Military Commissions Act
According to Jonathan Turley a Georgetown University law professor the Military Commissions Act of 2006, essentially revokes over 200 years of American principles and values.
The act’s definition of an unlawful enemy combatant is: “a person who, before, on, or after the date of the enactment of this act has been determined to be an unlawful enemy combatant by a combatant status review tribunal or another competent tribunal established under the authority of the president or secretary of defense.” Bush and Rumsfeld have demonstrated their incompetence for years, but this rubber stamp Congress has handed them the authority to determine the makeup of a “competent” tribunal. On their say so alone any innocent citizen in this country can end up being designated an unlawful enemy combatant.
The fact that a tribunal is appointed is meaningless. A tribunal would most likely be screened by Attorney General, Alberto Gonsales, who signed an opinion memo saying that you could torture and harm people to a point of organ failure or death.
The framers of our democracy created a system where we didn’t have to rely on the president’s integrity or sanity. Madison said that he created a system essentially to be run by devils, where they could not do harm, because we didn‘t rely on their good motivations. Congress gave Bush despotic powers, and people don’t realize what a fundamental change has occurred and we’re not going to change back anytime soon.
Bush has already ordered torture, which could cause injury up to organ failure or death. We prosecuted people after World War II for waterboarding prisoners. We treated it as a war crime, and we’re now embracing the very thing that we once prosecuted people for.
This is going to go down in American history as one of our greatest self-inflicted wounds. History will ask, Where were you? What did you do when this thing was signed into law? During WW II, there were people that protested the Japanese concentration camps, but today we stand strangely silent as our inalienable rights evaporate.
"Those who would surrender liberty for temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security." - Ben Franklin.
The act’s definition of an unlawful enemy combatant is: “a person who, before, on, or after the date of the enactment of this act has been determined to be an unlawful enemy combatant by a combatant status review tribunal or another competent tribunal established under the authority of the president or secretary of defense.” Bush and Rumsfeld have demonstrated their incompetence for years, but this rubber stamp Congress has handed them the authority to determine the makeup of a “competent” tribunal. On their say so alone any innocent citizen in this country can end up being designated an unlawful enemy combatant.
The fact that a tribunal is appointed is meaningless. A tribunal would most likely be screened by Attorney General, Alberto Gonsales, who signed an opinion memo saying that you could torture and harm people to a point of organ failure or death.
The framers of our democracy created a system where we didn’t have to rely on the president’s integrity or sanity. Madison said that he created a system essentially to be run by devils, where they could not do harm, because we didn‘t rely on their good motivations. Congress gave Bush despotic powers, and people don’t realize what a fundamental change has occurred and we’re not going to change back anytime soon.
Bush has already ordered torture, which could cause injury up to organ failure or death. We prosecuted people after World War II for waterboarding prisoners. We treated it as a war crime, and we’re now embracing the very thing that we once prosecuted people for.
This is going to go down in American history as one of our greatest self-inflicted wounds. History will ask, Where were you? What did you do when this thing was signed into law? During WW II, there were people that protested the Japanese concentration camps, but today we stand strangely silent as our inalienable rights evaporate.
"Those who would surrender liberty for temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security." - Ben Franklin.
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