The Power to Disappear
by KevinSeptember 27th, 2006
Senator Levin on the new torture bill:
Today we are belatedly addressing the single most consequential provision of this much-discussed bill, a provision that can be found buried on page 81 of the proposed bill. This provision would perpetuate the indefinite detention of hundreds of individuals against whom the government has brought no charges and presented no evidence, without any recourse to justice whatsoever. That is un-American, and it is contrary to American interests.
“Going forward, the bill departs even more radically from our most fundamental values. It would permit the president to detain indefinitely — even for life — any alien, whether in the United States or abroad, whether a foreign resident or a lawful permanent resident, without any meaningful opportunity for the alien to challenge his detention. The administration would not even need to assert, much less prove, that the alien was an enemy combatant; it would suffice that the alien was “awaiting [a] determination” on that issue. In other words, the bill would tell the millions of legal immigrants living in America, participating in American families, working for American businesses, and paying American taxes, that our government may at any minute pick them up and detain them indefinitely without charge, and without any access to the courts or even to military tribunals, unless and until the government determines that they are not enemy combatants.
Emphasis mine. Do I really need to explain to anyone why the power to make people disappear is un-American? Al-Qaeda has already beaten Bush and the GOP. They have, against all reason, all possibility, and all morality, gotten Bush to abandon those things that make America great, those values and morals that are the only effective counter to Bin Laden’s vision. In a war of values and ideals, Bin Laden has, amazingly, gotten Bush and the GOP to disarm.
Categories: Legal Issues, Politics |
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