Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Democracy Now! | Iraqi Judge Sentences U.S. Citizen To Death After U.S. Military “Demanded” the Man Be Executed: "JONATHAN HAFETZ: The Military Commissions Act of 2006 is a far-reaching and unprecedented grant of power to the President of the United States. It does a number of things quickly. It defines a term “enemy combatant” very broadly to allow essentially innocent people who unwittingly donate money to charities to be detained as enemy combatants, and it eliminates the --

AMY GOODMAN: In this country.

JONATHAN HAFETZ: In this country, anywhere. And it eliminates all –

AMY GOODMAN: American citizens and non-citizens.

JONATHAN HAFETZ: It allows anyone to be detained as an enemy combatant. It then denies all access to the courts for aliens, non-citizens, to challenge their detention, whether they’re located here or abroad, so any of the 15 million-plus non-citizens in the United States, including long-term permanent residents, could be taken away, sent to Guantanamo or disappeared without judicial review. It also eliminates protections against torture and provides a get-out-of-jail-free card for the abuses that have gone on in the past in CIA secret prisons.

AMY GOODMAN: What do you mean “get-out-of-jail-free”?

JONATHAN HAFETZ: Well, under the War Crimes Act of 1996, any official, including CIA, or contractors who engage -- who violates the Geneva Conventions, including a provision known as Common Article 3, which provides the baseline of protections to individuals in U.S. custody, prohibits cruel treatment, torture and outrages on personal dignity. Under the War Crimes Act, if you violate Common Article 3 --

AMY GOODMAN: This is U.S. law, War Crimes Act?

JONATHAN HAFETZ: Yes, this is U.S. It’s domestic. It’s a law passed by Congress. If you violate Common Article 3, you can be prosecuted for a war crime. What the Military Commissions Act does is to give immunity for past -- effectively give immunity for past violations of the War Crimes Act. We know that there’s been torture and other abuse at Guantanamo, as well as in Bagram Air Base and secret CIA-run prisons, where approximately 3,000 people have passed through, including individuals who we know are innocent.

AMY GOODMAN: And the military commissions, what are they? It’s called the Military Commissions Act.

JONATHAN HAFETZ: Well, that’s what’s ironic about this. The act was ostensibly passed as a response to the Supreme Court’s decision in June in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which struck down the military commissions, these trials that the President had set up outside of court-martial and civilian courts to try suspected terrorists, that the court found they were unfair, violated U.S. law and the Geneva Conventions. So what the President did was to go back to Congress and said, “Authorize these commissions,” and in addition to grants him sweeping powers, the powers we just talked about: elimination of habeas corpus, a sweeping definition of “enemy combatant,” and elimination of checks on torture and other cruel treatment. So the Military Commissions Act creates a -- a military commission is a second-class system of justice for non-citizens, military trials where the defendant doesn’t get to be present and can be convicted on evidence obtained by torture and other coercion."

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