We've lost our most important freedom while the New Orleans disaster was going o

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Sun, 11 Sep 2005 07:57:00 -0700 (PDT)

We've lost our most important freedom while the New Orleans

disaster was going on.

 

 

 

 

 

Jose Padilla and he Death of Liberty

 

" The very core of liberty secured by our Anglo-Saxon system of

separated powers has been freedom from indefinite imprisonment at the

will of theExecutive. " Judge Antonin Scalia

 

By Mike Whitney

 

09/10/05 " ICH " -- -- I had to sit down when I heard the Padilla case

had been settled. I literally felt sick to my stomach, like I was

gasping for air. The case of Jose Padilla is quite simply the most

important case in the history of the American judicial system. Hanging

in the balance are all the fundamental principles of American

jurisprudence including habeas corpus, due process and " the

presumption of innocence " . All of those basic concepts were summarily

revoked by the 3 judge panel of the 4th Circuit Court. The Court ruled

in favor of the Bush administration which claimed that it had the

right to indefinitely imprison an American citizen without charging

him with a crime. The resulting verdict confers absolute authority on

the President to incarcerate American citizens without charge and

without any legal means for the accused to challenge the terms of his

detention. It is the end of " inalienable rights " , the end of The Bill

of Rights, and the end of any meaningful notion of personal liberty.

 

I remember reading 3 or 4 years ago, in Zbigniew Brzezinski's, " The

Grand Chessboard " , of a strategy to dominate the world that would

result in the loss of freedom for American citizens. Brzezinski

recognized the inherent threat that liberty posed to the development

of empire. He stated:

 

" It is also a fact that America is too democratic at home to be

autocratic abroad. This limits the use of America's power, especially

its capacity for military intimidation. Never before has a populist

democracy attained international supremacy. But the pursuit of power

is not a goal that commands popular passion, except in conditions of a

sudden threat or challenge to the public's sense of domestic

well-being. The economic self-denial (that is, defense spending) and

the human sacrifice (casualties, even among professional soldiers)

required in the effort are uncongenial to democratic instincts.

Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilization. " (p.35)

 

Brzezinski's prescient forecast has proved to be astonishingly

accurate. The determination of the neocons, the Federalist Society,

the far-right radio giants, the Olin, Scaife, Coors and Bradley

foundations, and the entire stable of right-wing, quasi-fascist groups

that operate openly within American society, have pounded the final

wooden stake into the heart of the personal freedom. The basic legal

protections that safeguard the citizen from the arbitrary and hostile

action of the state have been rescinded. We all stand naked before the

absolute power of the President.

 

The government has no case against Jose Padilla, a hapless Chicago

gang-banger who allegedly visited Pakistan before he was arrested at

O'Hare airport 3 and a half years ago. He is simply an unwitting

victim of circumstance; a convenient scapegoat for eviscerating the

rule of law. The Bush administration has used its extraordinary

influence in the media to demagogue the case and keep him locked-away

without producing one shred of evidence against him. The entire affair

has been a grotesque mockery of justice. The hard-right groups that

engineered this plot know exactly where the fault-lines in American

jurisprudence lie; in the inalienable protections of its citizens.

 

Padilla became the test-case for shattering the Bill of Rights with

one withering blow. It has succeeded beyond anyone's wildest expectation.

 

There's no chance that the Supreme Court will retry the case and draw

more attention to the shocking details of this judicial-coup; they

already punted once before preferring to pass it along to the lower

court. Rather, the meaning of the case will be ignored until the

president needs to exercise the newly-bestowed powers of supreme

leader. That authority is now firmly rooted in the legal precedent

established by the Padilla ruling.

 

No Longer the Land of the Free

 

Americans seem unaware of the great loss we've all suffered by the

Padilla verdict. If the President is allowed to arbitrarily decide who

has " inalienable rights " , than those rights become the provisional

gifts of the government rather than a reliable shield against the

abuse of state power. It means that every American citizen is as

vulnerable to the same violation of human rights as the men currently

imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay. It also means that the legal wall that

shelters the citizen from the random violence of the political

establishment has been reduced to rubble.

 

The Padilla ruling is the blackest day in American history. The icons

of American liberty; the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial,

the Statue of Liberty; are empty shrines if they are not underscored

by the guarantee of freedom. The Vietnam Memorial, the Constitution,

the Gettysburg Address, the 4th of July, the Federalist Papers, and

the American flag; all gratuitous expressions of a principle that has

vanished from the political landscape.

 

Every man and woman who ever wore an American uniform and died in the

service of their country, died in vain. Their sacrifice has been

rendered completely worthless by the action of the 4th Circuit Court.

 

George Bush has now extinguished every meaningful part of the American

dream. The last vestige of the social contract has been defiled and

desecrated by the administration and their court. Personal freedom is

dead in America; it was impaled by the verdict against Jose Padilla.

How many thousands or, perhaps, millions of Americans will die or

endure incalculable suffering to regain what we have lost on this

tragic day?

 

Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He can be reached at:

fergiewhitney

 

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