"The Bush administration regularly abused the “state secrets” doctrine, broadly claiming legal cases couldn’t go forward without jeopardizing national security. Because it used this doctrine to escape accountability for illegal behavior, not a single torture victim has had his day in court.On Wednesday, February 11, 2009, the State Secrets Protection Act of 2009 (H.R. 984) was introduced to narrow the scope of the "state secrets" privilege. This essential bill requires a court to make an independent assessment of any government state secrets claim. And it allows victims of government wrongdoing to seek justice without running into a wall of secrecy. "
Thus writes the ACLU in an email sent out to members. The ACLU is asking people to contact their members of Congress to request that the newly-proposed State Secrets Protection Act of 2009 be co-sponsored by YOUR Representative.
For those in Congress who are stacked against us, I want to ask you and anyone else you send this article to, to please remind those Representatives that we *pay* them to uphold, protect and defend the Constitution.
No Crime on Our Dime, Please.
No government kidnaps based on bounty hunting, as is the case with more than one or two at Guantanamo, according to the ACLU. The Red Cross asserts that more than 75% of Guantanamo detainees are innocent, while the Center for Constitutional Rights echoes. Amnesty International is vociferous. And the ACLU puts the figures at a whopping 99% of those innocent behind the "Terrorist" bars.
www.aclu.org/safefree/detention/29145res20070322.html
With no access to legal counsel, no ability to attend their own trial, and "torture" (such as carving their genitals with scalpels) resulting in many false confessions, there really is no burden of proof. Further, such false “evidence” counts as real testimony in post-911 military courts.
Thus, those incarcerated as "terrorists" are overwhelmingly proven to be innocent by their lawyers (if they are lucky enough to have one), while the guilty walk free.
Every American needs to know this fact. Too many Americans believe that to turn "Terrorists" in is to protect our country. Too many believe that "Terrorists" such as those innocent in Guantanamo, do not deserve a trial. That's exactly what gets the innocent jailed and practically killed, and the guilty set off free. That's exactly what results in random abuse of power, while bounty hunters are rewarded for turning in those who to this day, according to reiterated statements by the Center for Constitutional Rights and the ACLU, have yet to be charged with a single crime.
Please write your editors. Comb the ACLU and CCR's websites for info, quote it in letters to the editor, and please write Congress. Please ask readers of your letters to write Congress.
"It won't do any good".
Well by golly, neither will sitting there idle.
"Politicians don't care what we think."
Obviously that's not true, given the mass resignations when scandals were about to break.
What of the fact that politicians want to be re-elected? Oh, sorry I forgot. Of course, the votes are rigged. True.
However, with voting watchdog groups springing up all over the country, have you noticed of late that elections seem to turn out more and more in accordance with the will of the greater population? According to Victoria Collier, election reform authority, election theft has occurred since the 50's, and did not begin with Bush---and has, historically, also been done by Republicans. She qualifies that this is not intended to be a partisan statement, but just historical fact. Given the landslide victories of the Democrats in Congress, and of Obama, just recently, can we conclude that the Republican plan to steal elections is still working?
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