Saturday, May 23, 2009

Nation of laws? Part II

Memorial Day weekend.

Today's NY Times headline (print version): "Obama Detention Plan Poses Fundamental Test / Lack of Trials a Challenge to Tradition".

Oh, "Challenge to Tradition" must be the new euphemism for subverting due process.

FV was obviously a big supporter of candidate Obama, who never proposed anything like "preventive detention," being that he was a constitutional law professor and everything. And I can't sit here at my keyboard and tell you what I would do if I saw these detainees dossiers. But I do think our country is strong enough to uphold due process even for suspected terrorists.

As I understand it, no Western democracy, even those with much more experience with terrorism than ours, allows for indefinite detention without charges or trial. This has gone on long enough. Just because you "create a legal framework" for something doesn't make it Constitutional. Or right.

What are we becoming? Is this the country our fathers and mothers fought and died for?

Nation of laws?

I don't know the legal definition of treason, but perhaps torturing prisoners in order to extract false confessions to justify an invasion might fall somewhere in there...

Just a thought.

Mr. Holder, appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the torture regime. It's not looking backwards; it is called upholding the rule of law. And in our democracy nobody is above the law. Or are they?