In my sweeping of the usual net forums and Blogs that I conduct on an almost daily basis I came across a thread on of all things a gaming forum with echoed cries of "How can this be happening" permeating throughout its several pages and since this is not a normal thing for this site, I was instantly intrigued and read onwards.
(As stupid as it sounds I keep hearing Amidala from Revenge of the Sith saying "So this is how liberty dies. To the sound of thunderous applause.")
A quote from Paladin, Relic Forums.
Amended by Mr Carrot
"Sorry had to bring this one up, Lucas cannot be attributed with writing something as brilliant and portentous. It was originally said by a Weimar Germany official in response to the standing ovation Hitler received in the Reichstag after effectively suspending the democractic process."
Many such parallels have been drawn between the Bush Jr administration and the 3rd Reich now but I shall refrain from going into the stylizations which are evident and abound across the realms of the internet in favour of pushing the point of this post along rather than getting hung up on semantics.
Well I may have you intrigued as to what I am speaking of now that could be so terribly appalling and now will direct you to that which may very well cause the greatest super power on our planet to become a twisted thing of evil and shadows: The military commissions act of 2006
http://www.cfr.org/publication/11396/military_commissions_act_of_2006_proposed.html
"If passed, this legislation would authorize military commissions to try 'unlawful enemy combatants' and detainees accused of terrorist acts."
Well that doesn't sound so bad now does it, terrorists are bad people who hurt innocents to further their own agendas without concern for the lives of those they harm and kill, good on them you might say but ahhh read the fine print, that's where the real debased depravity begins.
I would like to take the entire first post of this thread: http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=110969&page=1&pp=15
Just to reiterate and introduce you to the problems that lie within the proposed bill without needing to read the entire PDF if you don't have the time.
*Ahem*
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Actions soon to be legally permissible if the POTUS says so!
-Rape!
-Waterboarding!
-Execution on the basis of coerced confessions!
-Torture!
And so much more. The stickler of course is that they must be committed against accused terrorists. What makes you an accused terrorist? Being accused of being a terrorist, of course.
Quote:
| Let me be clear about something--something that it seems few people are willing to say. This bill permits torture. It gives the President the discretion to interpret the meaning and application of the Geneva Conventions. No matter how much well-intended United States Senators would like to believe otherwise, it gives an Administration that lobbied for torture just what it wanted. The only guarantee we have that these provisions really will prohibit torture is the word of the President. But we have seen in Iraq the consequences of simply accepting the word of this Administration. |
Quote:
| To take just a few examples, this legislation would permit an individual to be convicted on the basis of coerced testimony and hearsay, would not allow full judicial review of the conviction, and yet would allow someone convicted under these rules to be put to death. That is simply unacceptable. We would not stand for another country to try our citizens under those rules, and we should not stand for our own government to do so, either. |
Some forumgoers may know that the US Congress recently reported (handed off) a bill supposedly seeking to define what torture is and what's permissible. It is, in a word, monstrous.
The bill basically states that the Geneva conventions and all other laws and treaties pertaining to the treatment of prisoners only apply if the President says they apply. This would be retroactive several years. The practical implications of this are staggering.
This bill defines a legal basis for tyranny.
I'm so angry I can barely see straight so unfortunately I can't really go into the depth I desire.
Further reading:
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/8593.html
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/9/28/12236/7431
http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/09/legalization-of-torture-an_115945829460324274.html
(^^for god sakes change your background and text colour *Xy*^^)
Quote:
| This bill sends a clear message to both our friends and our enemies about what kind of people we are. It shows them whether or not we are really willing to practice what we preach about freedom, democracy, and human dignity. It is moments like this one when we reveal our true colors, and our real values. Sadly, M. Speaker, those watching today will conclude that when the going gets tough, America's leaders are willing abandon our values... ...abandon them in favor of thuggish tactics they hope might make them safer for a little while. |
Quote:
As Ackerman put it: "The compromise legislation, which is racing toward the White House, authorizes the president to seize American citizens as enemy combatants, even if they have never left the United States. And once thrown into military prison, they cannot expect a trial by their peers or any other of the normal protections of the Bill of Rights." Similarly, Lederman explains: "this [subsection (ii) of the definition of 'unlawful enemy combatant'] means that if the Pentagon says you're an unlawful enemy combatant -- using whatever criteria they wish -- then as far as Congress, and U.S. law, is concerned, you are one, whether or not you have had any connection to 'hostilities' at all."***********************************************************************************
Comming from a country that not only supports a regime that intends with all severity and conscious choice to pass an act that can haul it's own citizens from their beds (and those of connected countries with free flowing extradition laws) but also hails them as the shining beacon of hope for humanity, holding them in our arms as brothers horrifies me beyond belief.
So who exactly is an Unlawful enemy combatant if this bill passes and is sanctioned exactly?
Apparently anyone the U.S president deems to be so and without trial or any form of legal recourse that person or persons is now "Legally" held for torture and should they be coerced into a false confession could be executed also without any legal defense permittable.
Readers, this not only is a disgusting act of bullying aggression, it is a sickness that flows right from the very depths of all that is conceivably brutal and evil in the natures of powerful men seeking to stretch their reach out further to grasp what they seek and let me tell you something right now, it isn't peace, freedom or dignity for their chosen people that they seek but simply a way to line their own pockets with gold and to have the power to do whatever they wish.
So you may then ask: "What can we as a people of the 'free' western global society do about such a horrible injustice?"
Well the first step, being aware of what is happening around you, you have already taken by reading this humble yet outraged post and taking on board that awareness so as to view the worlds events in a light unclouded by the propaganda being sent forth.
Keep your eyes peeled, this is only the first sign and likely more will follow if this bill is fully passed and approved thinly veiled in a disguise of "protecting the nation from terrorist threats".
