more on Yes, it CAN happen here. (Happening right now, in fact)

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dan Shoop <[email protected]>
Date: September 29, 2006 5:30:02 PM EDT
To: [email protected], [email protected]
Subject: Re: [IP] Yes, it CAN happen here. (Happening right now, in  
fact)

For IP (if you wish)

At 2:29 PM -0400 9/28/06, David Farber wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Randall <[email protected]>
> Date: September 28, 2006 2:21:38 PM EDT
> To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
> Subject: Yes, it CAN happen here. (Happening right now, in fact)
>
> http://htdaw.blogsource.com/post.mhtml?post_id=387160
>
> Thursday, September 28, 2006 at 2:19 PM EDT
> "BURIED IN THE complex Senate compromise on detainee treatment is a  
> real shocker, reaching far beyond the legal struggles about foreign  
> terrorist suspects in the Guantanamo Bay fortress. The compromise  
> legislation, which is racing toward the White House, authorizes the  
> president to seize American citizens as enemy combatants, even if  
> they have never left the United States. And once thrown into  
> military prison, they cannot expect a trial by their peers or any  
> other of the normal protections of the Bill of Rights"

Actually the new law (it was enacted by a significant majority  
yesterday) does no such thing, nor is it in any way buried as to who  
it covers. Even a quick read would reveal that it does not apply to  
US Citizens at all. It applies ONLY to unlawful alien military  
combatants, and defines rather specifically who those are. That is to  
say that unless you are an alien (not a citizen of the US) who is  
engaged in military combat and who is unlawfully operating without  
respect as an actor of a foreign state then this bill doesn't apply  
to you. No American citizens may be seized, unless your definition of  
"American" includes non-U.S. citizens from the Americas who are  
engaged in military operations against the US and are not committing  
these aggressions under the guise of some state or country.

That is if a bunch of US citizens go so far as to form a "Death to  
Bush Martyrs Brigade", a militia with the sole intention of  
aggression against the US or its citizens, government or even the  
President, that they aren't covered by this bill. Nor would spies or  
foreign agents of any state or country.

Moreover the new law finally affords specific rights to such persons,  
including rights to appeals, as well as codifies procedures for fair  
trial, specifies that such operatives must be held under US military  
control (no secret CIA prisons), and provides against "cruel and  
unusual punishment" (complete with specifically prohibited  
activities, including use of irons or chains). So it in fact provides  
for rights for detainees where none existed before.

It does not deny habeus corpus to U.S. citizens.

The reality of the bill does not match the majority of the rhetoric  
of the media nor those that seem to be jumping up and down about it.  
I'd suggest those concerned read the new law rather than the  
propaganda created around it.

-- 

-dhan

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Dan Shoop                                                   AIM: iWiring
Systems & Networks Architect                      http://www.ustsvs.com/
[email protected]                                http://www.iwiring.net/
1-714-363-1174

"The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right
questions." -- Claude Levi-Strauss

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