Washington Post
October 20, 2006 Moving quickly to implement the bill signed by President Bush this week that authorizes military trials of enemy combatants, the administration has formally notified the U.S. District Court here that it no longer has jurisdiction to consider hundreds of habeas corpus petitions filed by inmates at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.
In a notice dated Wednesday, the Justice Department listed 196 pending habeas cases, some of which cover groups of detainees. The new Military Commissions Act (MCA), it said, provides that "no court, justice, or judge" can consider those petitions or other actions related to treatment or imprisonment filed by anyone designated as an enemy combatant, now or in the future. Beyond those already imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay or elsewhere, the law applies to all non-U.S. citizens, including permanent U.S. residents. The new law already has been challenged as unconstitutional by lawyers representing the petitioners. The issue of detainee rights is likely to reach the Supreme Court for a third time. Habeas corpus, a Latin term meaning "you have the body," is one of the oldest principles of English and American law. It requires the government to show a legal basis for holding a prisoner. A series of unresolved federal court cases brought against the administration over the last several years by lawyers representing the detainees had left the question in limbo. Comment: There is but one more step for the Bush government to take in order to establish complete dictatorial rule over the American people. At present, all non-American citizens and all permanent residents have no legal rights if the Bush government declares them 'enemy combatants', for whatever reason, but the same designation could easily be applied in the case of a US citizen, all that is required is a case to establish precendent.
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Online Journal
Oct 20, 2006 On October 17, George W. Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006. This new law gives Bush power similar to that of Stalin or Hitler, and grants agencies within the executive branch powers similar to those of the KGB or Gestapo.
Bush justifies this act by claiming he needs it to fight the "war on terror," but a number of critics, including former counterterrorism officials, have said the administration has greatly exaggerated the threat and used illogical methods to combat terrorism. (Examples are listed below.) Except for MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, few television news reporters have bothered to mention that the Military Commissions Act has changed the U.S. justice system and our approach to human rights. As Olbermann said of the new law on his October 17 Countdown program, the new act "does away with habeas corpus, the right of suspected terrorists or anybody else to know why they have been imprisoned." |
Strike The Root
19/10/2006 "(1) UNLAWFUL ENEMY COMBATANT.-(A) The term 'unlawful enemy combatant' means- "a person who has engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States or its co-belligerents who is not a lawful enemy combatant (including a person who is part of the Taliban, al Qaeda, or associated forces); or "(ii) a person who, before, on, or after the date of the enactment of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, has been determined to be an unlawful enemy combatant by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal or another competent tribunal established under the authority of the President or the Secretary of Defense."
~HR6166, The Definition of Enemy Combatant, ushering in the utter destruction of Habeas Corpus in its mirrored form SB3930 (actually signed into law) I hereby declare myself an Unlawful Enemy Combatant. No, I am not, nor have I ever been part of the Taliban, al Qaeda, or associated forces, but I will save a Combat Status Review Tribunal or any other [in]competent tribunal established by Dubya or Rummy the trouble. |
AFP
15/12/2006The US military has kept a database of unverified reports on US civilians who were deemed possible threats to national security interests, US forces or military installations, a defense spokesman said.
The acknowledgement followed the disclosure of the database by NBC News, which said it contained indications that the military has been monitoring anti-war activists and protests.
It recorded 1,500 suspicious incidents over a ten month period, including four dozen anti-war meetings or protests, NBC reported.
One example cited in the report was a small gathering of activists at a Quaker meeting house in Florida to plan protests of military recruiting in high schools.
AP
Sat Oct 21, 2006 SAN FRANCISCO - An Islamic scholar from South Africa has been denied entry into the United States, prompting questions from Bay Area Muslims who had invited him to participate in activities marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Fazlur Rahman Azmi was detained by officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection when he arrived at San Francisco International Airport from London on Friday afternoon, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil liberties group. |
By ROBYN BLUMNER
10/22/06 "MJS" Flanked by the panjandrums of shame and the dirty-hands gang, including the current attorney general and the vice president, President Bush on Tuesday signed into law the Military Commissions Act, a law that will go down in history as an obscenity against liberty and decency.
No presidential signing statement accompanies this bill. Bush got the despotic powers he wanted. As White House spokesman Tony Snow explained it: "They did a really good job this time," meaning you don't have to confiscate power by rewriting a law when Congress hands it to you. |
Salt Lake tribune
22/10/2006 WASHINGTON - President Bush on Tuesday signed the law that legalizes the administration's shameful treatment of detainees suspected of terrorism.
The same measure also empowers the president to define torture. It's a sad legacy for America and its already-tarnished world image. The new law - the Military Commissions Act of 2006 - establishes a system for trying suspects in military tribunals. It was enacted after the Supreme Court ruled last June that the administration plan for trials by military commissions violated U.S. and international law. |
The Washington Post
20 October 2006 Ex-delegate says FBI contacted her about disks she received.
The FBI is investigating the possible theft of software developed by the nation's leading maker of electronic voting equipment, said a former Maryland legislator who this week received three computer disks that apparently contain key portions of programs created by Diebold Election Systems. |
By Saul Hudson
Reuters Fri Oct 20, 2006 CARACAS, Venezuela - When President Hugo Chavez called President Bush the devil at the United Nations he earned ovations, but most nations rejected his unglossed anti-Americanism this week by frustrating his bid for a Venezuelan seat on the Security Council.
The leftist cast the election for one of Latin America's rotating two-year council seats as between Venezuela and the United States, which lobbied openly for Guatemala. But Chavez, who had hoped to use the seat to be a leading anti-U.S. voice on the world stage, failed to win in any of the 35 voting rounds at the General Assembly and trailed the tiny Central American nation by a margin of 20 to 30 ballots. Comment: Applauding Chavez's comments is one thing; openly casting a ballot that the US would see as "favoring Chavez" is another. The sad fact is that most of the world is frightened of the "Greatest Democracy on Earth".
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