Living In A Post Habeas Corpus World

Within the next few days George W. Bush will put pen to paper and by simply signing his name he will change the world. It will not be for the better. Staying in character he will further plunge the world into darkness but this time in such a dramatic way that few Americans, apparently, will even notice.

When Bush signs the Military Commissions Act he will dissolve Habeas Corpus which is the foundation of all of our freedoms. A writ of habeas corpus is a judicial mandate to a prison official ordering that an inmate be brought to the court so it can be determined whether or not that person is imprisoned lawfully and whether or not he should be released from custody.

The Habeas Corpus Act of 1679 ensured that anyone who was arrested had a right to know the charges against him and the right to see and therefore defend himself against the evidence.

Defenders of this act claim it only pertains to “enemy combatants.” Who defines who an enemy combatant is? It’s not the Congress and it is not the courts. It is the President of the United States. In a crises such as 9/11 or perhaps mass protests against the President’s policies the President could decide that leaders of such a movement to be such a threat to the United States that they could be raised to the level of “enemy combatant.”

Once one is declared an enemy combatant one can be not only detained indefinitely without recourse to the courts but tortured “legally.”

We are going to be living in a Post Habeas Corpus World within the next eight days. We had better start preparing ourselves for what comes next. I don’t think I am important enough to be among the first to be detained, if that happens, but if it happens to anyone I know it can happen to me and I have been prepared for that since they detained the “dirty bomber.”

The only way to end the detentions, if they happen, is to fill the detention centers with our bodies. The more of us detained the weaker the arguments to detain us get. My friends and your friends will become radicalized to stand up as we did.

To prevent this scenario from happening we have to get the Republicans out of office and pressure the Congress to rescind this Act. If we don’t hold the new Congress’s feet to the fire they may sit on their hands and do nothing. We can not let that happen.

We can not let this Act stand.

To get an idea of what may await us check out this video on Nate's site:

http://getintheirface.blogspot.com/2006/03/fema-camp-footage-google-video.html

Kara writes about this in more detail on her blog:

http://www.always-a-musing.blogspot.com/