Maddow w/ Jonathan Turley: Just what IS an 'enemy combatant'?

[L. Coyote]

Run time: 05:35 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB7pRvntsb8   Posted on YouTube: March 15, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: March 15, 2009 By DU Member: L. Coyote Views on DU: 1419

 

[justinaforjustice]

1. Changing the Locks on the Jail Cells.

Cable journalist, Rachel Maddow, and Constitutional Law Professor,Jonathan Turley, explain why President Obama's newly expressed intention not to use the term "unlawful combatant" as regards Guantanamo detainees and to cease justifying their detention under the "Commander-in-Chief" powers actually changes nothing for the still uncharged detainees. President Obama is still claiming the right to hold them indefinitely without bringing criminal charges against them.

So, nothing changes for the detainees who have spent years in jail without being charged with any crime. President Obama continues the Bush tradition of ignoring the democratic precepts of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which requires that a detainee be formally brought before a judge, told the charges against him, given the right to counsel, to trial by jury and the other attributes of due process.

After the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, those accused of involvement in the terrorist act were arrested, charged with crimes, brought to trial by jury and convicted. They are now serving their sentences in U.S. jails. This was all accomplished lawfully within the framework of our Constitution and its Amendments.

We don't need to demolish our Constitution in order to fight terrorism. We need to remind President Obama of that fact.

[L. Coyote]

3. Ditto.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Piewhacket]

2. Right. Rec. Now, President Obama were you planning..

on MY support for your future policies and reelection?

I had hoped you just might be the greatest President this
nation has ever had. A hope... a possibility....

But now I'm starting to think, on the civil liberties front,
that we seem to be riding the same old diseased horse as before.

And I'm just wondering if you were intending to squander your
place in history just to hold on to some illusory fantasy of power?

[bjobotts]

7. This country was under a secret dictatorship with "executive assassination squads"

[bjobotts]

8. reporting to Cheney, Mike McConnell was murdered and I suspect many others.

[bjobotts]

9. There are murderous thugs behind the scene hear and serious internal threats.

[bjobotts]

10. 9/11 and Anthrax were inside jobs. I hope Obama is just sneaking in thru a backdoor and not becoming

[bjobotts]

11. not becoming one of them.The last 8yrs got some sick people entrenched in government.

[bjobotts]

12. We need Obama to quit continuing the road to totalitarianism. So far...

[bjobotts]

14. So far no one has been held accountable for what is clealry war crimes, torture and illegal wire tap

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jeff30997]

5. K&R

The more it changes the more it stays the same.

[BobTheSubgenius]

13. At times like these - and others - I think a quick nod to Lewis Carroll is in order.

"When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less." = Humpty Dumpty, per Lewis Carroll.

[provis99]

15. Turley seems to missing something here

The US has no legitimate authority over these prisoners, if they were captured in Afghanistan. The Afghan government would be in charge of deciding whether the prisoners had committed any crime. Any charges filed against these prisoners by the US would be unlawful in any case. Since the US's only legal approach would be to let them go, they are choosing to keep them in detention rather than admit they have no legal authority over them.