Bush Exec Order: Authority To Detain Any Person - Anytime - Anyplace In the World

[kpete]

In her Los Angeles Times opinion column, Rosa Brooks calls attention to an aspect of Bush's executive order on interrogation policy that, as she puts it, was "barely noted by the media. . . .

"Last week's executive order breaks new ground by outlining the category of people who can be detained secretly and indefinitely by the CIA -- in a way that's broad enough to include a hefty chunk of the global population. Under its terms, a non-U.S. citizen may be secretly detained and interrogated by the CIA -- with no access to counsel and no independent monitoring -- as long as the CIA director believes the person 'to be a member or part of or supporting Al Qaeda, the Taliban or associated organizations; and likely to be in possession of information that could assist in detecting, mitigating or preventing terrorist attacks in locating the senior leadership of Al Qaeda, the Taliban or associated forces.'

"Got that? The president of the United States just issued a public pronouncement declaring, as a matter of U.S. policy, that a single man has the authority to detain any person anyplace in the world and subject him or her to secret interrogation techniques that aren't torture but that nonetheless can't be revealed, as long as that person is thought to be a 'supporter' of an organization 'associated' in some unspecified way with the Taliban or Al Qaeda, and as long he thinks that person might know something that could 'assist' us.

"But 'supporter' isn't defined, nor is 'associated organization.' That leaves the definition broad enough to permit the secret detention of, say, a man who sympathizes ideologically with the Taliban and might have overheard something useful in a neighborhood cafe, or of a 10-year-old girl whose older brother once trained with Al Qaeda."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html

[stellanoir]

1. So much for "the leader of the free world."

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. this reminds me of

martin bormann
himmler
hess
goering
and others.

[thunder35]

3. what type of govt has the US turned into the old soviet union

[davidwparker]

4. I like the sentiment Thom Hartmann made:

Even Julius Caesar never claimed so much authority as * has.

[L. Coyote]

5. I'm reminded of the laws about pagans. Pagans legal to enslave, seize property ..

And so the world was conquered in the name of the Lord and the Crown.

It had to be done legally, you see, so they wrote the rules accordingly. OLD TRICK!!

God Bless US all!

[warren pease]

6. At least it's an equal opportunity program..

As the directive says, "The requirements set forth in this section shall be applied with respect to detainees in such program without adverse distinction as to their race, color, religion or faith, sex, birth, or wealth."

So a brown Muslim woman of Asian extraction born in Sri Lanka to rich parents has just a much of a right to be "detained" and tortured as I do... Who needs affirmative action?

Gawd this is such a great country.


wp

[DutchLiberal]

7. He *already* had that power with the Military Commissions Act

[hootinholler]

8. There are a lot of little gems in that piece...

Shame it's a web only thing.

-Hoot

[glitch]

9. That used to be true, but the web has grown so much I am not sure if it still is.

This may actually reach more eyes on the web now. And it has a longer shelf life.

[hootinholler]

11. There are still a *lot* of people who only read the printed Post

I will concede your excellent points.

-Hoot

[peacetalksforall]

10. So we finally know why this country is superior to all other countries?

Those little old ladies and gentlemen who call into C-Span questioning why everyone is so hard on George must be happy. Add to that mix - the bigots and abortion haters who still support him..

[PurityOfEssence]

12. Nacht und Nebel

Night and fog: the Nazi way to simply eliminate opponents is alive and well.

Who the fuck does this asshole think he is? Does he just talk to god so he can have a pleasant chat with an inferior?

Jose Padilla was just a start.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

13. practice, as it were.

If they could succeed with a poor sap like Padilla, anyone else would be a piece of cake.