Habeas Corpus, RIP (1215 - 2006)

By Molly Ivins

"Oh dear. I’m sure he didn’t mean it. In Illinois’ Sixth Congressional District, long represented by Henry Hyde, Republican candidate Peter Roskam accused his Democratic opponent, Tammy Duckworth, of planning to 'cut and run' on Iraq.

"Duckworth is a former Army major and chopper pilot who lost both legs in Iraq after her helicopter got hit by an RPG. 'I just could not believe he would say that to me,' said Duckworth, who walks on artificial legs and uses a cane. Every election cycle produces some wincers, but how do you apologize for that one?

"The legislative equivalent of that remark is the detainee bill now being passed by Congress. Beloveds, this is so much worse than even that pathetic deal reached last Thursday between the White House and Republican Sens. John Warner, John McCain and Lindsey Graham. The White House has since reinserted a number of 'technical fixes' that were the point of the putative 'compromise.' It leaves the president with the power to decide who is an enemy combatant.

"This bill is not a national security issue—this is about torturing helpless human beings without any proof they are our enemies. Perhaps this could be considered if we knew the administration would use the power with enormous care and thoughtfulness. But of the over 700 prisoners sent to Gitmo, only 10 have ever been formally charged with anything. Among other things, this bill is a CYA for torture of the innocent that has already taken place.

"Death by torture by Americans was first reported in 2003 in a New York Times article by Carlotta Gall. The military had announced the prisoner died of a heart attack, but when Gall saw the death certificate, written in English and issued by the military, it said the cause of death was homicide. The 'heart attack' came after he had been beaten so often on this legs that they had 'basically been pulpified,' according to the coroner.

"The story of why and how it took the Times so long to print this information is in the current edition of the Columbia Journalism Review. The press in general has been late and slow in reporting torture, so very few Americans have any idea how far it has spread. As is often true in hierarchical, top-down institutions, the orders get passed on in what I call the downward communications exaggeration spiral.

"For example, on a newspaper, a top editor may remark casually, 'Let’s give the new mayor a chance to see what he can do before we start attacking him.'

"This gets passed on as 'Don’t touch the mayor unless he really screws up.'

"And it ultimately arrives at the reporter level as 'We can’t say anything negative about the mayor.'

"The version of the detainee bill now in the Senate not only undoes much of the McCain-Warner-Graham work, but it is actually much worse than the administration's first proposal. In one change, the original compromise language said a suspect had the right to 'examine and respond to' all evidence used against him. The three senators said the clause was necessary to avoid secret trials. The bill has now dropped the word 'examine' and left only 'respond to.'

"In another change, a clause said that evidence obtained outside the United States could be admitted in court even if it had been gathered without a search warrant. But the bill now drops the words 'outside the United States,' which means prosecutors can ignore American legal standards on warrants ..."
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Tagged: torture, usa, human+rights, civil+rights, war+on+terror, authoritarianism, liberty