We Will Torture Our Own

The Washington Post describes how the torture compromised was weakened over the weekend. Here's a good example of how tricky it can be to read these laws. Previously the compromise said it applied to people "engaged in hostilities against the United States", now it also applies to those "engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States." For comparison the military's definition of unlawful combatants covers only "those who engage in acts against the United States or its coalition partners in violation of the laws of war and customs of war during an armed conflict." With the new definition, the administration can designate anyone, anywhere as an unlawful enemy combatant, not just people on the battlefield.

But it gets worse. "Under a separate provision, those held by the CIA or the U.S. military as an unlawful enemy combatant would be barred from challenging their detention or the conditions of their treatment in U.S. courts unless they were first tried, convicted and appealed their conviction." So there's no habeas corpus, which is just a fancy term saying that if you're arrested you have the right to go to court to make sure the arrest was legal. Oh and the bill "does not rule out the possibility of designating a U.S. citizen as an unlawful combatant".

The Daily Kos has a good article comparing this to Korematsu v. U.S. which was the infamous case that allowed the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. The first amendment guarantees citizens the right "to petition the government for a redress of grievances." Maybe one of our elected officials will remember this.

TBogg puts it simply: "This is how the world sees us: In America they torture people, including their own, in secret prisons."

Americans are not safer, but this time the threat is from our own government, and they've made mistakes already. If this "compromise" passes, the president can arrest you, declare you an unlawful enemy combatant, move you to a secret prison, and torture you, and you have no legal recourse. That's not an exageration, it's real.