Since the establishment media is convinced that tea party members, 9/11
truthers, libertarians, Ron Paul supporters, and basically anyone
with a dissenting political opinion is a likely domestic terrorist, they
should be celebrating the fact that a new bill would allow the
government to detain such people as “enemy belligerents” indefinitely
and without trial based on their “suspected activity”.
The “Enemy Belligerent, Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of
2010,” introduced by Senators John McCain and Joseph Lieberman on
Thursday with little fanfare, “sets out a comprehensive policy for the
detention, interrogation and trial of suspected enemy belligerents who
are believed to have engaged in hostilities against the United States by
requiring these individuals to be held in military custody,
interrogated for their intelligence value and not provided with a
Miranda warning,” writes the Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder.
The full bill can be read here (PDF).
The bill does not distinguish between U.S. citizens and non-citizens, and
states that “suspected belligerents” who are
“considered a “high-value detainee” shall not be provided with a Miranda
warning.”
A person is considered a “high value detainee” if they fulfil one of the
following criteria.
(1) poses a threat of an attack on civilians or civilian facilities within
the U.S. or U.S. facilities abroad; (2) poses a threat to U.S.
military personnel or U.S. military facilities; (3) potential
intelligence value; (4) is a member of al Qaeda or a terrorist group
affiliated with al Qaeda or (5) such other matters as the President
considers appropriate.
Now that the Southern Poverty Law Center and the federal government, via the
MIAC report and innumerable other leaked documents,
now consider virtually anyone with a dissenting opinion against the
state as “posing a threat,” millions of peaceful American citizens could
be swept up by this frightening dragnet of tyranny.
However, according to the bill, an individual doesn’t even have to pose a threat
to be snatched, detained and interrogated – they can
merely be deemed to be of “potential intelligence value” or come under
the vague and sweeping mandate of “such other matters as the President
considers appropriate”.
This last designation hands Obama dictator powers to have any American
citizen kidnapped, detained, and interrogated on a whim.
The only proviso that even hints at some form of check or balance is the
measure that states, “The High-Value Detainee Interrogation Team
must make a preliminary determination whether the detainee is an
unprivileged enemy belligerent within 48 hours of taking detainee into
custody.”
“The High-Value Detainee Interrogation Team must submit its determination to
the Secretary of Defense and the Attorney General after
consultation with the Director of National Intelligence, the Director
of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Director of the Central
Intelligence Agency. The Secretary of Defense and the Attorney General
make a final determination and report the determination to the President
and the appropriate committees of Congress. In the case of any
disagreement between the Secretary of Defense and the Attorney General,
the President will make the determination,” states the bill.
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