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Detainee Bill Swipes Rights from 'Enemy Combatants'
By: Ben Shore, The Daily Aztec (San Diego State University)
October 4, 2006 1:45 PM

(U-WIRE) SAN DIEGO - Sept. 28, 2006, may go down in the annals of American history as the day our precious democracy was stolen from us by those most entrusted. The Senate's passage of President Bush's detainee legislation after the U.S. House of Representatives' approval brings our country to the brink of transforming into a shadow of its former self.

In a bill that makes the Patriot Act look lenient, the detainee legislation is a sickening tool being used for political gain and for providing Bush with the almost unlimited power he has for so long pretended to have.

No more pretending.

There is a tyranny that has grown out of 9/11 blood that's still not dry, and death counts are still rising in Afghanistan and Iraq. There's an ignorant populous, and an ambivalent, invisible and perhaps incapable opponent. Democratic victories in the upcoming election are the only course of action that could impede the seemingly endless neo-conservative agenda.

The detainee legislation does little to protect America and even less to protect American soldiers by leaving them open to the same treatment we are now giving to foreign prisoners.

Furthermore, the bill is more reminiscent of the Jim Crow or the Nazi Nuremberg Laws than anything. The term "enemy combatant" has been broadened in this bill to include legal U.S. citizens as well as foreigners. The bill allows the president to apply this term to anyone and to hold them indefinitely without appeal.

It's a slap in the face to the Geneva Conventions, allowing Bush to decide on his own what sort of interrogation tactics he considers appropriate. These methods would be allowed to be kept secret. The bill also suspends habeas corpus -- a writ ordering a person that is in custody to be brought before a court -- by disallowing prisoners to appeal their imprisonment.

The detainee legislation also limits judicial review, allows for certain coerced evidence to be admitted and leaves the definition of torture so vague that it "would effectively eliminate the idea of rape as torture," according to The New York Times. Despite a minor bump in his poll numbers -- thanks to falling gas prices -- the president remains incredibly unpopular with a majority of the American people.

Yet, instead of listening to the voice of the people, he continues to further the neo-con agenda and create legislation granting him power that no other president in our history has ever had. The political strategy surrounding this bill is almost as troubling as the bill itself.

By making the bill as strong and tyrannical as possible and introducing it a mere six weeks before the upcoming elections, the Bush administration forced Republicans fearful of losing their seats to vote for it and Democrats fearful of looking soft on terrorism to vote for it.

As is typical of Bush, this was not so much the Republicans passing a decent piece of legislation as it was forcing the Democrats to allow the passage of a despicable waiver of uncontrolled power.

Despite what appears to be impending victory by Democrats in the mid-term elections, they have remained their usual silent and timid selves throughout this process. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., responded forcefully to the "false and inflammatory rhetoric" used by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., when he accused Democrats of wanting to "coddle" terrorists, according to The Washington Post. While Pelosi came out swinging against Hastert, she didn't do much when it came to blocking this irresponsible and quintessentially un-American document.

From the first time I saw the movie "V for Vendetta," I knew it was only a matter of time before Bush ascended to his alter-ego portrayed as Chancellor Adam Sutler in the movie. That time may be upon us.

When a leader with the amount of hubris Bush has becomes as controlling and powerful as he has, a tyranny is born. The overextension of power that Bush has been granted by this bill is an affront to the Constitution and our system of democracy.

The most frightening tyrannies came to fruition not as the result of war or a coup, but with the consent of the people.

Bush has taken that mandate and exploited it beyond recognition and will continue to do so until we -- the protectors of this country's democracy -- choose to exercise our obligation to dissent and question our leaders. Until we do so, our democracy is being stolen right from under our noses.

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