By Kenneth J. Theisen, 1/31/07
Your legal rights are disappearing. The Bush regime has held
power for six years but set legal rights back 792 years. The right to jury trial,
a speedy trial, due process, prohibition against excessive bail, the right to
be free from cruel and unusual punishment, and the right to habeas corpus can
all be traced back to the Magna Carta of 1215. The regime has attacked these
rights and more, sometimes with the collusion of the courts and Congress, and
sometimes by circumventing them.
On January 17th Attorney General Gonzales
asserted the Constitution does not guarantee habeas corpus. He also views the Geneva Convention as
“quaint” so it should come as no surprise that the regime has consistently
ignored the rule of law.
The regime has used many tactics. Bush has used signing
statements that he attaches to legislation more than all the former presidents
collectively. These are used to either
re-interpret the law or to state that he will ignore the law or portions of
it. The regime has appointed judges to
the federal bench who “will go along” with the regime’s suppression of our
rights. Recently Gonzales warned federal judges not to contradict the regime in
cases of national security. It has
attacked the media when programs such as the massive NSA spying program have
been exposed. The regime has conducted
torture as if there were no laws against it.
It has set up kangaroo courts with the Military Commissions Act which
was enacted with a compliant Congress. Our email, regular mail, phone
conversations, financial records, etc. are all subject to government spying.
Non-citizens can be designated as “unlawful enemy
combatants” and be held indefinitely, without the right to trial, an attorney,
or the right to see all the evidence against them. Of course torture may accompany this lack of
rights.
All this has become “normal or acceptable.” Maybe today Jose Padilla is the accused
“terrorist” who is held without trial for years. Maybe it is attorney Lynne Stewart who faces
jail for representing a client, or journalist Josh Wolf who sits in federal
prison for protecting a free press.
Maybe it is Lt. Watada who sits in a brig for refusing to fight in an
illegal war. But maybe one day it will be you.
That which you will not resist and mobilize to stop, you will learn – or be forced – to accept.
Below are several articles from recent weeks on
worldcantwait.org that describe the different dimensions in which the
Bush regime is trampling on basic legal rights and implementing vast
police state measures:
Fact Sheet on the Military Commissions Act
Maher Arar Kept on US Terrorist Watch List After Being Cleared by Canadian Government
It All Started with an American Taliban
They Attack Judges Too, Don’t They?
They Attack Lawyers, Don’t They?
The Pentagon Spies on American Financial Records
Mail Opening Does Not Need Search Warrant States BushThe Military Commissions Act in Action: Salim Ahmed Hamdan Denied the Right to Habeus Corpus