Connect-The-Dots
Item: John Roberts signed on to a DC Circuit Court opinion which, inter alia, held that the President had the right to determine that a person captured on a battlefield was an "enemy combatant" and therefore entitled to neither the protections of the Geneva Conventions, nor the protections of habeas corpus. The only protections such a person has are those which the executive, in its discretion, grants him, and they are meager:
This tribunal isn't like the courts-martial that are used for prisoners of war. It goes by rules that cut back the rights of defendants even more drastically than the tribunal that the United States has helped establish in Iraq to try Saddam Hussein has. Hamdan has no right to be present at his trial. Unsworn statements, rather than live testimony, can be presented as evidence against him. The presumption of innocence can be taken away from him at any time; so can his right not to testify to avoid self-incrimination. If Hamdan is convicted, he can be sentenced to death.
Item: José Padilla is still in the brig, uncharged, after 1176 days in custody, more than three years. George Bush's government is now appealing, for the second time, a ruling that Padilla is entitled to a habeas corpus hearing, arguing that Padilla, an American citizen arrested on American soil, is an "enemy combatant" (or more accurately, "unperson") because the United States is a battlefield in the "War on Terror" and so not entitled to the protections constitutionally guaranteed each and every citizen.
Item: When Cyrus Kar, American citizen, was arrested and detained in Iraq, he was asked these two questions by two Americans claiming to be FBI agents:
"Are you registered to vote in California?" he was asked.
He said he was.
"Who did you vote for?"
I'd like to believe these are all unrelated incidents. But to me, they seem the natural consequence of the current Republican party beliefs, and they don't point in a good direction.
Yay! paperwight is back.
Posted by: Abby | Jul 27, 2005 at 07:20 PM
It's the same all over the world with tyrants. In Haiti the people interrogating Fr. Jean-Juste during his latest (and continuing) baseless imprisonment suggested to him that if he stopped rabble rousing and otherwise showing interest in politics, they would stop harrassing him.
Thanks for staying on the Padilla story.
Posted by: eRobin | Jul 28, 2005 at 06:55 AM
because the United States is a battlefield in the "War on Terror"
It's the Global Struggle Against Extremism now. Don't you read the memos?
Posted by: eRobin | Jul 28, 2005 at 06:59 AM
I do read the memos. I just think they're bunk. And w/r/t the Padilla story, this is one area where I do try to do that documenting the iniquity thing, though I am but one voice in the wilderness.
Posted by: paperwight | Jul 28, 2005 at 07:03 AM
"Are you registered to vote in California?" he was asked.
He said he was.
"Who did you vote for?"
Wow. Just... wow...
Posted by: Paul the Spud | Jul 29, 2005 at 09:49 AM