By Kenneth J. Theisen, 11/14/06
Last month, Congress passed the Military Commissions Act (MCA) and President Bush immediately signed it into law. Yesterday, the Bush regime implemented one of its most fascistic provisions. The MCA allows the president to designate anyone who is not a U.S. citizen, regardless of where they are, as an “unlawful enemy combatant” and then to hold that person indefinitely without recourse to any civilian courts. In effect, it strips non-citizens of any due process rights. This law has already been used against the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba detainees. But on November 13, it was applied to the first person who is being held in the U.S.
Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri is a citizen of Qatar. While a student in
the U.S. he was arrested in 2001. He was designated as an “enemy
combatant” even though he was arrested on U.S. soil. Prior to the
passage of the MCA, he would have had the right to challenge his arrest
in a civilian court. He would also have the right to an attorney, the
right to a speedy trial before a jury of peers, the right to confront
any witnesses against him, the right to examine evidence to be used
against him, and all the other rights any one accused of a crime has
under the Constitution. But with the passage of the MCA, he and tens
of millions of other non-citizens in the U.S. have lost all of these
rights. And the law also applies to billions of people all over the
world.
The MCA allows “enemy combatants” (remember this is anyone the
President designates) to be tried before military commissions with very
limited rights. In effect persons will be tried and convicted before a
kangaroo court.
This law is very dangerous and was passed without most people being
aware of what the implications of the law are. All legal permanent
residents, visitors to the U.S., persons in the U.S. without documents,
and anyone not a U.S. citizen anywhere in the world are subject to this
law. Literally billions of people are covered by it. Think about
it. The President merely has to say you are an “enemy combatant” and
you can be picked up, held indefinitely, tortured (under other
provisions of the MCA), and you can not even challenge this in court.
If this is not fascist, what is?
The Bush regime cannot be allowed to get away with this latest
outrage. Millions of immigrants and others here in the U.S. are in more
danger than they were before this law. And just because you are a
citizen, do not feel safe. In the proposed version of the MCA,
citizens were included as persons who could be designated as “enemy
combatants.” There is nothing preventing the regime from
re-introducing that provision. But even if it does not, we can not
allow this law to stand. We can not be complicit in another immoral
act of this regime. If we wait for others to be victims like Al-Marri
it will be too late to halt the crimes of the regime.