Read the Huff Post article: Senate Votes To Let Military Detain Americans Indefinitely, White House Threatens Veto.
First let me just say that Lindsey Graham is a raging lunatic:
“The enemy is all over the world. Here at home. And when people take up arms against the United States and [are] captured within the United States, why should we not be able to use our military and intelligence community to question that person as to what they know about enemy activity?” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said.
“They should not be read their Miranda Rights. They should not be given a lawyer,” Graham said. “They should be held humanely in military custody and interrogated about why they joined al Qaeda and what they were going to do to all of us.”
Okay, now…
THANK GOODNESS & SANITY:
A White House official said the administration stands by the veto threat. “We take this very, very seriously,” the official said.
But I would also add to this uproar over detaining American citizens:
We should not limit due process to US citizens. Everyone should be able to face their accusers and the evidence against them. We can’t choose which humans are allowed human rights and decide unilaterally not to abide by the Geneva Conventions.
Most Americans – including me until very recently – aren’t aware that most of the Guantánamo prisoners – some of whom are still being held without hope for ever receiving a trial (let alone a fair one) and seeing their families again – were innocents captured by the opportunistic warlords of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, who were paid a bounty of up to $5000 per head by the US. The warlords packed them like sardines in unbearably hot, metal shipping containers. Some of those who were lucky enough to survive this were then taken, blindfolded and shackled onto US military transport planes, where they were shackled belly-down and had to lay in their own urine and feces. All this before the actual torture by US military personnel at Guantánamo began – both physical and mental.
Is your heart breaking yet at our savagery? Yes, mine too — shattered. We Americans can claim no moral high ground while this continues.