I’ve said again and again, if people like Jose Padilla, a U.S. Citizen accused of terrorism, are truly as evil as the government says they are, then put them on trial and prove it. Padilla did finally get a trial, by the way, but not until he spent years without trial in solitary confinement in a sensory-depravation situation – destroying his personality, according to psychologists.
So much for liberty, folks.
Should the U.S. military be given the power to arrest U.S. citizens, here on U.S. soil, and to detain those citizens indefinitely in military prisons, without access to legal counsel or due process, and without trial in civilian court?
The U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights say hell no. Holding U.S. citizens in military prisons without right to trial or counsel? Really?
Centuries of American liberty also say hell no. The CIA, FBI and the entire U.S. intelligence system say no, as does the military. They do not want the power to arrest and detain U.S. citizens on U.S. soil, and any legitimate reading of our nation’s traditions, beliefs and founding documents says they should never have it. It is antithetical to a free people.
Yet a majority of the U.S. House and Senate says otherwise. Despite a stern veto threat by President Obama, Congress is about to pass such language into federal law as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. I hope and pray that Obama has the guts to carry out his veto threat, and I hope freedom-loving Americans of all ideologies rally to support him in that cause.
via Congress about to undermine our basic constitutional rights | Jay Bookman.