Re: Please, Tell Me Why

Various forms of martial law exists during times of war, when one's own soil
is under attack, such is THE NORM

<USA> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> >>
> >>U.S. government: no charges needed to jail citizens - July 8, 2002
> >>July 8, 2002 repost from http://www.themilitant.com
> >>
> >>BY MAURICE WILLIAMS
> >>The Justice Department has declared it has the right to jail U.S.
> >>citizens without charges and deny anyone it deems an "enemy combatant"
> >>the right to legal representation.
> >>The government made this argument in a court brief filed June 19 in the
> >>case of Yasser Esam Hamdi, who was born in Louisiana. Hamdi was
> >>captured in Afghanistan with retreating Taliban forces in November
> >>during Washington's military onslaught on the country.
> >>
> >>In papers filed before the court, the Justice Department is arguing
> >>that a federal judge in Norfolk, Virginia, erred in appointing a public
> >>defender to represent Hamdi. The brief says that allowing a prisoner to
> >>have access to a lawyer "would directly interfere with--and likely
> >>thwart--ongoing efforts of the United States military to gather and
> >>evaluate intelligence about the enemy." The brief also asserted that
> >>the court "may not second-guess the military's enemy combatant
> >>determination."
> >>
> >>Hamdi, whose parents are citizens of Saudi Arabia, was captured by the
> >>Northern Alliance following heavy bombardment on Mazar-i-Sharif by U.S.
> >>warplanes. He was taken to the U.S. concentration camp at its illegally
> >>held base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
> >>
> >>Hamdi repeatedly informed authorities there of his U.S. citizenship and
> >>they were finally forced to transfer him to a military prison in
> >>Norfolk, Virginia, where he has been held in solitary confinement. The
> >>Justice Department has announced that it does not intend to file
> >>criminal charges against Hamdi.
> >>
> >>In May the U.S. District Court in Norfolk ordered the military to allow
> >>the federal public defender to see Hamdi. Government prosecutors
> >>appealed that decision to the 4th U.S. Circuit of Appeals claiming that
> >>an attorney would "hamper the military's interrogation," the Washington
> >>Post reported June 14.
> >>
> >>"Our client hasn't been charged with any crime, and the government says
> >>that since they haven't charged him with a crime, they can hold him
> >>forever," said Hamdi's lawyer, Frank Dunham, federal public defender
> >>for the Eastern District of Virginia.
> >>
> >>The government's "argument that their interrogation must be ongoing and
> >>continuous proves too much, because it would justify the detention of a
> >>detainee for an indefinite period of time," Dunham said in a brief
> >>filed June 20 with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
> >>
> >>'No authority to hold a citizen'
> >>The executive branch "does not have the authority to detain an American
> >>citizen incommunicado and to unilaterally withdraw from the courts the
> >>power to inquire into the propriety of his detention," the brief added.
> >>
> >>Rebuking the Justice Department claims that allowing Hamdi legal
> >>counsel would harm "intelligence gathering" or allow him to pass
> >>messages to enemy colleagues, the brief noted that Hamdi has been
> >>imprisoned for more than six months and that the government has "had
> >>ample time to interrogate him." The brief also stated that the
> >>government has presented no evidence that Hamdi is an enemy combatant
> >>or has any ties with any organization deemed terrorist by the U.S.
> >>government. It requested that Hamdi be allowed to meet with his lawyers
> >>immediately.
> >>
> >>Another U.S. citizen also deemed an "enemy combatant," Abdullah
> >>al-Muhajir, is being held in the Charleston Naval Weapons Station in
> >>South Carolina. Muhajir, who changed his name from Jose Padilla, was
> >>arrested May 8 and sent to the military prison June 10 after Attorney
> >>General John Ashcroft announced that he was taken into custody because
> >>he was exploring a plan to build and explode a radiological dispersion
> >>device, or "dirty bomb." Government officials later admitted that
> >>Muhajir had neither a plan nor materials to make a weapon of any sort.
> >>Muhajir is also prevented from communicating with his lawyer.
> >>
> >>"He's been tried and convicted by the executive branch," said Muhajir's
> >>lawyer Donna Newman. Referring to public allegations against Muhajir by
> >>senior White House officials and the limitations placed on her ability
> >>to comment on the case, she remarked: "My client's voice, through me,
> >>is impeded. I can't get it out and that is a great concern."
> >>
> >>The Bush administration has sought to justify the military detention of
> >>U.S. citizens without charges based on the "military order" issued by
> >>the president last November and court decisions from 1942 and 1946. The
> >>1942 case involved German prisoners who challenged their imprisonment,
> >>in which a presidential decree prohibited detainees from access to the
> >>courts. The Supreme Court ruled, however, that the courts were
> >>available to determine if the decree applied to a particular prisoner.
> >>The 1946 case concerned a U.S. citizen who fought for the Italian army
> >>in World War II. He was granted a lawyer and an evidentiary hearing to
> >>establish his status as an enemy soldier.
> >>
> >>Constitutional right to speedy trial
> >>A few civil libertarians have spoken against the jailing of citizens
> >>without charges and similar moves in the so-called war against
> >>terrorism, hailed by the president as "preemptive action" during a June
> >>1 speech he gave at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York.
> >>
> >>"The route that they have created in this ad hoc way is devoid of any
> >>constraint on the president's power," said Georgetown University law
> >>professor David Cole. "The notion that he can pick people up off the
> >>street, label them, and lock them up for the rest of their lives
> >>without a hearing is a remarkable one."
> >>
> >>Cole said that the lack of evidence explains why the Justice Department
> >>has failed to file charges against Hamdi and al-Muhajir. "Where they
> >>feel they can win a criminal case, they'll go the criminal route. Where
> >>they feel they can't, where they don't have the evidence," they put the
> >>person in a military brig, he added.
> >>
> >>Laurence Tribe, a professor of constitutional law at Harvard
> >>University, writing in a June 16 New York Times opinion column, didn't
> >>explicitly oppose the administration's moves, but argued that the Bush
> >>administration "has the obligation to defend its position in federal
> >>court." For the government to "retain its legitimacy, its conduct must
> >>always be subject to challenge in a court of law," Tribe said. He noted
> >>that the imprisonment of Muhajir stretches "the meaning of already
> >>elastic concepts like criminal conspiracy to the point of creating what
> >>would amount to thought crimes." It is the "threat--and the promise--of
> >>judicial intervention that keeps executive power from veering into
> >>tyranny," he concluded.
> >>
> >>In a related development, the governor of New Jersey, James McGreevy,
> >>signed into law on June 18 the "Sept. 11th Anti-Terrorism Act."
> >>According to the New Jersey Star Ledger, the new law defines terrorism
> >>as committing a range of certain crimes "ranging from illegal weapons
> >>training to murder, for the purpose of disrupting communications or
> >>transportation, influencing government policy, or terrorizing five or
> >>more people."
> >>
> >>Anyone deemed a "member of a terrorist conspiracy" who was allegedly
> >>prevented from committing terrorism would face a minimum of 30 years in
> >>prison.
> >>
> >>The law makes it a crime to raise funds for any organization dubbed
> >>terrorist by the U.S. government, even if the fund-raiser is unaware of
> >>that designation. Those accused of warning or harboring alleged
> >>terrorists or hindering their capture face imprisonment.
> >>
> >>Legislators across the country have introduced more than 1,200 bills
> >>similar to the New Jersey law, according to the Denver-based National
> >>Conference of State Legislatures.
> >>
> >>
>
> Bush is a threat to civilians in the USA as well as those in Iraq.
>
> Bush is a terrorist, the worst terrorist of all.
>
> No one with any decency supports Bush.