Richard WarnickLiberty and Justice for All
The writ of habeas corpus ad subjiciendum is a 700-year-old legal proceeding in which an individual held in custody can challenge the propriety of that custody under the law. The prisoner, or some other person on his behalf (for example, where the prisoner is being held incommunicado), may petition the court or an individual judge for a writ of habeas corpus.
Even a non-lawyer can understand justice can’t exist without this internationally-recognized right. It is specifically guaranteed by the United States Constitution which says, “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.” Prior to the Bush administration, only two presidents (Lincoln and Grant) ever suspended habeas corpus, in a limited way for specific sections of several states.
Two months ago, President Bush signed the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which eliminated habeas corpus entirely. The Act makes possible the permanent detention and torture (as defined by the Geneva Conventions) of anyone - including American citizens - based solely on the decision of the President. My representative, Jim Matheson, voted for it to his everlasting shame.
What can we do about this? Get behind the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act sponsored by incoming Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA). As Sen. Specter points out, the Constitution allows for the suspension of the writ only in case of invasion or rebellion, and “we are suffering neither of those…at the present time.” Six of the 51 senators who voted against the right of habeas corpus in the last Congress lost re-election. Next month, it’s time to bring liberty to America. Lend your moral support!
Acknowledgement to Voice of Utah.
February 11th, 2007 at 5:52 pm
[...] Now that the Bush administration has asked, and our entire Utah “principled†delegation including Jim Matheson have complied, (Matheson also voted to suspend Habeus Corpus)official US policy had been unleashed to pursue a range of interrogation methods made famous in Stalin’s USSR. Many of these techniques fall under the umbrella of the acronym "CID" for the words "cruel, inhumane or degrading." In today’s Washington Post, a former interrogator working with the US government in Iraq, Eric Fair, shares some of his disturbing memories: A man with no face stares at me from the corner of a room. He pleads for help, but I’m afraid to move. He begins to cry. It is a pitiful sound, and it sickens me. He screams, but as I awaken, I realize the screams are mine. That dream, along with a host of other nightmares, has plagued me since my return from Iraq in the summer of 2004. Though the man in this particular nightmare has no face, I know who he is. I assisted in his interrogation at a detention facility in Fallujah. I was one of two civilian interrogators assigned to the division interrogation facility (DIF) of the 82nd Airborne Division. The man, whose name I’ve long since forgotten, was a suspected associate of Khamis Sirhan al-Muhammad, the Baath Party leader in Anbar province who had been captured two months earlier. The lead interrogator at the DIF had given me specific instructions: I was to deprive the detainee of sleep during my 12-hour shift by opening his cell every hour, forcing him to stand in a corner and stripping him of his clothes. Three years later the tables have turned. It is rare that I sleep through the night without a visit from this man. His memory harasses me as I once harassed him. Despite my best efforts, I cannot ignore the mistakes I made at the interrogation facility in Fallujah. I failed to disobey a meritless order, I failed to protect a prisoner in my custody, and I failed to uphold the standards of human decency. Instead, I intimidated, degraded and humiliated a man who could not defend himself. I compromised my values. I will never forgive myself. American authorities continue to insist that the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib was an isolated incident in an otherwise well-run detention system. That insistence, however, stands in sharp contrast to my own experiences as an interrogator in Iraq. I watched as detainees were forced to stand naked all night, shivering in their cold cells and pleading with their captors for help. Others were subjected to long periods of isolation in pitch-black rooms. Food and sleep deprivation were common, along with a variety of physical abuse, including punching and kicking. Aggressive, and in many ways abusive, techniques were used daily in Iraq, all in the name of acquiring the intelligence necessary to bring an end to the insurgency. The violence raging there today is evidence that those tactics never worked. My memories are evidence that those tactics were terribly wrong. [...]
June 7th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
[...] Habeas Corpus Restoration Act was first introduced last December (see my earlier post) by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Arlen Specter (R-PA). Senator Specter noted that habeas [...]
June 13th, 2008 at 8:01 am
[...] have acquittals’ (February 21, 2008) Hatch Votes Against Habeas Corpus — Again (June 7, 2007) Liberty and Justice for All (December 18, 2006) Jim Matheson’s Dilemma. Plays Us for Fools. (October 18, 2006) I’ll See You [...]