Numerous studies have shown that the United States ranks up with Russia and China when it comes to the level of surveillance and lack of privacy for citizens. Now, in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings and the capture of Dzhokar Tsarnaev, leading members of the GOP want to toss out legal protections guaranteed to U.S. citizens. For a political party that whines incessantly about the "slippery slope" that could be triggered by gay rights and same sex marriage and an abusive federal government, they are oblivious to the much more frightening slippery slope that will be set in motion if Tsarnaev is treated as an "enemy combatant." Once exceptions to the rule of law, right to trial by jury, etc., are made and worse yet, become acceptable, all of us are ultimately at risk to an unrestrained government. One need only look at how the Nazis slowly undermined the rule of law in Germany in the 1930's for a case study of where this slippery slope can lead. Emotion - and pandering to a misogynistic party base - do not justify jettisoning constitutional protections for citizens. A piece in Politico looks at the GOP rush to subvert the processes that all of us should support. Here are highlights:
Sens. Lindsey Graham and John McCain are calling for the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings to be tried as an enemy combatant, rather than as an ordinary criminal.
“Under the Law of War we can hold this suspect as a potential enemy combatant not entitled to Miranda warnings or the appointment of counsel,” the Republicans said in a statement released Friday night. “Our goal at this critical juncture should be to gather intelligence and protect our nation from further attacks. We remain under threat from radical Islam and we hope the Obama Administration will seriously consider the enemy combatant option.”
“Now that the suspect is in custody, the last thing we should want is for him to remain silent,” they said. “It is absolutely vital the suspect be questioned for intelligence gathering purposes. We need to know about any possible future attacks which could take additional American lives. The least of our worries is a criminal trial which will likely be held years from now.”
President Barack Obama offered a possible nod to that issue in his televised address Friday night, saying that “it’s important that we do this right.” “That’s why we have investigations. That’s why we relentlessly gather the facts. That’s why we have courts,” Obama said.
I am not opposed to questioning Tsarnaev and doing things right, but let's not forget that under Bush/Cheney, America violated the Geneva Conventions and engaged in illegal torture. Indeed, Bush and Cheney deserve to be tried for war crimes. Now the same mind set wants to undermine protections at home for U.S. citizens. I find it scary to say the least. In some ways since 9-11 we are slowly drifting towards a police state and many people don't even realize that it is happening. One would think that John McCain of all people would be worried about abuses and possible torture.
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