Senate Spits on Habeas Corpus
Senate deals legal blow to Guantanamo prisoners
By AFP
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US Senate Wednesday narrowly rejected an attempt to allow 'war on terror' prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to challenge their detention in federal courts.
Senators voted 56-43 in favor of the bill, but the final tally was short of the 60 votes needed under Senate rules for it to move forward.
The bill would have restored the ancient writ of habeas corpus to inmates, giving them recourse to the US civil justice system.
Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy had earlier warned colleagues that depriving prisoners of such rights damaged US prestige around the world.
"Casting aside the time-honored protection of habeas corpus makes us more vulnerable as a nation because it leads us away from our core American values and calls into question our historic role as a defender of human rights around the world," he said.
"It also allows our enemies to accomplish something they could never achieve on a battlefield, whittling away the liberties that make us who we are."
But Republicans opposed to the bill warned it would strip a key legal weapon from the US 'war on terror' arsenal.
Arizona Republican Senator Jon Kyl argued that allowing enemy combatants into the US court system could eventually lead to them being freed and sent back out to fight to US soldiers on the battlefield.
He said the bill would also impose unreasonable requirements for US forces to provide legal resources to militants captured on the battlefields of Iraq.
"The bill before us literally requires us to provide attorneys to these captured detainees in Iraq -- tens of thousands of them," he said.
The US Supreme Court agreed in June to examine the demands of war on terror suspects held without charge at Guantanamo jail.
In May, more than 70 lawyers for terror suspects and academics urged lawmakers to restore the writ of habeas corpus to detainees.
Critics say that the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which rolled back habeas corpus provisions, is so broad that it might apply not only to terror suspects, but also to any legal resident of the United States, if the president declares them to be an "enemy combatant."
Human rights groups put a brave face on the defeat, noting that despite the bill being blocked, a majority of Senators had voted to support it.
"Today's vote was a victory for those seeking to restore both the rule of law and our nation's constitution," said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington Legislative Office.
Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel for Human Rights Watch, said "Congress will ultimately reverse course and reject the administration's view that it can detain people simply on the president's say-so."
Veteran Democratic Senator Joseph Biden warned: "the terrorists win when we abandon our civil liberties."
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David,
I think it's important to be reporting how this needed 60 votes was on a clotcher vote to move to vote on the amendment. In essence, the filibuster continues. And so it should. Lets hear from our Good(?) Senators why Habeas Corpus is quaint and should be retired.
I'M finding it difficult to understand what Democrats stand for. Hell, this example is perfect. This is not a defeat but instead an exposure of an era of thugs dressed in tailored pinstriped suits.
The question everyone should be asking is: How can Congress restore that which can not be deprived from those governed without their consent. Article 1 section 9 states that Congress may NOT suspend Habeas Corpus UNLESS when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. The mere act of attempting to suspend Habeas Corpus under other pretenses IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL. And that is what Congress did.
Congress did not come to the people to amend the Constitution to allow them the ability to remove BASIC RIGHTS, yet Congress is removing basic Rights.
silent filibuster
they don't have to talk for hours like in the movies
Results of Being Permanently Detained
"No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms." Article 4, Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
A woman is being ransacked by the U.S. Gov't and greedy Jews. The only reasons for this is to denigrate and cast her in a negative light because she has battled for her rights that most Americans lead.
Find out how the U.S. Government has dismissed all claims lodged at all levels of the U.S. "Courts of Justice". See how the Jews have been bent on beating a woman into submission through psychological abuse so that she must suffer years of shameful recalcitrance.
Check out how they have ransacked all of her personal and real property by forcing her to live on public funds while crippling her at an alarmingly slow amount of time leaving her to associate with those of common banality.
Here is a summary of the matters sent throughout the U.S. and abroad. Human trafficking is a human rights violation of epidemic proportion. Trafficking places individuals in extremely vulnerable circumstances where their basic human rights are violated, including the rights to life, liberty, personal security, privacy, mental and physical integrity, freedom from slavery, and freedom from torture and other forms of inhumane or degrading treatment.
Two basic admissibility criteria have existed since the procedure was created in 1970, and they must remain unchanged:
1. that there be a “consistent pattern of gross and reliably attested violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms”; and
2. that “domestic remedies must have been exhausted before a communication is considered - unless it can be shown convincingly that solutions at the national level would be ineffective or that they would extend over an unreasonable length of time.”
When people deprive other people of earning an income then steal financial resources that was entrusted to a beneficiary, the following occurs:
* loss of professional capability
* loss of family and friendships
*loss of citizenship
* loss of personal and real property
* loss of community support
* loss of a drivers license.
This can never bring peace regardless of what anyone thinks.
It is not right to victimize vulnerable women as sex objects. Yet, America has allowed women to become human trafficking victims. How many are in the United States? We do not know because the United States is not on the Human Trafficking tier system. We are one of the only countries that are not. See The Protection Project's Review of the US Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons 2006 Trafficking in Persons Report at http://protectionproject.org/docs/Final_collection.pdf
What makes this country different from any other country? It is going on right here in the open sight of The People. Legislators, U.S. Government Representatives, Federal and State Judges are doing nothing to enforce laws already on the books. And, this author has not been compensated for pain and suffering of the abuse.
Check out: http://kinispolarbear.bravehost.com daily to find out what one disenfranchised American woman is going through.
Job Promises + Horrors of Humanity=Human Trafficking.
This author has managed to upload proof. As forms of retaliation for this author asserting her rights, the U.S. Government has suspended her driver license and have allowed the grand theft larceny of her $100k that her mother left in an estate trust.
If you received an inheritance because your descendants did not want you to live a life like this and you were deprived these funds, would that be fair?
As a result of the above disparaging or causing disparagement treatments, this author has been exposed to poverty discrimination, sex discrimination, gender discrimination, physical and characteristic discrimination, age discrimination, disability discrimination, religious discrimination, housing discrimination, and financial discrimination. All while gloating in her face, "You have a future!"
Please sign this petition to help stop women from having to live a life of pain, suffering, torture, and loneliness.
Help stop women who are being run out of their home because they don't want to spread their legs to service American men!
Help to give persons back what is rightfully theirs by making Judges accountable for their obscure government oversight!
Help to enforce laws that are already on the books since 1776!
Help stop wasting tax payer funds used for spying to harass, retaliate, and other abuse of discretions to citizens who need a decent life!
Help stop illegal wiretapping and spying activity for data mining used against citizens to create massive amounts of anxiety!
If you don't believe me, check out http://kinispolarbear.bravehost.com daily to see what this disenfranchised American woman is going through.
Please sign this petition:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/238998935