American Police State Marches On

[MORTARDUDE]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/032404am...licestate.html

American Police State Marches On

Paul Craig Roberts | March 24 2004

The Bush administration believes that habeas corpus is a luxury that the US cannot afford in its war against terror.

Habeas corpus is the legal principle that is the foundation of Anglo-American freedom. It prevents the government from picking up a person and holding him indefinitely without charge.

Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler were not constrained by habeas corpus. They were able to declare millions of people "enemies" and send them off to death camps.

People were declared enemies because of their class and race, or simply because someone with the power to put their name on a list did not like them or coveted their wife or property.

In the Soviet Union many people disappeared in "street sweeps" conducted by secret police under pressure to show results by arresting more "enemies."

The Bush administration's attempt to legally suspend habeas corpus in The Patriot Act was rebuffed by House Judiciary Committee chairman James Sensenbrenner. Now the Department of Justice (sic) and the Department of Defense are trying to assert the power to suspend habeas corpus by bureaucratic decree.

The Bush administration claims the power to declare suspected terrorists "enemy combatants" and to hold them indefinitely without bringing charges, presenting evidence or permitting suspects contact with attorneys or any outside persons. The US Department of Justice (sic) recently told the US Supreme Court that "the Court owes the executive branch great deference in matters of national security and military affairs."

In other words, "buzz off and leave terrorism to us."

Harvey Silverglate, a noted civil libertarian, recently explained in the Boston Phoenix (March 6) that suspension of habeas corpus leaves a suspect without hope and permits prosecutors to coerce guilty pleas regardless of guilt.

Silverglate points out that zeal in pursuing results in the war on terror is creating a "Darkness at Noon" legal system in the US. Suspects who can be coerced into making guilty pleas are given a public show trial. Recalcitrants are declared to be "enemy combatants" and shipped off to Guantanamo or held offshore on ships outside the reach of the legal system. Even US citizens are being dealt with in this way.

Show trials have great propaganda value for the government's "war on terror," while the public never learns the fate of those dealt with administratively in secret.

The Bush administration's claim to the right to conduct its war on terror outside the framework of US law is before the Supreme Court. If the Court fails to preserve habeas corpus, the ancient right dating to the Magna Carta in 1215 will be vitiated. In Silverglate's words, "Tyranny will be clothed in the garments of legitimacy."

There is more than one legal road to tyranny, and prosecutors and police are making sure all roads to tyranny are open. On March 22 the Supreme Court argued a case that will determine whether Americans still have the right to remain silent. The Supreme Court requires police to read your Miranda rights to you, but if you choose to remain silent, Nevada prosecutors will indict you for "obstructing an officer."

Nevada rancher Dudley Hiibel was approached by a policeman demanding his identification papers. Hiibel asked why. Not receiving much of an explanation, he said that he didn't want to talk. This is the case now before the Court. Watch for the ruling in May or June.

Coercion has replaced due process and legal rights. The public's fear of crime and terrorism is permitting police and prosecutors to escape their leashes. Their jobs are budget-driven and results-oriented. The more power they grab, the easier their jobs. The more high profile cases they prosecute, the greater the na?ve public's confidence in "law and order." Silverglate points out that in the recent Detroit terrorist case, the government withheld exculpatory evidence that indicated that the testimony against the defendants was false.

Prosecutors will willingly trade the public results in the terror war for Americans' traditional legal rights. If Americans make this Faustian bargain, they will discover that their rights are forfeit as well as those of terrorist suspects.

American prisons are full of wrongfully convicted people. Prosecutors fight DNA testing of prisoners who claim innocence and resist even the release of people whose innocence has been established.

One reason is their fear of restitution. If innocent people are released, their claims would put a different light on "law and order" prosecutors, whose policy of conviction at all costs would be perceived as expensive to taxpayers.

British Home Secretary David Blunkett has hit on a way around the restitution dilemma. He has instituted a policy of charging Britain's wrongfully convicted room and board for the time they spent freeloading in prison.

The Sunday Herald (March 14) reports four cases of wrongfully convicted people - including some who were intentionally framed by the police - who were charged enormous sums for the years that they were wrongfully imprisoned. One had his compensation seized and was charged interest on the money paid to him at 23%!

The British are worried that their entry into the European Union will cost them the fabled legal protections that William Blackstone called the glory of England. But the British, like the Americans, have already lost those protections.

The pendulum has swung away from the rule of law. Arbitrary government power has made a comeback.

[BLUEHAWK]

I do not believe that your thread is exactly accurate... for this reason:

The Patriot Act, which is the root (I assume) of many allegations about Habeas Corpus et al and the "Bush Administration" is a flawed document, very lengthy, difficult to understand, passed amazingly quickly by a traumatized government almost three years ago.

The usual suspects are gonna raise up the notion that a Republican (albeit marginally and fresh) President suspended Habeas Corpus 8 times during the War of Rebellion 1860-65. And, it will be said, that our Union survived partly as a result of those suspensions. Maybe so. My guess is that "our" Union survived because of the work and sacrifice of warriors on the ground, on BOTH sides.

After some real careful analysis, there are many serious people who are making an effort to strike or modify certain aspects of the Act... especially the ones that impact Habeas Corpus. I tend to take such efforts solemnly given the experiences our German friends went through with going along to get along some decades back... know what I mean Earl?

Their opponents are, most generally, the ones who had been wanting Habeas Corpus modified for most of their own adult lifetimes... but few of them are from the political side of government. Most are from Law Enforcement or Intelligence gathering, where (facts be heard) it was inter- and intra-agency power struggles (mainly over money, to be real basic about it) more than anything else which preceeded (for decades) the way the Act was leaned in 2001. Plus, there was an outcry nation saying, "DO something about this!" First thing to do in an emergency is, STOP THE BLEEDING. They did that, in record time, in word form. It was reassuring, I suppose... Congress actually DID something, something, in a timely manner. To me, though, what was MOST reassuring, at the time, was our President's noble words to the people... I keep a copy of that speech nearby.

This is not to say there are zero Nazis in the American government or Law Enforcement. Hell, there are probably still a few closet commies too... maybe even a heathen, or possibly (GASP) an anarchist.

Howsomever, The Patriot Act is (or oughta be thought of as being) much like a fine work of sculpture in marble rather than a perfect thing from the git. It needs some grinding down, some taking away of rough edges and bumps, and some final polishing. At least, the experience of thousands of years clearly shows that a well-honed device takes more than a little work, and some drudgery and tedium, and care, to make right.

That baby got fast-tracked because nobody else had any better suggestions, and our nation was in deep torment... which (speaking for myself) we still are. It got a huge plurality in Congress, because (primarily) when the s--t hits the fan, almost everybody ducks.

Well, now what.

[reconeil]

Your habeas corpus analogies are truly: "FAR-OUT", especially when comparing Bush, or ANY Leaders in The History of The United States to the likes of Hitler and Stalin.

It wouldv've been: "A Cold Day in Hell" if either Hitler or Stalin ever treated their: "Habeas Corpus" types....EVEN SLIGHTLY as good as those treated at Guantanamo.

Besides,...can't even ACLU Lawyers be killed by those foreigners here for the express purpose of solely killing as many Americans as is possible? I would think so.

Neil

[BLUEHAWK]

Recon -

If you are addressing me as "Dude", at no time have I ever equated our President or any leaders of America with Hitler.

The Nazi government was an elected government. Every person who sought to be their leaders, every person who voted for their leaders, every person who served their leaders, every person who accepted their leaders' positions and laws played some kind of a role in the outcome... most were very small and even anonymous roles, some were very large and pivotal indeed.

For the most part, almost nobody anywhere (with the possible exceptions of Machiavelli, Dante and Hieronymous Bosch) could possibly have predicted the consequences of their inability to stop a course of events whose outcome had never before been seen.

It is grave danger to EVER believe that it cannot happen here, or anywhere (e.g. Iraq).

Beside which Recon, by now you and everyone who pays any attention at all to Patriot Files knows full well that I am, thusfar, a devoted and stalwart defender of our current President . If and as and when he becomes criminally insane or otherwise conducts his official duties in an unethical or destructive manner, until then I shall remain his advocate... not because he or I am a Republican (I am an American, therefore I could not care less about party affiliations, truly

As to certain of his advisors, my informed opinion has been widely expressed in these realms and is available in detail by reference (click the SEARCH button beneath this window) to my posting history since May of 2002.

Sir Blue

[reconeil]

DUDE is short for MORTARDUDE,...not that it matters much.
It's just like BLUE is short for BLUEHAWK.

Neil

[BLUEHAWK]

Sorry... whew, had me goin' there.

Better still, I had MYSELF goin' there