Absolute authority on the President to incarcerate American citizens without cha

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D

Sat, 17 Sep 2005 04:16:13 -0500

Absolute authority on the President to incarcerate American

citizens without charge

 

 

 

 

Once again the country snoozes away thanks to a media that will not

discuss this issue.

 

 

Absolute authority on the President to incarcerate American citizens

without charge

 

 

 

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

 

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10223.htm

 

 

http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#Am6

 

 

http://BuzzardsRoost.aimoo.com

http://www.GranniesAgainstGeorge.us