On 22/10/2006, at 6:26 AM, Dave Land wrote:
If I read (e)(1)(B) correctly, you don't even have to be actually _determined_ to be an enemy combatant, merely _awaiting_such_ determination_, in order to have habeus corpus suspended, but you _do_ appear to have to be an alien... I'm not taking a side in this exchange, I just want to understand if this august body believes that this is the intent of this clause.
You have to be an alien, yes. But if they say you're a UEC, and you're a citizen, you have no recourse to the courts to prove that you're a citizen until your status has been properly determined, and there is no time limit on that as far as I can see.
While I think that the Supreme Court is likely to make this issue go away eventually, what the Military Commissions Act does is make it harder for cases like Hamdan to reach them.
For a innocent citizen, a false accusation would not affect one forever. But it could take a substantial portion of one's life up. That, coupled with the explicit endorsement of torture methods such as waterboarding (methods that the US itself pushed for banning and prosecuted its users only half a century ago), makes me wonder what the fuck has happened to the USA. A half-decade ago, I wrote here along the lines that the actions of the States rarely fully lived up to its aspirations, but at least it did purport to stand for freedom, liberty and human rights.
Now, just five years later, the USA has thrown even that out the window. It's a desperately sad day.
Charlie _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
