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So far, military commissions haven't tried Americans. Henceforth, based on alleged national security concerns, they will be under draconian FY 2012 NDAA provisions.
Notably, Jose Padilla, a US citizen, was lawlessly held over three and a half years in military and civilian confinement as an alleged "enemy combatant." Charges against him were spurious. Yet he was denied due process, tortured, brutalized, dehumanized, and transformed in solitary confinement to mush.
Emotionally destroyed ahead of his civil trial, his lawyer said he resembled "a piece of furniture," unable to represent himself properly in court. In military detention ahead of his court martial, Bradley Manning's barbaric treatment may have left him less than fully able.
A Final Comment
For years, America's crept closer to totalitarian rule. Notably, the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act eased surveillance and death penalty restrictions, eroded habeas protection, and smoothed the way for repressive measures to follow.
Post-9/11, they proliferated. Constitutional protections have been systematically eliminated. FY 2012 NDAA provisions destroy fundamental Bill of Rights ones, including Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment due process rights.
The Fifth Amendment says, "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury.."Moreover, no one shall "be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb....be compelled (to bear) witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law...."
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