Topic: Election Notes
This Day in History
January 29, 1964 - Stanley Kubrick's 'Dr. Strangelove' premieres.
Forty years ago? Wow.
These days?
A legal note:
Court Keeps Guant?namo Prisoners Isolated
Gina Holland, Associated Press, Wed Jan 28, 8:18 PM ET
Just a thought, but what these evils guys know might possibly be, shall we say, "stale information" after more than two years.WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court stepped in Wednesday to temporarily continue the isolation of terrorism suspects at the Navy base in Cuba.
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor granted a request from the Bush administration to stop a lower court from communicating with a detainee at Guant?namo Bay, Cuba.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had planned to notify the detainee of that court's ruling in December that Guant?namo prisoners should be allowed to see lawyers and have access to courts.
O'Connor granted the government's request to put that ruling on hold, but she said the high court could reconsider after it hears from lawyers for the detainee, Falen Gherebi.
... Solicitor General Theodore Olson had asked the high court earlier Wednesday to block any developments in a class-action case over treatment of the Guant?namo detainees until the Supreme Court decides this year, in a separate case, whether Guant?namo detainees may contest their captivity in American courts.
National security is at stake, Olson argued in an emergency filing, because communication with the prisoner would "interfere with the military's efforts to obtain intelligence from Gherebi and other Guant?namo detainees related to the ongoing war against terrorism."
But one never knows.
Let me see if I have this right.
The president now has the unrestricted power to declare war against a country that has not attacked the United States. We voted to give him that power. We did. You elected your senators and congressmen. Fine.
The president has the unrestricted power to round up unlimited numbers of American citizens within the United States and incarcerate them in military brigs or concentration camps for the rest of their lives and keep them from ever again communicating with friends, families, and attorneys, simply on the president's certification that the incarcerated Americans are "terrorists," as he has done with Jose Padilla and Yaser Esam Hamdi. We voted to give him that power. We did. You elected your senators and congressmen. Fine.
The president now has the unrestricted power to seize American citizens abroad and remove them to its military base in Cuba, where they can be kept for the rest of their lives and kept from ever again communicating with friends, family, and attorneys, solely on the basis of his certification that the imprisoned Americans are "terrorists," as he initially did with Yaser Esam Hamdi. We voted to give him that power. We did. You elected your senators and congressmen. Fine.
The president now has the unrestricted power to execute American citizens abroad solely on the basis of his certification that the killed Americans are "terrorists," as he did to Ahmed Hijazi, the American who was killed with a one of our missiles last year in Yemen. We voted to give him that power. We did. You elected your senators and congressmen. Fine.
A friend of mine worries Bush will declare a "red level" emergency late in October and cancel the presidential elections, and maybe declare marshal law if he thinks of it.
No. He'll be reelected easily. As will those who grant him the powers he needs to keep us safe. That seem to be what most folks want.
We be real scared, and he'll continue to protect us.
Posted by Alan at 10:14 PST
|
Post Comment |
Permalink
home