And The Elephant They Rode In On
The United States does not torture people. It’s written right in the Constitution. McCain, Warner, and Graham were afforded the opportunity to uphold traditional American values and they failed miserably. They have agreed to pass a bill that institutionalizes torture in the American government and moves us further along the path to a unilateral executive, also known as a dictatorship.
Billmon has a picture of one of the “terrorists” that supposedly make these measures “necessary.”
Glenn Greenwald has the links to his post at Salon detailing some the legal chicanery in the “compromise.”
Avedon Carol links to other analysis.
Lurch notes that others have seen his point about the real purpose of the bill being to keep the Shrubbery and company out of prison.
Michael and Steve Bates are beside themselves with anger.
Kevin issues a “call to arms” to stop this obscenity.
This compromise bill is a violation of American values, and the values of every religion of which I am aware. The only people who are afforded any protection by this bill are those who have already broken multiple American laws. This has been a consistent pattern with this administration: breaking laws and demanding that the laws be changed to protect the criminals from the justice that is their due.
This bill undermines the rule of law and diminishes America’s stature among the nations of the world.
5 comments
Yup. It helps those currently seated. They’ve done their best to take away rights of citizens, residents, and others. They’ve managed to make quite a headway in eroding our freedoms and rights. It’s certainly a shock to realize how much they approve of the torturing of the supposed military combatants or possible terrorists. Someone, I can’t think of who right now, had a post about a 78 year old Afghan who had been imprisoned for a couple years, finally releasing him, but keeping his other son.
OWL, if you click on the Billmon post you will see a picture of the man and his story.
Okay… and I remember that I first read it at the penguin’s site.
I always grew up believing we were the “Good Guys.” I remember the profound shock and dismay when the story of the My Lai massacre hit the papers. Americans just didn’t do that sort of thing! And we embarked on a mission of “justice” (though how one atones for such a crime escapes me) and national review. Yes, we make mistakes, but we still are the “good guys.”
Not any more. We’ve just lost whatever small touchstone of morality we had managed to protect over the recent years. We are now the Bad Guys.
You don’t fight crime by becoming criminals.