The Senate just passed a defense spending bill with some remarkable amendments tacked on. The bill has gone on to reconciliation with the House version, and President Obama has threatened to veto it. I sincerely hope he does. The bill attempts to micromanage US foreign policy in several areas, including imposing sanctions on Iran (that may well backfire and improve Iran's financial situation by raising oil prices.) To my mind, this is small potatoes compared to the really odious provisions regarding terror suspects being held by the US. "The bill would require military custody of a suspect deemed to be a member of al-Qaida or its affiliates and involved in plotting or committing attacks on the United States. American citizens would be exempt. The bill does allow the executive branch to waive the authority based on national security and hold a suspect in civilian custody. The legislation also would deny suspected terrorists, even U.S. citizens seized within the nation's borders, the right to trial and subject them to indefinite detention." http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CONGRESS_DEFENSE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT Is it just me, or does this essentially repeal habeaus corpus? How is this not blatantly unconstitutional? And why the heck aren't Americans outraged over this? This allows the President to simply declare that someone is suspected of terrorism, and have them arrested and held indefinitely without any sort of due process. For example, the President could simply declare Glenn Beck to be suspected of terrorism and send special forces to break down his door in the middle of the night and whisk him off to a military prison at the ends of the Earth, never to be heard from again For that matter, the President could simply start declaring members of Congress who oppose his policies to be suspected of terrorism and vanishing them until he has the majority he wants. Now, I don't think that President Obama would actually do that anymore then I think that President Bush used warrantless wiretaps to spy on the John Kerry campaign in 2004. But this is a law that's simply asking to be abused. We are creating the tool kit for some future politician to dismantle our democracy and create a dictatorship. As tempting as it may be to simply strip terrorists of all rights, the problem is that you can label anyone a terrorist. Rights are for everyone, or anyone could lose them. I want to remind everyone of the words of Martin Niemoller, who initially supported Adolph Hitler's rise to power, but later opposed him and paid the price by being sent to a concentration camp. First they came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me. I just pray that there won't come a day when an American has occasion to say, "First they came for the terrorists..."
