Pathetic

I'm not sure how else to describe the US Senate's action to bar detainees at Gitmo from filing writs of habeas corpus in US courts. No matter how much those who voted for the measure label the detainees as enemy combatants, absent some sort of judicial determination of such, they are nothing more than suspected enemy combatants. And to fall back on the notion that the military tribunal system will provide fair and adequate hearings is delusional.

To prohibit habeas corpus is to leave adjudication of detainees solely to the executive branch. This is the same executive branch that has given us prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, black site prisons overseas, and is currently lobbying to allow torture of detainees. And now we are going to strip the judiciary of its power of habeas corpus?

This is not about enemy combatants. It is about unbridled executive power. It is about American values and how we conduct ourselves in the world. The Bush administration, and its supporters in Congress, are changing American values and norms to the point where we are no better, morally and ethically, than our "enemies." And, as a nice little side effect, the President gets unlimited power.

Welcome to the new Amerika- where fear fuels fascism and ignorance rules the day.