Here is a concept that some of us had forgotten: We have a US Constitution and a Bill of Rights guaranteeing us certain things, certain, well, rights. Now this administration has kept us so hopped up on what I like to refer to as "terror blasts" over the last 6 years that some members of this country had forgotten about those rights.
"What? That guy wanted to blow up a plane with his shoe? Fine, let's keep people locked up indefinitely in jail."
"What? Those people were thinking about blowing up a plane? Fine, we are banning all liquids from aircraft, even those purchased inside the security gates."
"What? Those people wanted to blow up a military installation, even though they had no weapons and only a vague plan? Fine, let's listen to the phone calls of anyone we want."
And on and on it has gone.
Well, finally a court has said, "Enough". The New York Times (and almost every other site I have looked at this morning) has the story.
The federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., ruled yesterday
that the president may not declare civilians in this country to
be “enemy combatants” and have the military hold them indefinitely.
The ruling was a stinging rejection of one of the Bush administration’s
central assertions about the scope of executive authority to combat terrorism.
This poor man has been in jail since Dec 2001 where apparently he was charged with credit card fraud and lying to federal agents. Those are crimes, he should have been arrested. But just before he was to go to trial he was moved to the Navy brig and has just been sitting there, with no charges, no anything.. FOR FOUR YEARS! IN AMERICA!
Is this guy an al qaeda operative? I don't know, but he was in this country legally and should be given the courtesy of being charged or being freed. If he is charged and found guilty, then he can be deported, can't he? Then he won't be here. Maybe the evidence was a little thin. Maybe someone, somewhere honestly feels he is a threat. But we do have laws, a Constitution and a Bill of Rights in this country and while Ali al-Marri will not being released anytime soon because the government will appeal and this will go to the Supreme Court, it is nice to know that some people still believe our Constitution stands for something.
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4 comments:
Great blog. We need more blogs or content on stuff like this as there are a lot of people out there who dig this stuff.
Brett Smithey
Great hairstyle and haircare tips
Brett,
Thank you for the nice comments and for stopping by. Feel free to come back anytime.
Bush has been rebuked in every terror-related court case so far...
I wish the fact that he was being rebuked made me feel better. The only thing that will work is getting him out of office. He hasn't listened to the courts, or the laws, so far, what makes us think he will now? Obviously public opinion carries no weight. Maybe I am paranoid, but that doesn't mean he isn't planning something else horrible for this country.
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