Archive for the ‘Civil Liberties’ Category

Wanted: Constitution Returned

Wednesday, January 31st, 2007

You may recall the name of Judge Anna Diggs Taylor of the United States District Court in Detroit who warned last Aug. 17, in a case brought by the A.C.L.U. “There are no hereditary kings in America.”

She was ruling in a suit brought against the National Security Agency by the American Civil Liberties Union for monitoring the phone calls and e-mail messages of Americans for more than four years without first obtaining warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

The president, she wrote, had “undisputedly violated” not only the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution, but also statutory law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

The Administration, which reversed itself in January and said it would, in future, seek warrants before evesdropping, appealed Judge Taylor’s ruling. Oral arguments begin today in the Federal Appeals court in Cincinnati.

One of the plaintiffs, James Bamford, writes about the issues and the case in the NY Times today.

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Commander in Chiefiness

Monday, January 29th, 2007

Gary Wills brings it to our attention that we too have been militarized with linguistic slight of hand.

WE hear constantly now about “our commander in chief.” The word has become a synonym for “president.” It is said that we “elect a commander in chief.” It is asked whether this or that candidate is “worthy to be our commander in chief.”

But the president is not our commander in chief. He certainly is not mine. I am not in the Army.

The president is not the commander in chief of civilians. He is not even commander in chief of National Guard troops unless and until they are federalized. The Constitution is clear on this: “The president shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States.”

Read on

And more about this Commander in Chief here….

The Founders, including James Madison, who is often called “the father of the Constitution,” fully expected Congress to use these powers to rein in the commander in chief. “The constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it,” Madison cautioned. “It has accordingly with studied care, vested the question of war in the Legislature.”

Limits of Presidential Power

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Denigrating Turkishness

Sunday, January 21st, 2007

Poor Hrant Dink, made as he said, into a pigeon, “equally obsessed by what goes-on on my left and right, front and back. My head is just as mobile and fast.” Worse than being killed is waiting to be killed. Here are a few excerpts from his final column before his death.

Those who tried to single me out and weaken me have succeeded. With the false information they oozed into society, they created a significant segment of the population who view Hrant Dink as someone who “insults Turkishness”.

The memory of my computer is filled with angry, threatening lines sent by citizens from this sector…

How real are these threats? To be honest, it is impossible for me to know for sure.


Hrant Dink’s final article

What makes his death so troubling is more than the state imposition of what the truth is to be regarding the death of 1,000,000 Turkish/Armenians in the early 1900s for being prematurely “anti-Turkish,” it is that all nations hold similar views — even those who condemn Drink’s death. What is the outrage in the US over flag burning, the almost yearly attempts to make it illegal but anger at “insulting Americanness”? You could make a list in an hour or two of those furious at their compatriots for “insulting Japaneseness, Chineseness, Germanness, Spanishness…” Perhaps the bar is lower for denigrating Turkishness than for denigrating Americanness. Perhaps not. Try suggesting at the Annual White House Press Association dinner that the US is directly responsible for tens of thousands of deaths in Central America in the last decades of the 20th century. See if the disdain meter doesn’t spike.

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Habeus Corpus: Bring it Back!

Wednesday, November 15th, 2006

Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) introduced legislation today that would, among other things, restore the right of habeus corpus to detainees…

The Effective Terrorists Prosecution Act:
* Restores Habeas Corpus protections to detainees
* Narrows the definition of unlawful enemy combatant to individuals who
directly participate in hostilities against the United States who are
not lawful combatants
* Bars information gained through coercion from being introduced as
evidence in trials
* Empowers military judges to exclude hearsay evidence they deem to be
unreliable
* Authorizes the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces to review
decisions by the Military commissions
* Limits the authority of the President to interpret the meaning and
application of the Geneva Conventions and makes that authority subject
to congressional and judicial oversight
* Provides for expedited judicial review of the Military Commissions Act
of 2006 to determine the constitutionally of its provisions

When I talked to Ken Roth of Human Rights Watch last week he said reclamation of habeus corpus would be one very important thing for bloggers to press the Congress on. This seems like a good start.

A Patriot Steps Forward

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Terrorism: Why Profiling Doesn’t Work

Thursday, November 9th, 2006

Robert Gates Promoted and Financed Osama Bin Laden

Washington Dispatch: Iran-Contra figure, regime-change enthusiast, alleged intelligence manipulator — meet Robert Gates, the man who’s poised to be the next Secretary of Defense.

By James Ridgeway

Why Gates Shouldn’t Be Confirmed

Posted in Civil Liberties, General, Terrorism | No Comments »

Bush Actions Unconstitutional

Thursday, June 29th, 2006

What a great way to wake up! CNN is leading with the news of the Supreme Court decision that the Bush Administration may not try terrorism suspects by military tribunal. Why not? Because military tribunals violate the Geneva Conventions.

This is a major blow to the gulag fantasies of Cheney, Rumsfeld and Bush, and is being characterized as such (at least for now) in the news reports. Of course Scalia, Thomas and Alito dissented.Updates to come.


US court rejects Guantanamo trial

FOX is busily assuring its listeners that dangerous terrorists will not be let to run free. There is no reason for HUGE ALARM. Van Susteren is saying it is important that the power of the President has been, properly, reined in.

Lindsay Graham (R-SC) says that the decision says that congress must write legislation authorizing military commissions (not tribunals) to try terror suspects — and that he, Graham, will get started on that.

The Washington Post seems to have the best, quickest, on-line stories. Start with this:

The Supreme Court today delivered a stunning rebuke to the Bush administration over its plans to try Guantanamo detainees before military commissions, ruling that the commissions are unconstitutional.

In a 5-3 decision, the court said the trials were not authorized under U.S. law or the Geneva Conventions. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the opinion in the case, called Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. recused himself from the case

Supreme Court Rejects Guantanamo War Crimes Trials

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What Can Hillary Do?

Friday, June 23rd, 2006

Kos has a short post in repsonse to a reporter’s question: What can Hillary do to get the favor of progressive bloggers? Kos’ response is instructive. More important is his signalling the importance of a recent initiative of hers: The Privacy Bill of Rights. Get on it Hillary, get on it — really. And every Dem out there: Get on It. This is a good issue and will draw others to our side.

Kos on Hillary

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