Re: [pf] More from watching TV - Military Tribunal?

At 19:55 1/12/2001 -0600, Jill wrote:
>Today, while cutting quilt squares for a quilt, I watched CSpan.  I got to
watch a Senate committee with Ted Kennedy, Arlen Specter, Patrick Leahy,
and Russ Feingold question the asst. attorney general about the military
tribunal and the detentions.  I was very reassured to see that Arlen
Specter was as upset as Russ Feingold, and the others were right in there.
>
>Their concerns:
>
>    That the President had come out with the idea of the Military Tribunal
without having even consulted Congress.
>    That the details of the tribunal were not as strict as the ones past -
for instance, sentencing requires 2/3 majority under the president's plan,
whereas usually it is 3/4.  Since the death penalty is a consideration, the
Senators pointed out, they would be in favor of the 3/4.
>    That the justice department is not in on working out the details of
the tribunal, but rather the defense department.
>    And other things.
> ...

· Tom was good enough to tell us about this.

At 21:37 29/11/2001 -0500, someone @rcn.net wrote to [pf], with title:
 "Don't Drink Budweiser? You May Be A Terrorist!" {at:
http://csf.colorado.edu/mail/pfvs/2001IV/msg01362.html } :-

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2001/11/23/107.html
  is:
Global Eye -- A Thirsty Evil

By Chris Floyd

Are you a terrorist? If you don't know, you'd better find out fast. Because
Uncle Sam's made a list and he's checking it twice -- "40 to 50 countries"
targeted for possible "U.S. action," according to America's
securely-located vice president, Dick "Chicken Hawk" Cheney. As the man
says, a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

So here's a simple test to check your moral worthiness and see if you can
escape God's -- sorry, Bush's -- all-devouring wrath. Have you ever gone
out for a beer and bought a Stella Artois instead of a Bud? Then you, my
friend, have engaged in a conspiracy to cause "adverse effects" to the
economy of the United States. And that makes you one of the evildoers.

So says the great Oval Object in his latest executive order, in which he
grants himself the power to have anyone he designates as a terrorist to be
tried by secret military tribunals and executed without appeal. Bush's
dread edict -- which of course takes effect without any input from that
useless appendage of a bygone era, the U.S. Congress -- covers anyone who
"causes, threatens to cause" or even "has as their aim" to cause "adverse
effects" on, among other things, the American economy or U.S. foreign policy.

As always, Bush alone retains the right to decide who is and who is not a
terrorist, just as he alone decides what constitutes an "adverse effect" on
the United States. Could be a bomb, a boycott, a protest, a tariff -- or
the wrong beer: it's his call.

The edict gives him the power to seize any non-U.S. citizen, in any country
on earth, and to subject him or her to secret summary justice. There is no
outside check or oversight of this exercise of universal dominion, and no
legal recourse for the accused -- not even to the laws of their own country.

Never has a single person in the history of the world laid claim to such
absolute power -- and commanded the military might to back it up. For we
should also note that Bush now has the authority to launch attacks against
any nation he chooses, at his own discretion, without a vote by Congress or
that other withered appendage, the United Nations.

And if you don't like it, pal, you can tell it to the judge. The military
judge. Just before he puts a bullet in your brain.

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- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
David.
David MacClement [davd @ ihug.co.nz] (remove spaces)
http://davd.tripod.com/GrAPR-011130_titles.html#top
http://www.geocities.com/davd.geo/index.html#top
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