people, America's best interests and the US Constitution. Maybe it was election-year maneuvering,.. but political industry collusion is in the mix, too. Where is the democrat saying that ALL of Bush's encroachments on the Bill of Rights have to be stricken from the books? Where is the democrat saying that the PNAC cabal's principle leaders HAVE TO BE punished,.. and not just voted out of office? Justice and accountability to the law are more important,..... than democrats' political objectives.

[The Brethren]

6. "never understand how so many Dems

let this monster go by them without a stink.." i know what you mean. But I think a lot of people are just starting to really hear about this issue and how the chimp "rammed the bill" due in large part to other stories that have been kept at the top of the mainstream media like the Foley scandal. That scandal needs to be exposed, but so does this legislation and how it's been handled. We must keep bringing this bill up everywhere we can, including directly to our legislators and the press so it doesn't get swept under the rug like it never happened.

[LynnTheDem]

2. bush's America;

Keep quiet or you will be called an "enemy combatant" and locked away until you die.

Wow I'm so "PROUD"!

:sarcasm:

[rodeodance]

5. it did not have to end like this but it did. Day by day, we have to fight

back--inch by inch.

[dubykc]

7. Welcome...

to the USSA (United Soviet States of America).

At least that's the way it's beginning to feel.