Things you might not know about the Military Commissions Act of 2006
Section 950j criminalises any challenge to the legislation’s legality by the Supreme Court or any US court:
“No court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider any claim or cause of action whatsoever, including any action pending on or filed after the date of the enactment of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, relating to the prosecution, trial, or judgment of a military commission under this chapter, including challenges to the lawfulness of procedures of military commissions under this chapter.”
This makes it illegal for any legal challenge to occur, and since the courts have no power any more, it’s obviously up to the military to enforce that particular section of the Military Commissions Act.
Yes, the military has power over the courts, including the Supreme Court, and has the power to stop any attempt to challenge the Military Commissions Act.
Where the Bush administration would have you believe that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 outlaws torture, it only outlaws torture committed by ‘enemy combatants’. It also outlaws the retaliation by any military against the US and classes such retaliation as ‘murder’. Defence is a criminal act considered by by the Act as ‘murder’.
The classification of any individual as a terrorist include the following:
- destruction of any property
- any violent activity of any kind if it takes place near a designated protected building, including charity buildings
- all illegal occupation of property and all theft now fit into the terrorism category
This makes squatters, petty thieves, and even drunken brawls now terrorist actions.
Sub-section 27 of section 950v:
“Any person subject to this chapter who with intent or reason to believe that it is to be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of a foreign power, collects or attempts to collect information by clandestine means or while acting under false pretenses, for the purpose of conveying such information to an enemy of the United States, or one of the co-belligerents of the enemy, shall be punished by death or such other punishment as a military commission under this chapter may direct.”
What’s that really saying? It’s saying that if you collect information in a clandestine fashion for the purpose of presenting that information, and that information may be obtained by enemies of the US, then you will be be executed.
This affects any investigative journalist, reporters, and even bloggers. Prepare to be executed.
Subsection 4(b) (26) of section 950v. of HR 6166 – crimes triable by military commissions – includes the following definition:
“Any person subject to this chapter who, in breach of an allegiance or duty to the United States, knowingly and intentionally aids an enemy of the United States, or one of the co-belligerents of the enemy, shall be punished as a military commission under this chapter may direct.”
Only US citizens have ‘allegiance or duty’ to the US. Foreign citizens have no such ‘allegiance or duty’. So the military also has power over ordinary US citizens who might have aided an enemy of the US.
However, you need to think about how ‘aid’ is defined. Protesting the war can be seen as ‘aiding the enemy’ because it’s against the US involvement against the enemy. Even making comments on a blog about how bad the Bush administration is, can be considered aiding the enemy because it can empower them to continue fighting, should they read it. Therefore you would become subject to the Military Commissions Act of 2006.
Prepare to have the military bursting through your door to arrest you for aiding the enemy. Or, if you’re out on the streets protesting the war, don’t be surprised to see the military – or the police, empowered by this act – reacting to your peaceful protest with violence. You are, after all, a terrorist in their eyes, therefore you are likely to also be considered an ‘enemy combatant’ and killed with extreme prejudice.
…with this bill … Bush has declared himself to be above the Constitution and the laws of the United States, the allegiance of American citizens is no longer to the flag or the freedoms for which it stands, but to Bush himself … and any diversion from that allegiance will mandate arrest, torture and conviction in a military tribunal…
Also, considering that Bush’s ‘National Strategy for Combating Terrorism’ defines conspiracy theorists as aiding terrorists, you have incredibly broad grounds for abuse of ordinary people.
…terrorism springs from “subcultures of conspiracy and misinformation,” and that “terrorists recruit more effectively from populations whose information about the world is contaminated by falsehoods and corrupted by conspiracy theories.
If you don’t have people questioning authority, then authority can get away with anything it likes. ‘Conspiracy theorists’ help find answers. If there are questions about the validity of something, then asking questions and getting answers helps to find the truth. It also helps to keep authorities accountable.
This law takes away that right. Now, the Bush administration is accountable to no one. Not to you, and especially not even the law.
You didn’t even elect him. Bush became President through the assistance of his friends on the Supreme Court. It was them who decided in 2000 to disregard further votes or recounts, to disregard accusations of vote fraud, and make George Bush President of the US. The President who was never elected has now become the President who may never leave office.
Consider this.
For America to win the ‘war on terror’, the Bush administration and the Republican party says it needs George Bush at the helm. Therefore any elections, under these new laws, could be considered as aiding the enemy by allowing someone who is against the war – a ‘terrorist ally’ – to be elected.
And that just can’t happen, can it. Any attempt to aid the enemy is an act of terrorism. And that would, by definition and insanity, include elections.
The writing is on the wall.
(With thanks to Torture Bill States Non-Allegiance To Bush Is Terrorism.)
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