[nero]

Stripping legal protection from non-citizens is an awful own-goal in the fight against terrorism. The fundamental battlefield in this fight is the hearts and minds of the muslim world and this is just making the job easier for the extremists. It is just one more unforced step down from the moral high ground.

We made a fundamental error when we decided that to defeat the terrorists we had to use some of their own tactics. It is like we decided the best way to extinguish the warm embers of muslim extremism was to blow on them.

[Daculling]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TommyJefferson', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('venky', 'T')hat is despicable in itself. Imagine yourself in a foreign country; if you are picked off the streets and you have no course to appeal your being held.......

[Kingcoal]

The problem with these grabs for extraordinary authority, power and jurisdiction is that they end up in the Supreme Court and the Federal government often ends up with LESS power after the ruling than they had before they enacted the laws in question. This is because the Federal government has been living on the edge for a long time, their jurisdiction stretched to the absolute hairy edge. They have been very skillful at keeping issues out of the Supreme Court. This administration, which rates as one of the dumbest on record already has one black eye and is looking at getting another here.

I'm waiting for the Legislative and Executive branches (which are now in cahoots with each other) to ignore the Judicial branch (Supreme Court.) If that day comes, then we will officially have a totalitarian, unconstitutional government. If you think about it, what's stopping them? They (Executive branch) have a pretty big stick to wave. The Judicial branch has no army, nothing to defend themselves, save the American people, who have been behaving as a big heard of sheep lately. To quote Star Wars "this is how liberty dies... To thunderous applause."

[0mar]

Habeas Corpus isn't some right guarenteed in the Constitution. It is the fundemental basis of the Western legal system.

And it doesn't apply to citizens. Just ask Jose Padilla. The Pres/SecDef already has the power to hold citizens and non-citizens indefinitely without legal recourse. It's really just a matter of paperwork now. You can thank the MCA/PA/PAII (choice articles were placed in many different bills) for that.

[Jellric]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('highlander', 'I') liked the backdrop to Olberman's commentary. It was a gravestone inscribed

Habeus Corpus 1215-2006

While the beginning of the bill said it applied to aliens, the text was indeed broad enough to give authority to detain anybody as an illegal enemy combatant. Sure hope I am not the one who gets to test this.

[venky]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jellric', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('highlander', 'I') liked the backdrop to Olberman's commentary. It was a gravestone inscribed

Habeus Corpus 1215-2006

While the beginning of the bill said it applied to aliens, the text was indeed broad enough to give authority to detain anybody as an illegal enemy combatant. Sure hope I am not the one who gets to test this.

[AgentR]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('venky', 'I')f you aren't concerned about aliens in the US; picture yourself as an alien in another country. You could just be picked of the streets and have no legal recourse to appeal your detention.