[GJM] Fw: Read this...twice!!

[Thomas Greco -- CIRC2]

This deserves careful attention.
Tom



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Vera Gottlieb [mailto:veragott at ocis.net] 
Sent: 01 October 2006 04:05
To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
Subject: Fw: Read this...twice!!
Importance: High



Torture Bill States Non-Allegiance To Bush Is Terrorism
Legislation tolls the bell for the day America died, birth of the dictatorship

Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones/Prison Planet.com | September 29 2006

Buried amongst the untold affronts to the Bill of Rights, the Constitution 
and the very spirit of America, the torture bill contains a definition of 
"wrongfully aiding the enemy" which labels all American citizens who breach 
their "allegiance" to President Bush and the actions of his government as 
terrorists subject to possible arrest, torture and conviction in front of a 
military tribunal.

7:25PM CST UPDATE

After five hours of searching through the 80-plus page bill, Alex Jones, who 
won the 2004 Project Censored award for his analysis of Patriot Act 2, 
uncovered numerous other provisions and definitions that make the bill 
appear as almost a mirror image of Hitler's 1933 Enabling Act. 

In section 950j. the bill criminalizes any challenge to the legislation's 
legality by the Supreme Court or any United States court. Alberto Gonzales 
has already threatened federal judges to shut up and not question Bush's 
authority on the torture of detainees.

"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."

The Bush administration is preemptively overriding any challenge to the 
legislation by the Supreme Court.

The definition of torture that the legislation cites is US code title 18 
section 2340. This is a broad definition of torture and completely lacks the 
specific clarity of the Geneva Conventions. This definition allows the use 
of torture that is, "incidental to lawful sanctions." In alliance with the 
bill's blanket authority for President Bush to define the Geneva Conventions 
as he sees fit, this legislates the use of torture.

The media has spun the bill as if it outlaws torture - it only outlaws 
torture for "enemy combatants," and in fact outlaws the retaliation of any 
military against the United States as "murder." Those deemed "enemy 
combatants" are not even allowed to fight back yet the government affords 
itself every power including the go-ahead to torture.

Further actions that result in the classification of an individual as a 
terrorist include the following.

- Destruction of any property, which is deemed punishable by any means of 
the military tribunal's choosing.

- Any violent activity whatsoever if it takes place near a designated 
protected building, such as a charity building.

- A change of the definition of "pillaging" which turns all illegal 
occupation of property and all theft into terrorism. This makes squatters 
and petty thieves enemy combatants.

In light of Greg Palast's recent hounding by Homeland Security, after they 
accused him of potentially giving terrorists key information about U.S. 
"critical infrastructure" when filming Exxon's Baton Rouge refinery (clear 
photos of which were publicly available on Google Maps), sub-section 27 of 
section 950v. should send chills down the spine of all investigative 
journalists and even news-gatherers.

"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."

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."

For an individual to hold an allegiance or duty to the United States they 
need to be a citizen of the United States. Why would a foreign terrorist 
have any allegiance to the United States to breach in the first place?

This is another telltale facet that proves the bill applies to U.S. citizens 
and includes them under the "enemy combatant" designation. We previously 
cited the comments of Yale law Professor Bruce Ackerman, who wrote in the 
L.A. Times, "The compromise legislation....authorizes the president to seize 
American citizens as enemy combatants, even if they have never left the 
United States. And once thrown into military prison, they cannot expect a 
trial by their peers or any other of the normal protections of the Bill of 
Rights."

The New York Times stated that the legislation introduced, "A dangerously 
broad definition of "illegal enemy combatant" in the bill could subject 
legal residents of the United States, as well as foreign citizens living in 
their own countries, to summary arrest and indefinite detention with no hope 
of appeal. The president could give the power to apply this label to anyone 
he wanted."

Calling the bill "our generation's version of the Alien and Sedition Acts," 
the Times goes on to highlight the rubber stamping of torture.

"Coerced evidence would be permissible if a judge considered it reliable ­ 
already a contradiction in terms ­ and relevant. Coercion is defined in a 
way that exempts anything done before the passage of the 2005 Detainee 
Treatment Act, and anything else Mr. Bush chooses."

Since with this bill, in the aggregate, 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, the self-appointed dictator, and any diversion 
from that allegiance will mandate arrest, torture and conviction in a 
military tribunal under the terms of this bill.

Similar to the UK's Glorification of Terrorism law, which top lawyers have 
slammed as vague, open to interpretation and a potential weapon for the 
government to kidnap supposed subversives, the nebulous context of 
"wrongfully aiding the enemy," could easily be defined to include publicly 
absolving an accused terrorist of involvement in a terrorist attack.

That renders the entire 9/11 truth movement an aid to terrorist suspects and 
subject to military tribunal and torture. In addition, Bush's recently cited 
National Strategy for Combating Terrorism, which is available on the White 
House website, labels conspiracy theorists as terrorist recruiters.

This should leave us with no doubt as to which parties are the target of the 
government's torture and intimidation campaign.

Could protesting a war approved by the government and their bootlickers in 
Congress and the Senate be considered breaching an allegiance to the United 
States? Could campaigning against the bombing of a target country be 
considered wrongfully aiding the enemy?

When the USA PATRIOT act was rushed through at the height of an anthrax 
scare without any members of Congress even having time to read it, we were 
assured that it was to fight terrorists and would not be used against the 
American people.

Since then a plethora of cases whereby the USA PATRIOT act was used against 
U.S. citizens emerged, including the internment without trial for over three 
years of Jose Padilla, an American citizen who was finally released after no 
evidence of terrorism was uncovered.

[]

The so-called "compromise" before the bill was passed and the media acclaim 
of John McCain as some kind of human rights champion is one of the biggest 
con jobs ever inflicted upon the American people.

Shortly after the bill was finalized it was spun by Bush security advisor 
Stephen Hadley as "good news and a good day for the American people." McCain 
said that it safeguarded "the integrity and letter and spirit of the Geneva 
Conventions."

In truth the legislation does the exact opposite, giving Bush carte blanche 
to "interpret the meaning and application of the Geneva Conventions."

In addition, under the bill, "No person may invoke the Geneva Conventions or 
any protocols thereto in any habeas corpus or other civil action or 
proceeding to which the United States, or a current or former officer, 
employee, member of the Armed Forces, or other agent of the United States is 
a party as a source of rights in any court of the United States or its 
States or territories."

The bill also allows hearsay evidence (obtained via phony confessions after 
torture) to be considered by the military tribunal and bars the suspect from 
even having knowledge of the charges against him - making a case for defense 
impossible. This is guaranteed to produce 100% conviction rates as you would 
expect in the dictatorships of Uzbekistan or Zimbabwe and other torture 
protagonists who are in many cases allied with the Bush administration and 
provide phony confessions obtained from torture that allow the U.S. 
government to scare its people with the threat of imaginary Al-Qaeda terror 
cells waiting to kill them.

Following the Supreme Court's ruling to previously strike down Bush's shadow 
penal system, Alberto Gonzales is already out threatening federal judges to 
shut up and get behind the dictator or face the consequences.

Gonzales has the sheer gall to attack judges for even considering to 
"overturn long-standing traditions or policies without proper support in 
text or precedent," which is exactly what Gonzales, Bush and the rest of the 
White House criminals are doing themselves by de facto abolishing the Bill 
of Rights!

This is a dark day for the United States, the day America died and the 
bastard birth of a literal dictatorship.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/september2006/290906torturebill.htm

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /pipermail/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net/attachments/20061002/dcaa683b/attachment.html