The medieval detainee bill
Common Dreams
by Jacqueline Marcus
10/01/06
There are laws that represent an Enlightened Age and, conversely, there are laws that represent a Dark Age. Today, our Congress has abolished, in Molly Ivins' words, 'a safeguard against illegal imprisonment that has endured as a cornerstone of legal justice since the Magna Carta,' and replaced it with barbaric laws. With a single vote, they've done away with a humane, civil right: the right to know what charges detainees' have been accused of and the detainees' right to challenge those accusations in a court of law. The traditional saying is every person has a right to a trial, a right to confront his/her accuser and to challenge the accusations. It is a profound safeguard to protect the innocent. These humane laws that characterize a civilized nation have been usurped by a medieval oligarch: According to the new archaic law, George W. Bush determines the final fate of detainees, many of whom were innocent Afghani farmers, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. That fate is cruel and unusual. No presumption of innocence. The punishment is either life in prison or death...
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1001-30.htm
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
by Jacqueline Marcus
10/01/06
There are laws that represent an Enlightened Age and, conversely, there are laws that represent a Dark Age. Today, our Congress has abolished, in Molly Ivins' words, 'a safeguard against illegal imprisonment that has endured as a cornerstone of legal justice since the Magna Carta,' and replaced it with barbaric laws. With a single vote, they've done away with a humane, civil right: the right to know what charges detainees' have been accused of and the detainees' right to challenge those accusations in a court of law. The traditional saying is every person has a right to a trial, a right to confront his/her accuser and to challenge the accusations. It is a profound safeguard to protect the innocent. These humane laws that characterize a civilized nation have been usurped by a medieval oligarch: According to the new archaic law, George W. Bush determines the final fate of detainees, many of whom were innocent Afghani farmers, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. That fate is cruel and unusual. No presumption of innocence. The punishment is either life in prison or death...
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1001-30.htm
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
rudkla - 3. Okt, 13:31
