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The Assault
on Liberty
by Philip Restino
The
recent passage of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 eliminated habeas
corpus, a detainee's
right to know the charges for his detainment
and his right to defend himself against those charges in court.
The act not only allows information coerced by
means of torture to be incriminating, but it also retroactively
changes the law so as to protect anyone
in the Bush administration and under its command from prosecution
for war crimes dating back to Sept. 11,
2001.
Habeas corpus originated in the year 1215 and was shamelessly removed from
the American way
of life by President Bush "The Decider" on Oct.
17, 2006. The vague language of the Military Commissions Act
also allows the president to decide what qualifies
one as an "enemy combatant" and to whom that qualification
applies, to include American citizens. All to
protect us from terrorism.
The Military Commissions Act of 2006 is eerily similar to Germany's
Enabling Act of 1933, the passage
of which followed Germany's own "Sept. 11" in
the burning of its parliament building, the Reichstag, on
Feb. 27, 1933. The 1933 Enabling Act allowed
Germany's own "Decider," Adolf Hitler, to take that country
from one of a people's parliamentary government
into one of a dictatorship and into the horrors of Nazism
that spread throughout Europe for the next 12
years. The rationale given to the German people in 1933 for
the removal of their liberties was that dictatorial
powers were necessary to protect them from terrorism.
Our own liberties have been removed for the very
same reason.
Shouldn't we be paying attention here?
The Reichstag fire was blamed on a Communist "terrorist," Marinis Vanderlubbe,
who was quickly
tried in a show trial, similar to the ones
provided for in the language of the Military Commissions Act of 2006,
which our so-called "representatives" in Congress
voted for and which "The Decider" ceremoniously signed
into law Oct. 17. It was after World War II during
the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials of 1945, that strong
evidence emerged indicating that German SS operatives
had set the Reichstag fire. Also at Nuremberg,
Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering made the following
statement, which bears remarkable resemblance
to the Bush administration's strategy for control
over the past five years: "The people can always be brought
to the bidding of the leaders. That is
easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and
denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism
and exposing the country to danger. It works the same
in any country."
I encourage the reader to turn off your television set and learn about
the Military Commissions Act
of 2006, the Patriot Acts, the John Warner
National Defense Authorization Act of 2007, which now allows
our "Decider" to declare martial law without
states' consent, and then take a few minutes to read the Bill of Rights,
if not the entire U.S. Constitution.
Those who refuse to listen to anything unless it's from a member of
the "Party of Lincoln," might consider
the following from President Lincoln himself:
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and
lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed
ourselves."
And to those sycophants masquerading as "love it or leave it" Americans
living in our "land of the free
and home of the brave," Lincoln had this to say:
"To stand in silence when they should be protesting makes
cowards out of men." A patriot is defined as
a person who loves his or her country.
Waving the flag and blindly submitting oneself as an unquestioning loyalist
to individuals who have taken
charge of the government, in our case a government
"of, by and for the people," as President Lincoln described
on the bloody fields of Gettysburg, does not
make one a patriot. Being a loyalist is easy. Being a patriot takes
the courage to speak out in protest, albeit courage
that any one of us can muster. Mark Twain wrote, "In the
beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce
man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds,
the timid join him, for then it costs nothing
to be a patriot."
During these very
troubling times in our country's history when our basic liberties are under
attack,
we can choose to be a patriot, a loyalist or
worse yet, to continue to sit it out.
Restino is co-chairman and a founding member of
the Central Florida chapter of Veterans For Peace
and a member of Military Families Speak Out --
Florida. He lives in Daytona Beach.
Submitted by Marion