you don’t like the laws on civil rights preventing torture or the way the justice system works? apparently it’s a simple matter to change them to suit your agenda – if you’re president bush and don’t mind the pesky matter of the geneva convention, american constitution, or, y’know, a moral conscience.

The law bans US agents from inflicting severe physical or mental pain and using torture during interrogations. But it gives the White House wide latitude to define what constitutes torture and “cruel treatment” under the Geneva Conventions, and it effectively grants legal amnesty to White House officials who authorized harsh techniques in the past to protect CIA agents who have reportedly used mock drownings, sleep deprivation, and hypothermia during interrogations …

Critics of the new law, however, contend that it denies justice for detainees because it cuts off access to federal courts. The vast majority of the 450 detainees in Guantanamo, critics say, are not accused of terrorist acts and are unlikely to ever stand trial, and their only recourse had been to file petitions in federal court challenging their detentions.

The new law now blocks the court from hearing those petitions. Yesterday, the Department of Justice immediately sent a letter to a US appeals court in Washington announcing that the Guantanamo detainees no longer have access to the court.

Senator Feingold put a fine point on it:

“The legislation signed by the President today violates basic principles and values of our constitutional system of government. 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.

The checks and balances of our system of government and the fundamental fairness of the American people and legal system are among our greatest strengths in the fight against terrorism. I am deeply disappointed that Congress enacted this law. We will look back on this day as a stain on our nation’s history.”

I think this is as gross a violation of civil rights as executive order 9066. that would be the one that “interred” (read: imprisoned) 120,000 americans without cause or recourse. it took 50 years for the government to apologise for that one.

i would have hoped we’d learned more from that shameful mistake – because the way to protect and uphold our rights as a country should never, ever come through depriving other people of theirs.

we’re supposed to be better than that.

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bush, torture, guantanamo, , military commissions act