Let’s Back Up a Moment, Shall We?

Everywhere I go, I’m seeing people screaming about Bush signing the Military Commisions Act of 2006 and how it’s the end of our civil liberties, how it violates the Constitution, how W is going to throw everyone in detention camps, and so on and so forth.

Everyone just take a deep breath.

The law does not apply to US Citizens. Such a law as these alarmists are interpreting it would violate a number of laws, the 4th and 7th Amendments and, arguably, the 5th and 6th Amendments. It’s just not going to happen, no matter how afraid of Bush and the Neo-Cons you are. (If he were willing to do that, look for the military seizing control of the streets, not lawmakers to be making back-alley deals.)

If you read the law, there are two critical definitions: “unlawful enemy combatant” and “alien”. The latter should be plain: a non-citizen. An “unlawful enemy combatant” is defined as follows:

(i) a person who has engaged in hostilities or who
has purposefully and materially supported hostilities
against the United States or its co-belligerents who is
not a lawful enemy combatant (including a person who
is part of the Taliban, al Qaeda, or associated forces);
or
(ii) a person who, before, on, or after the date of
the enactment of the Military Commissions Act of 2006,
has been determined to be an unlawful enemy combatant
by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal or another competent
tribunal established under the authority of the
President or the Secretary of Defense.

Then, when the Act discusses jurisdiction, it says the law applies to “alien unlawful enemy combatants.” In other words, non-citizens who are not a member of the armed forces of another nation.

To put it in even simpler terms, the law does not allow Bush and/or his cronies to lock up the average Joe Citizen in a detention camp. Clear? Good.

However, this does not mean it’s not a plain bad law. For starters, it says the freedoms we so cherish and would push upon the rest of the world do not apply to you if you are not a citizen. (Granted you also have to be deemed a terrorist by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal or similar legal entity designated by the President or the Secretary of Defense, but tell me that’s not going to be a simple kangaroo court…)

This is Bush’s justification for and legalization of the methods he already has in place. Now he’s legal to keep secret jails and to interrogate suspected terrorists as he sees fit. That’s going to work wonders for foreign policy, no? And notice the law is retroactive; it applies to suspects committing a terrorist act “before, on, or after September 11th, 2001.”

As for torture, the article “Welcome to the Fourth Reich” sums it up nicely.

The real question, as I see it, is does the Constitution apply to non-Citizens? While it’s easy to say “terrorists should not have rights!”, keep in mind that now anyone can be labeled a terrorist.

Think of the poor schmucks selling cell phones up in Michigan, who were picked up because they were allegedly going to blow up the Mackinac Bridge. They were naturalized citizens of Palestinian descent living in Texas, but for the sake of argument, let’s say they were immigrants and lived in Texas under valid visas. If a tribunal says “yep, they’re terrorists,” they get whisked away to Gitmo or a similar detention center where anything goes up to the point of what the president decides is torture. All before an acutal Military Commissions trial.

So now Bush puts us between a rock and a hard place. If we disagree with the law, we’re taking away his tools to fight terrorism and destroying his method of punishing terrorists. If we agree with the law, we’re agreeing that it’s okay to grab people off the street, put them in secret jails, and interrogate/torture them until a Military Commission decides what to do with them. (And by the way, said punishment includes the death penalty.)

I’m not naive enough to believe our government is above reproach and hasn’t done some shady things, but this law is Bush giving the big middle finger to all of his critics, both home and abroad. Don’t get mad because you’re afraid Bush is going to lock up Joe Citizen, get mad because Bush is further damaging diplomatic relations by demonstrating how big a hypocrite he can be and that your rights ain’t shit if you’re not a freedom-loving ‘Merican Citizen.