The so-called war on terror post 9/11 has seen governments take extreme steps to, what they claim, is protection of their citizenry. Unfortunately, civil liberties have either been trampled in the process or pushed to one side.
Michael Ratner is the president emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights and currently serves as attorney for Julian Assange and Wikileaks. He is co-author with Margaret Ratner Kunstler of “Hell No: Your Right to Dissent in the Twenty-First Century”. He writes in "Shrinking Fronts on Our Global Battlefield" on Common Dreams of the state in which the USA finds itself now.
"It is a sad day for human rights when a program that has killed over 4,000 people around the world without due process can only conjure serious opposition domestically when we perceive a threat to American lives. It’s a sad day for human rights when Guantanamo remains open with 166 people still detained, and no one in our government taking steps to close it. It’s an abomination of justice to watch 11 years of military commissions bumble their way to nowhere except to profound embarrassment. It’s surreal to watch domestic torturers get off scot free and brag about torture, to boot. And it is downright naïve to think that the Executive’s conjured powers will simply limit themselves from manifesting onto U.S. shores: if not in this administration, then the next one, or the one after.
The only way to eliminate the lawless state the U.S. has become is to confront our new post-9/11 war paradigm, which claims the right to circumvent international law, our own constitution, and the criminal law that ordinarily dictates the pursuit of individual suspects within sovereign nations, and take back its powers. As the New York Times’ editorial board suggested, a first step is to repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force. Other actions that need to be taken are clear: close Guantanamo, end indefinite detention, shut down military commission trials, and prosecute the torture team. All of this may be a way off, but we thought the same about any limits on targeted killings until Senator Paul’s accomplishment. It will, however, take more than our jelly-like politicians to do it all.
It is possible to redirect this whirlwind our leaders have reaped, but only if we use the winds of change blowing through Washington and across the country. The time to act, for all of us, is now."
Michael Ratner is the president emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights and currently serves as attorney for Julian Assange and Wikileaks. He is co-author with Margaret Ratner Kunstler of “Hell No: Your Right to Dissent in the Twenty-First Century”. He writes in "Shrinking Fronts on Our Global Battlefield" on Common Dreams of the state in which the USA finds itself now.
"It is a sad day for human rights when a program that has killed over 4,000 people around the world without due process can only conjure serious opposition domestically when we perceive a threat to American lives. It’s a sad day for human rights when Guantanamo remains open with 166 people still detained, and no one in our government taking steps to close it. It’s an abomination of justice to watch 11 years of military commissions bumble their way to nowhere except to profound embarrassment. It’s surreal to watch domestic torturers get off scot free and brag about torture, to boot. And it is downright naïve to think that the Executive’s conjured powers will simply limit themselves from manifesting onto U.S. shores: if not in this administration, then the next one, or the one after.
The only way to eliminate the lawless state the U.S. has become is to confront our new post-9/11 war paradigm, which claims the right to circumvent international law, our own constitution, and the criminal law that ordinarily dictates the pursuit of individual suspects within sovereign nations, and take back its powers. As the New York Times’ editorial board suggested, a first step is to repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force. Other actions that need to be taken are clear: close Guantanamo, end indefinite detention, shut down military commission trials, and prosecute the torture team. All of this may be a way off, but we thought the same about any limits on targeted killings until Senator Paul’s accomplishment. It will, however, take more than our jelly-like politicians to do it all.
It is possible to redirect this whirlwind our leaders have reaped, but only if we use the winds of change blowing through Washington and across the country. The time to act, for all of us, is now."
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