And In Other News

Interestingly another fairly major news story was ignored by our media last week. Granted, it probably seemed a bit boring when lined up against Paul McCartney’s divorce or Keith Urban’s rehab adventures but I still think it would have been worth a mention somewhere.

For those who missed it, last week George W Bush signed the Military Commissions Act after it passed through the US congress. “Wow! Riveting” I here you say. Maybe that’s not very interesting but what is interesting is what the act means for the USA and the rest of the world. Essentially the act, under the pretence of creating a ‘safer’ America, overrides some of the most basic human and democratic rights that were previously unassailable in The American Bill of Rights.

The new law basically allows the US government to arrest any person suspected to be an ‘enemy combatant’ and hold them without charge indefinitely. The law excuses the government of any mistreatment of current detainees and worse, means that any US citizen, or foreigner (read ANYONE!) can be arrested and charged based on hearsay, be held without knowing the charges against them and be tortured until they confess. That confession can then be used to convict and prosecute the accused. Sounds tough, but then, the terrorists and ‘enemy combatants’ deserve tough treatment. Right?

But who exactly is an ‘enemy combatant’? According to the Military Commissions Act it is anyone who is declared an enemy combatant by the Government. This includes not only terrorists but also anyone who commits a crime of burglary or vandalism, or maybe someone who publishes an article critical of the government. The beauty of the law is that it doesn’t have any protections built in to stop anyone being labelled an enemy combatant and being arrested. And if you are mistakenly accused you will not have any right to a fair trial or to question the charges against you.

The notion of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ has been removed and it is now completely legal for the US government to ‘disappear’ anyone who they deem a threat. Sound familiar? Wasn’t that the sort of dictatorial system that the US was liberating the Iraqi people from?

Amnesty International have expressed their objections to this law. Other human rights commentators, mainstream media commentators, senators and lawyers have mourned the loss of liberty and expressed dismay at the complacency of the American voters who have accepted the destruction of their ‘self evident’ rights. So why haven’t our leaders, foreign affairs ministers or even media commentators raised concerns about this?

The attitude from these quarters seems to be that these laws are ok because we can trust the Bush administration not to misuse their new, self appointed powers. Well, I feel a whole lot better now.

Despite the fact that George W Bush has given himself the right to arrest anyone in the world, detain, torture, prosecute and even execute them because he believes they are a threat to the United States we should trust that he won’t abuse the privilege because he’s one of the ‘good’ guys. Thank God!

Let’s just hope that when his term as president ends none of the ‘bad’ guys get his job. What if someone less trustworthy had those powers? What if they decided that conservatives and not the ‘liberals’ were a threat? What if they started arresting Christians instead of Muslims with these powers? Would people care then? But I’m sure that won’t happen. The good voters of the USA will make sure that their next president is just as trustworthy as Mr Bush.

By the way, has anyone seen those WMDs?