Well.
In case you haven't read, the
Military Commissions Act of 2006 passed the Senate on a
roll-call vote by 65 to 34, with one abstention. Put briefly, this bill suspends most of the Constitution, stating that anyone not a citizen may be arrested and tried under military law, absent the rights to challenge evidence, have counsel of their choosing, call witnesses, or challenge the basic cause for their detention under habeas corpus. Conviction is by a majority vote of the military commission under secret ballot; they may be appealed to a military appeals court, and thence to a civilian court. (Note that this is a bit milder than some of the previous situation, in that it only affects non-Citizens; but note also that the key provision of the 14th amendment is that the rights stated under the Constitution apply to all persons, not only to citizens. This was instated soon after the Civil War, when freed blacks were persons but not citizens. You may notice that the executive branch also has the ability to strip citizenship)
Sections 7 and 8 effectively give blanket immunity to US personnel for charges of war crimes, specifically w.r.t. the Geneva Conventions. Basically, it redefines the War Crimes Act to allow whatever the President says. (Sec. 8.a.3 of this bill)
Some good news: This isn't the first time our country has suspended the Constitution in some wholly unconstitutional manner; each time it was realized and reverted a few years later. I suspect that the same will happen here, after our current President -- may his name and his memory be erased -- is gone and the Congress cleaned up as well. It's very important to do that, soon, before (more) lasting damage is done: remember to vote in this coming election, no matter where you are, and if you can contribute to electoral races, do so. And next election. And the one after that.
(On the subject of lasting damage: No real developments in the
Arar case since the Canadian government's report. Apparently they admit that they mistakenly tagged him as a terror suspect and gave this information to the US; the US promptly shipped him off to Syria to be tortured. The Canadian government apologized. But that doesn't answer the basic question of where the safety checks went that would keep a single mistaken identification from sending someone off to a torture chamber for a year -- isn't this precisely why we
have a rule of law?)
