Kevin Hayden
Truth is Treason.net
I was notified of this bill some time ago, but could not find the time to sit down and read over it. Today, I finally had a chance to get my hands on it and was a bit shocked by what I read. And nowadays, that’s a pretty difficult task to do.
The bill in question is ”S.3081 – Enemy Belligerent, Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010” which thus far has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill outlines the process by which Americans may be held indefinitely, without notice of their Miranda Rights, and without ever being charged with a crime. Worse, detainment of an individual according to the legislation is authorized by mere suspicion that the individual did or seeks to harm any asset of the United States government or any civilian target.
Even more disappointing, the bill introduced last Thursday, March 4th, already has nine eight co-sponsors, including the supposed “Tea Party” candidate Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts. David Vitter, of Louisiana has taken his name off of the bill.
CO-SPONSOR(S) 9
- Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA)
- Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
- Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK)
- Sen. George LeMieux (R-FL)
- Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT)
- Sen. Jefferson Sessions (R-AL)
- Sen. John Thune (R-SD)
- Sen. David Vitter (R-LA)
- Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS)
The official summary of the bill is as follows -
To provide for the interrogation and detention of enemy belligerents who commit hostile acts against the United States, to establish certain limitations on the prosecution of such belligerents for such acts, and for other purposes.
Overall, this bill seeks to create a new category of prisoner / detainee called the “Unprivileged Enemy Belligerent” and this bill specifically states that it can include American citizens. The bill’s main points revolve around the creation of an inter-agency Executive Branch “Interrogation Team” whose criteria for selection is up to the President. Furthermore, the “interrogation team” can be anyone who has an intelligence, law enforcement or military background and is based upon what type of information they want to learn from the detainee.
This means the NSA, CIA, FBI, Military, DEA or even city and state police officers may be a part of the team. This also allows for private contractors to be included on the interrogation team as the bill does not stipulate that the interrogators must be sworn officers or soldiers.
This is a scary situation. The President can call upon interrogators who have never taken or sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution to interrogate American citizens.
As we read further into the bill, it fails to spell out exactly what constitutes being labeled an “Enemy Belligerent” other than the fact that the Interrogation Team can hold on to you for 48 hours before they even apply the label. During those 48 hours, they are given the task to discover whether or not you ARE an enemy belligerant and THEN report that status up the chain of command. If they deem you a “belligerent”, then you may be detained indefinitely without trial; without council and without your Miranda rights. But they are given the power to interrogate you FIRST to find out if you are a belligerant.
Do you see how this is a merry-go-round? This is a sick little cat and mouse game where they can violate your rights in order to find out if they can violate your rights some more. In the following quote from the bill, you will see just how this game plays out -
“The high-value detainee interrogation group responsible for interrogating a high-value detainee under subsection (b) shall make a preliminary determination whether or not the detainee is an unprivileged enemy belligerent. The interrogation group shall make such determination based on the result of its interrogation of the individual and on all intelligence information available to the interrogation group. The interrogation group shall, after consultation with the Director of National Intelligence, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, submit such determination to the Secretary of Defense and the Attorney General.”
So, literally, they interrogate you in order to find out if you’re an enemy belligerent and if they decide that you are (based on no real standard), you are screwed. If they determine that you are NOT an enemy belligerent, then I suppose they will allow you to go free eventually (from military custody, anyway) but not until they have interrogated you in violation of your 5th and 6th amendment rights. And this is just the tip of the iceberg!
Senator McCain is trying hard to win over support from the hardline, war-mongering conservatives and Republicans with this bill. Somewhere in Texas is an angry white man foaming at the mouth, screaming about the Muslims and how we should wipe Iran off the map as he places yet another yellow “support” ribbon on the back of his over-sized SUV. Well, Tex… this bill is written to win your support!
As for the rest of us, this bill threatens our very Constitutional foundings. This bill allows not only the Federal Government to blackbag you without any evidence of wrongdoing, but places you into military custody at the hands of an Executive Branch “Interrogation Team” using a blank check.
Luckily this is only a bill and not law. Yet.
Good luck, America.
