Bush Overturns 200 Years of American Democratic Values and Principles With Stroke of Pen

Torture. Secret prisons. Hearsay evidence. No habeas petitions. Kangaroo courts. Star chambers. If you look real close you can almost see the erections. -- TBogg

October 17, 2006 is a day that will live in infamy as a dark stain on American democracy, a travesty against international human rights of the highest order. Yesterday, Bush signed the so-called Military Commissions Act that makes it legal to torture anyone we please, removes the centuries old right of habeas corpus from citizens and non-citizens alike and gives the American president absolute power to determine guilt or innocence, as well as hold or punish offenders, as only he or she sees fit.

Any U.S. President (or a designee) can now convene a panel of his or her choosing and have them agree to lock up anyone for any period of time -- American citizen or not -- on the basis of coerced testimony or any accusation of being associated in any way with "terrorism." That person will not be permitted the habeas corpus right to face his or her accuser or learn what evidence is being used to seize and "detain" them. Individuals can be tortured by water boarding or other brutal means to "encourage" them to confess or provide "facts" about themselves or others.

The American Civil Liberties Union called the Act "one of the worst civil liberties measures ever enacted in American history."

The courts, the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, the Geneva Conventions and traditional common law democratic rights are all now subservient to the rights of the President to call the shots without restraint or even explanation. We have now officially given the President the tyranical, despotic powers that we fought against during our revolutionary war of independence. We are back at square one, without any checks or balances on presidential power, without any  meaningful legal or judicial recourse if we are singled out, detained, tortured and punished according to evidence we're not party to. Our rights are now dependent on the whims of whoever holds the office of President. 

Crooks and Liars has video and text on the response of Keith Olbermann and Georgetown University constitutional law professor, Jonathan Turley, to the Act's signing. As Turley says,

"People have no idea how significant this is. Really a time of shame this is for the American system.—The strange thing is that we have become sort of constitutional couch potatoes. The Congress just gave the President despotic powers and you could hear the yawn across the country as people turned to Dancing With the Stars. It's otherworldly ... People clearly don't realize what a fundamental change it is about who we are as a country. What happened today changed us. And I'm not too sure we're gonna change back anytime soon."

Sen. Russ Feingold said of the new law,

"It allows the government to seize individuals on American soil and detain them indefinitely with no opportunity to challenge their detention in court. And the new law would permit an individual to be convicted on the basis of coerced testimony and even allow someone convicted under these rules to be put to death."

Robert Parry, who broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek, and whose latest book is Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq has more on the horrendous legal implications of the Act.