What the Media Isn’t Telling You About the Military Commissions Act

On Wednesday, October 18, 2006, President Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act (MCA) legalizing indefinite detention without trial of anyone Bush says is an “enemy combatant.” Other sections of this new law not reported by the mainstream media legalize:

• Secret prisons throughout the world
• Violent kidnapping of “suspects” from countries throughout the world (“extreme rendition”)
• “Harsh interrogation” (i.e., torture) of prisoners
• Use of evidence obtained by torture to convict and even kill prisoners
• Denial of the right to trial or appeal by anyone so imprisoned
• Trial by military judges
• Use of secret evidence in trial, and
• Exoneration of members of the government, the military and CIA who committed or sanctioned previously illegal acts, such as torture, summary execution, and kidnappping.

For all practical purposes, the Military Commissions Act places the military in control of prisons and courts for anyone accused of being a terrorist – thus eliminating the judicial branch of government. It also abolishes fundamental legal rights (such as the writ of habeas corpus) which date back over 700 years to the Magna Carta.

This new system makes it impossible to determine actual innocence or guilt, and celebrates arbitrary judgment and brutality.

Not Just “Foreign Terrorists” At Risk

So this only applies to foreign terrorists who “deserve what they get,” including torture, being imprisoned forever without trial, and summary execution, right?

That’s what you might believe from the way the media is reporting this story. But the reality is that nothing in the Act prevents U.S. citizens in America from being secretly arrested, imprisoned and tortured for the rest of their lives.
To see a copy of the law click here and run a search for Military Commissions Act.

In addition, foreign tourists and resident aliens are explicitly included under the MCA-regime. Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root, has already been given a $345 million contract to set up secret detention camps in the U.S. capable of housing tens of thousands of innocent people.

Contrary to Bush’s claim that his secret prisons only house “the worst of the worst”, the military’s own Taguba report found that 70% of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq were not terrorists. Other groups put the figure at more like 90%. Among the prisoners have been children as young as 10, pregnant women, sheep herders trying to defend their livestock, village elders, and foreign tourists.

Worldwide, the U.S. now imprisons approximately 35,000 people (including women and children) swept up in the global war on terror, virtually all without charges, trial, or any access to family, friends or the media. Many have been beaten and tortured. Some have been killed.

Before October 18, 2006, all of these activities were illegal under the U.S. Constitution, the Geneva Conventions, and many international treaties signed by the U.S. Now almost anything is legal.

If you think this can’t happen to you, think again. In the five years since 9/11, hundreds of U.S. citizens have been charged with “issuing terroristic threats, including school yard bullies, and even children who draw “violent pictures.”

Under the MCA anyone who “gives material support to terrorist groups,” even unknowingly can be labeled an enemy combatant. Indeed, some commentators like Ann Coulter and Bill O’Reilly, have already called for opponents of the War in Iraq to be arrested and charged with treason.

The Military Commissions Act does nothing less than legally transform the U.S. into a “democratic dictatorship,” with more in common with the old Soviet Union and Nazi Germany than with the just and free American Republic created by our forefathers.

There are already 88 lawsuits challenging the Military Commissions Act. For the sake of our children and the future of our country, let us pray that they succeed.