The Right of Habeas Corpus

1 : any of several common-law writs issued to bring a party before a court or judge
2 : the right of a citizen to obtain a writ of habeas corpus as a protection against illegal imprisonment

The Bush administration has proposed a bill that would bar foreigners held abroad from using the federal trial courts for challenges to detention known as habeas corpus lawsuits. If the provision was enacted, it would mean that all of the lawsuits brought in federal court by about 430 detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, would be wiped from the books.

What is the big deal you might ask? Well aside from a singular president who thinks he can side swipe a premise that has existed since the 14th century, he's putting Americans' rights at great risk. Before freedom of speech; before life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness there was Habeas Corpus -- the right to a fare trial, the right to defend yourself from false imprisonment. If this law can so easily be wiped away for foreign prisoners, what's to stop our government from extending it to prisoners within the United States? It's not a far leap then for our government to start grabbing people off the street and imprisoning them for extended periods without being accused of any crime. Has anyone else read Kafka or 1984?

The Bush administration's deal with Senate Republicans over detainee treatment drew protests Monday from former diplomats, lawyers and a GOP committee chairman.

They oppose a provision that would strip federal courts of jurisdiction over cases in which detainees have not been charged with war crimes. The effect, said those opposed, would be to deny terrorism suspects the ability to challenge their detainment, a right afforded defendants in military and criminal courts...

Specter's position was echoed by a chorus of former diplomats who wrote to senators and House members that denying detainees the ability to challenge their imprisonment would boomerang on Americans representing the United States overseas by implying that "arbitrary arrest is the acceptable norm of the day."

"To deny habeas corpus to our detainees can be seen as prescription for how the captured members of our own military, diplomatic and NGO (non-governmental organization) personnel stationed abroad may be treated," wrote 33 former diplomats. "The Congress has every duty to insure their protection.'"

GI Jane is Dying Too

Despite longstanding predictions that America would shudder to see its women coming home in coffins, Lieutenant Perez’s death, and those of the other women, the majority of whom died from hostile fire (the 65th died in a Baghdad car bombing a day later), have stirred no less — and no more — reaction at home than the nearly 2,900 male dead. The same can be said of the hundreds of wounded women.

There is no shortage of guesses as to why: Americans are no longer especially shocked by the idea of a woman’s violent death. Most don’t know how many women have fallen, or under what circumstances. Photographs of body bags and coffins are rarely seen. And nobody wants to kick up a fuss and risk insulting grieving families.

“The public doesn’t seem concerned they are dying,” said Charles Moskos, a military sociologist at Northwestern University who has closely studied national service. “They would rather have someone else's daughter die than their son.”...

For the first time, women by the thousands are on the ground and engaging the enemy in a war that has no front line, and little in the way of safe havens. In this 360-degree war, they are in the thick of it, hauling heavy equipment and expected to shoot and defend themselves and others from an enemy that is all around them. They are driving huge rigs down treacherous roads, frisking Iraqi women at dangerous checkpoints, handling gun turrets and personnel carriers and providing cover for other soldiers...

Under the 1994 Pentagon policy, women were still barred from serving in ground combat forces — infantry, armor, field artillery — but are allowed to serve as fighter pilots and on warships. The Pentagon has stretched the language of the policy, mostly because there are not enough troops, men or women. It has done so because the language is fuzzy. An effort by some House Republican leaders last year to challenge the practice was beaten back by the Pentagon, which argued that it could not sustain the mission without women in these jobs...

Reminder: We are still fight a war, people are still dying

It's been a while since we updated the blog and it's because we've fallen prey to the general sentiment of the country. We are forgetting that everyday, US soldiers and Iraqi and Afghani civilians are dying. Just because your nightly news has forgotten about this war doesn't mean it's gone away.

Attacks against U.S. troops have increased following a call earlier this month from al-Qaida in Iraq’s leader to target American forces, the top U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday.

Meantime, an Iraqi police headquarters in Baghdad was hit by a suicide truck bomb, killing at least seven people in a deadly 24-hour period that saw more than 45 killings throughout Iraq, authorities said.

Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell also said that Iraqi and American troops were expecting violence to increase further during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which begins next week...

In other violence reported Wednesday, the mutilated body of a policeman was turned in to the morgue in Kut, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, after being found in the al-Falahiya district east of the city in the morning.

The body of Mahmoud Hassan Mohammed was found blindfolded with his arms and legs cuffed, and he was shot in various place and showed signs of torture, morgue official Mamoun Ajeel Al-Rubai’ey said.

The body of an unknown civilian in a similar condition also was turned in to the morgue after being dragged out of the Tigris River about 30 miles south of Baghdad, Al-Rubai’ey said.

Nearly 200 bodies of Iraqis who had been tortured and shot have turned up around Baghdad in the past week, including three found Tuesday in an eastern section of the capital.

Blog the Vote

PBS's NOW devoted a show to left-leaning political bloggers (US!). It's very exciting to see that technology has allowed the common man (US!) to have a voice and to make a real difference in politics.

Left-leaning political bloggers - people who share their opinions through online journals - are determined to demonstrate their real world influence in the upcoming mid-term elections. But will they finally make political headway, or just more hype?...

NOW talks to Markos Moulitsas, founder of DailyKos, one of the Internet's biggest and most influential political blog sites. "You have a couple million people reading liberal blogs...and they're looking for ways to get involved. And they're looking for ways to participate and take hold of their own democracy. And that is powerful," says Moulitsas.

"What's important, if this movement is to succeed, is for the people who are reading DailyKos and other blogs to then turn off their computers and go talk to people off-line. And that's where the 'preach to the choir' part ends."

Saudis have finally gone too far!

Sure, everyone is talking about the Muslim [over]reaction to the Pope's stupid comments last week but I think the shit has finally hit the fan when Fifi and Fido are dragged into it.

The [Saudi religious] police have issued a decree banning the sale of the pets, seen as a sign of Western influence.

The prohibition on dogs may be less of a surprise, since conservative Muslims despise dogs as unclean. But the cat ban befuddled many, since Islamic tradition holds that the Prophet Muhammad loved cats — and even let a cat drink from his ablutions water before washing himself for prayers.

The religious police, known as the Muttawa, have the role of enforcing Saudi Arabia’s strict Islamic code. Its members prowl streets and malls, ensuring unmarried men and women do not mix, confronting women they feel are not properly covered or urging men to go to prayers.

But the government also gives the Muttawa wide leeway to enforce any rules they deem necessary to uphold the social order.

The decree — which applies to the Red Sea port city of Jiddah and the holy city of Mecca — bans the sale of cats and dogs because “some youths have been buying them and parading them in public,” according to a memo from the Municipal Affairs Ministry to Jiddah’s city government...

“Then what’s the point of dragging a dog behind you?” he [Aleetha al-Jihani in a letter to Al-Madina newspaper] added. “This is blind emulation of the infidels.”