Defeat the Detainee Bill

The House will likely pass as early as today a bill that would give the executive branch of government sweeping power to lock up anyone it defines as an unlawful enemy combatant in military or CIA prisons. The detainee would have no legal recourse to challenge his or her detention. They would not have habeas corpus protections.

Habeas Corpus is a legal concept that has been around since the 12th century, AD. It's a common law principal that requires the imprisoning authority to produce the detainee in court and prove their case against him. It's the legal principal that keeps the government from locking anyone up it wants to.

The legislation also grants the Secretary of Defense sweeping authority to put aside the anti-torture provisions contained in the bill at his sole discretion without judicial oversight.

The bill essentially creates a second system of "justice," presided over by the executive branch with no judicial oversight.

"He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power."

That's what Thomas Jefferson said of King George III in the Declaration of Independence...what our current King George is doing today is not far removed.

The other thing to know about this bill is it gives the executive branch these powers as long as the war on terror is waged. This is an undefined war...how do we know when it is over? Who has to surrender to us? What "battle" has to be won? The administration is seeking uncompromising power for an unending war.

31 former ambassadors, including 20 who served Republican administrations, wrote Congress in opposition to this legislation. "to eliminate habeas corpus relief for the citizens of other countries who have fallen into our hands cannot but make a mockery" of the administration's efforts to promote democracy.

Yes, we live in dangerous times. But this bill overreaches...it would give the administration unending power to lock up anyone in suspects for any reason, throw away the key and subject them to torture.

Look at history...we tend to overreact in war time. Think as recently as the WWII detention of thousands of innocent Americans of Japanese extraction on the West Coast.

Visit www.congress.org, enter your zipcode in the box on the left side of the screen and write your Senators. Ask them to support habeas corpus. Ask them to vote "no" on the administration's detainee bill.

Hear this warning from Abraham Lincoln:

"What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts, our army and our navy. These are not our reliance against tyranny. All of those may be turned against us...

Our defense is in the spirit which prized liberty in the heritage of all men, in all lands everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you will have planted the seeds of despotism at your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and and you prepare your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of others, you have lost the genius of your own independence and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises among you."

-- Abraham Lincoln, Edwardsville, Illinois, September 11, 1858