Bush is a vital tool

Stardate 6543.45

WASHINGTON - U.S. President George Bush signed legislation Tuesday authorizing tough interrogation of terror suspects and smoothing the way for trials before military commissions, calling it a "vital tool" in the war against terrorism.

So now, more of the freedoms and rights that America has so proudly stood up for are dashed to ribbons with the single stroke of a monogramed pen. This Bill will remove the rights of detainees in the increasingly ridiculous "War on Terror" (or in fact any detainees for that matter) from filing habeas corpus petitions to challenge their detentions in federal courts. Also, military tribunal courts could actually use hearsay evidence if the judge deems the source credible. Hearsay evidence!!! This is obviously barred from *real* courts...

The American Civil Liberties Union said the new law is "one of the worst civil liberties measures ever enacted in American history."

"The president can now, with the approval of Congress, indefinitely hold people without charge, take away protections against horrific abuse, put people on trial based on hearsay evidence, authorize trials that can sentence people to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses, and slam shut the courthouse door for habeas petitions," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero.

"Nothing could be further from the American values we all hold in our hearts than the Military Commissions Act," he said.

This law is supposed to protect detainees from inhumane treatment and abuse, but what is really scary about the Bill is that it has been left wide open to Presidential judgement as far as what is and isn't acceptable means of interrogations. In other words, if he says that torture and inhumane abuse is okay to get the results they desire, even if it defies International law, then it is just fine to do it.

As usual with McChimpy and his band of idiots, they fail to realise that torture rarely retrieves reliable information and it opens up a world of hurt to US servicemen that may be captured by enemies themselves.