"Adam C. Lipscomb" wrote:
> 
> Doug wrote:
> 
> > Bush says "We must not let foreign enemies use the forms of liberty
> > to destroy liberty itself." (CNN article
> > http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/11/29/inv.bush.terrorism/index.html) but
> > IMO these tribunals are a dire threat to liberty in and of
> > themselves.  Why do they have to be secret, what does the
> > administration have to hide?  Why no appeal?
> >
> > I think that when we feel the need to resort to fascism to combat
> > terrorism,  the terrorists have triumphed.
> 
> Bush & Co are quickly burning up every bit of goodwill and trust they had
> earned from me following 9/11.  Ashcroft, especially, is bothersome - he
> seems to actually relish every safeguard for the accused that he can knock
> down.

I was wondering when Brin-L would take this up.. I've been quietly
steaming about this for the last 2+ weeks. :[

> I fully understand the need to keep some information secret, but I feel
> there are better ways to do so than by cloaking the entire proceedings.  We
> have successfully protected the sites of terrorist trials in the past, and
> we can no doubt continue to do so.  We are an open, free society, and we
> have no need whatsoever to resort to the judicial techniques of tinpot
> dictatorships and international thugs.

The issue seems to be that our justice department doesn't want its hands
tied by the normal rules of evidence, standards of guilt, etc - heaven
forbid that anything slow down the pronouncment of guilt (because, as
Ashcroft said, "terrorists don't deserve the same standard of justice" -
and God knows we NEVER try anyone who's not guilty..)

-j-

-- 
"O! for a Muse of fire, that would ascend, 
The brightest heaven of invention!"

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