"Don't Look Now, But Here Come the Thought Police"

Today the Mendocino County Observer of Laytonville, California (population 1,301) is publishing Jon Spitz’s "Don't Look Now, But Here Come the Thought Police"

Three previous articles by Jon published by the Observer are linked here, here, and here.

The article came with the following e-mail message from Jon: “Attached is my latest column about Bush’s police state. What is happening is so horrible that I found this piece very hard to write. I have nightmarish visions of Hitler’s rise to power in the ‘30s. It’s chilling yet riveting.”

I, too, have been watching what I describe as the Bush administration’s getting “all its ducks in a row” to declare martial law. I’m relieved that Jon has written about this daunting issue because I couldn’t find the time and energy to tackle it.

In "Don't Look Now..." Jon walks us through what might trigger the imposition of martial law then proceeds to list the “ducks,” i.e., the various laws and executive orders that are now in place, notably the Military Commissions Act of 2006, the John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007, the National Security Presidential Directive 51, and the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, currently making swift passage through Congress.

Jon also describes the “unconstitutional secret operations” either conducted by the Bush Administration or with its approval.

As I read Jon’s article in preparation for posting, I caught this statement in reference to the Military Commissions Act of 2006: “With the so called ‘war on terror’ as his justification Bush, unilaterally claimed the authority to name anyone he chooses as an ‘enemy combatant’ and to then secretly abduct and detain them indefinitely without any legal right to challenge his detention (the human right known as habeas corpus).”

I thought, “Wait a minute!” I recall that the Military Commissions Act states that ‘alien’ unlawful enemy combatants will be tried by military commissions, where the right to apply for a writ of habeas corpus has been removed, and citizen unlawful enemy combatants will be tried in US courts and therefore will retain the right to apply for a writ of habeas corpus.

I called Jon and told him I thought his statement was too sweeping. He sent me a link to "Bush's Chilling New Definition of 'Unlawful Enemy Combatant," by Elliot D. Cohen, published in Buzzflash shortly after the Act was passed. This paragraph supported Jon’s assertion that citizens are also susceptible to being detained with no right to apply for a writ of habeas corpus “In chapter 948c ('Persons Subject to Military Commissions'), the Act does stipulate that 'any alien unlawful enemy combatant engaged in hostilities against the United States or having supported hostilities against the United States is subject to trial by military commission...' (my italics). However, any student of elementary logic knows that, from ‘All A are B it does not follow that All non-A are non-B.’ In other words, this does not mean that someone who is determined by the President or the Secretary of Defense to be an ‘unlawful enemy combatant,’ but who also happens to be an American citizen is therefore automatically off the hook.”

I still believe that citizens who are determined to be unlawful enemy combatants have the right to apply for a writ of habeas corpus, but agree that there’s some ambiguity in the Military Commissions Act. Also, there are other laws and executive orders that may preempt citizens' rights to challenge their incarceration. Then, too, my concerns aren’t limited to citizens. I believe habeas corpus should be available to all people regardless of citizenship.

What is refreshing is that Jon and I could disagree yet still work together with the goal of getting the bigger message, the possibility of the imposition of martial law before the 2008 election, out to the public.

(photo of Jon Spitz)