This morning Reese, an elderly lady from my Saturday peace protests, sent out the following article. I've linked the article, tacked on her comments and added one of my own. I find the proposed bill truly scary.
link Reese's comments
Three years after Obama eloquently opposed the Military Commissions Act, the now-president signed a Military Commissions Act of his own, as part of the 2010 Defense Authorization Bill. The law, which sought to overhaul the discredited Bush-era military commissions for "alien enemy combatants," introduced what is apparently turning out to be an important new term to the counterterror lexicon: Unprivileged Enemy Belligerent, defined as "an individual who: 1) has engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners; or 2) has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners.
Reese Note: "And the Congress overwhelmingly voted for the Defense Auth. Bill. (Except Kucinich and a few others in the House.) Didn't the Congress who voted for it read this part of it???? Couldn't they see what POWERS they were giving the President? And destroying completely the Justice System (or what was left of it!)?"
This now-familiar line is the one Senators McCain and Lieberman have taken in pushing their legislation. "These are not common criminals. They are war criminals."
Reese comment: "Whatever happened to the 'innocent until proved guilty' proviso? Remember this can be a person merely "suspected" of a crime, and then held WITHOUT TRIAL, INDEFINITELY!!!"
Lieberman told reporters at his press conference with McCain. The bill now has eight Republican co-sponsors: Sen. Saxby Chambliss (GA), Sen. James Inhofe (OK), Sen. George LeMieux (FL), Sen. Jeff Sessions (AL), Sen. John Thune (SD), Sen. David Vitter (LA), Sen. Roger Wicker (MS), and the newly-elected Sen. Scott Brown (MA).
Reese: "Ah, the shame, the shame to the state of Alabama!!!! And the other seven states of the above."
"But what is perhaps most dangerous is the tremendous amount of power it gives to a U.S. president to determine who is and who is not a terrorist."
Reese highlighted he above. The rest of the paragraph explains how.
The Enemy Belligerent Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act has yet to go anywhere -- it has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee -- which might account for the lack of discussion about it. But, especially coming from two politicians as influential as McCain and Lieberman – "Serious Centrists" as Greenwald calls them, regularly 'feted on Sunday shows.
The only thing I'll add to Reese's comments is that since McCain and Lieberman are co-sponsors obviously the bill will be anointed as bipartisan. Thus the Democrats will be targets as they oppose the one truly bipartisan bill of the year.
