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[IP] more on Yes, it CAN happen here. (Happening right now, in fact)





Begin forwarded message:

From: Dan Shoop <shoop@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: September 29, 2006 5:30:02 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx, ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [IP] Yes, it CAN happen here. (Happening right now, in fact)

For IP (if you wish)

At 2:29 PM -0400 9/28/06, David Farber wrote:
Begin forwarded message:

From: Randall <rvh40@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: September 28, 2006 2:21:38 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx, cuckoosnest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, talk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Yes, it CAN happen here. (Happening right now, in fact)

http://htdaw.blogsource.com/post.mhtml?post_id=387160

Thursday, September 28, 2006 at 2:19 PM EDT
"BURIED IN THE complex Senate compromise on detainee treatment is a real shocker, reaching far beyond the legal struggles about foreign terrorist suspects in the Guantanamo Bay fortress. 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"

Actually the new law (it was enacted by a significant majority yesterday) does no such thing, nor is it in any way buried as to who it covers. Even a quick read would reveal that it does not apply to US Citizens at all. It applies ONLY to unlawful alien military combatants, and defines rather specifically who those are. That is to say that unless you are an alien (not a citizen of the US) who is engaged in military combat and who is unlawfully operating without respect as an actor of a foreign state then this bill doesn't apply to you. No American citizens may be seized, unless your definition of "American" includes non-U.S. citizens from the Americas who are engaged in military operations against the US and are not committing these aggressions under the guise of some state or country.

That is if a bunch of US citizens go so far as to form a "Death to Bush Martyrs Brigade", a militia with the sole intention of aggression against the US or its citizens, government or even the President, that they aren't covered by this bill. Nor would spies or foreign agents of any state or country.

Moreover the new law finally affords specific rights to such persons, including rights to appeals, as well as codifies procedures for fair trial, specifies that such operatives must be held under US military control (no secret CIA prisons), and provides against "cruel and unusual punishment" (complete with specifically prohibited activities, including use of irons or chains). So it in fact provides for rights for detainees where none existed before.

It does not deny habeus corpus to U.S. citizens.

The reality of the bill does not match the majority of the rhetoric of the media nor those that seem to be jumping up and down about it. I'd suggest those concerned read the new law rather than the propaganda created around it.

--

-dhan

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Dan Shoop                                                   AIM: iWiring
Systems & Networks Architect                      http://www.ustsvs.com/
shoop@xxxxxxxxxxx                                http://www.iwiring.net/
1-714-363-1174

"The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right
questions." -- Claude Levi-Strauss

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iWiring provides systems and networks support for Mac OS X, unix, and
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