You are here
Chris Powell: Suspend habeas corpus and enact martial law?
By Chris Powell
Journal Inquirer
Manchester, Connecticut
Monday, December 12, 2011
http://www.journalinquirer.com/articles/2011/12/12/chris_powell/doc4ee61...
Americans seem ready to forfeit their most basic civil liberty -- actually, all their civil liberties -- without a whimper.
By a vote of 93-7 the Senate this month approved a military appropriations bill empowering the government to designate any U.S. citizen within the country as a terrorist and to have the military hold him indefinitely without trial and without the right to habeas corpus, the right to be brought before a court for a judgment on the legality of one's imprisonment.
In effect the legislation is a declaration of martial law throughout the country.
The bill still has to be reconciled by a conference committee with a different version passed by the House of Representatives. But even Connecticut U.S. Rep. Joseph D. Courtney, a liberal Democrat and a member of the committee, plans to support the martial law provision and expects it to be enacted. Courtney, who used to be a lawyer, cites as consolation the money contained in the bill for Connecticut military contractors, tens of millions of dollars for jet fighter engines manufactured by the Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies Corp. in East Hartford and for nuclear submarines made by the Electric Boat division of General Dynamics in Groton.
... Dispatch continues below ...
Golden Phoenix Completes Operating Agreement
for Santa Rosa Gold Mine in Panama
Golden Phoenix Minerals Inc. (GPXM) has entered a joint venture operating agreement with Silver Global S.A., a Panamanian corporation, governing the operational and management aspects of their new joint venture company, Golden Phoenix Panama S.A., a Panamanian corporation formed to hold and operate the Santa Rosa gold mine in Canazas, Panama, and explore the mine's adjacent property.
Golden Phoenix will be manager of the joint venture company. Silver Global will handle all social programs, political and community relations, and human resource matters for the joint venture company in Panama. Golden Phoenix and Silver Global also have agreed to work together on all future acquisitions within Panama and to bring such new opportunities to the joint venture company.
Golden Phoenix will be earning in to a 60 percent interest (and potentially an 80 percent interest) in the Santa Rosa mine. Upon signing the joint venture agreement and completing the corresponding acquisition payment, Golden Phoenix will earn an initial 15 percent interest in the joint venture company.
Tom Klein, CEO of Golden Phoenix, says the agreement "creates a solid foundation for the development and planned re-opening of Mina Santa Rosa."
For Golden Phoenix's full statement on the joint venture operating agreement, please visit:
http://goldenphoenix.us/press-release/golden-phoenix-completes-joint-ven...
At least Connecticut's junior senator, Richard Blumenthal, was one of the 38 senators who voted to try to remove the martial law provision from the bill. Connecticut's senior senator, Joseph I. Lieberman, who also used to be a lawyer but now is the Senate's foremost advocate of perpetual imperial war, voted for martial law.
The Constitution prohibits suspension of the right of habeas corpus "unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it." While habeas corpus was suspended in certain circumstances during the Civil War, there is no rebellion or invasion now and no impairment of the criminal-justice system, and the mere danger of terrorism does not constitute rebellion or invasion.
President Obama is threatening to veto the legislation but not so much for its suspension of habeas corpus. Rather, the bill is objectionable to the president because it would prevent the government from transferring terrorism suspects from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to installations in the United States, even for trial.
If the bill becomes law the president and his successors will gain dictatorial power, the power exercised by the worst tyrants in history -- Hitler, Stalin, and Mao -- the power to kidnap anyone off the street or out of his own home and lock him away incommunicado forever. The president will be able to do that even to members of Congress themselves, and while it would suit them right for enacting such an abomination, Americans better rise up and stop it if they don't want the country to slip into totalitarianism as Germany did in similar circumstances in 1933.
First the German people were demoralized and deprived of economic security by hyperinflation and depression. Then they were frightened into submission by the burning of the parliament building in Berlin, which was opportunistically depicted by the National Socialist-dominated coalition government as Communist Party terrorism and used as the pretext for a proclamation, issued the next day, suspending all civil liberties, including, specifically, habeas corpus. Three weeks later the Nazis persuaded parliament to surrender its power through the infamous Enabling Act, allowing the Nazi chancellor to rule by decree. He did so for 12 more years.
Eventually one of those decrees was the "Night and Fog" decree, under which people across Europe simply disappeared, never to be seen again.
Americans may have some vague awareness of the horror perpetrated by Germany back then. But do they have any idea of how closely they are following the Germans in what led to it? Our politicians don't seem to have any idea.
Republicans who scream about the supposed oppressiveness of a government that would require everyone to have medical insurance are rushing to give that government the power to make people disappear. And Democrats who chafe at the government's refusal to recognize same-sex marriage are ready to forfeit the longest-established and most substantial liberties because a free society can never eliminate the danger that someone can plant a bomb somewhere -- though a totalitarian society can't eliminate it either.
No amount of military contracting in Connecticut can be worth even a day without due process of law. The purpose of military contracting is to protect the country, and without due process of law the country will not be worth protecting.
-----
Chris Powell is managing editor of the Journal Inquirer.
* * *
Join GATA here:
Vancouver Resource Investment Conference
Sunday-Monday, January 22-23, 2012
Vancouver Convention Centre West
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
http://cambridgehouse.com/conference-details/vancouver-resource-investme...
California Investment Conference
Saturday-Sunday, February 11-12, 2012
Hyatt Grand Champions Resort
Indian Wells, California, USA
http://cambridgehouse.com/conference-details/california-investment-confe...
Support GATA by purchasing gold and silver commemorative coins:
https://www.amsterdamgold.eu/gata/index.asp?BiD=12
Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt:
Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009:
http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal
Or a video disc of GATA's 2005 Gold Rush 21 conference in the Yukon:
Help keep GATA going
GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:
To contribute to GATA, please visit:
Sonora Aims to Follow First Majestic's Success
With Silver Mining Exploration in Mexico
Sonora Resources (OTCBB: SURE) is a silver mining exploration company focused on the development of prospective opportunities in Mexico. The company president and CEO is Juan Miguel Rios Gutierrez, who helped build First Majestic Silver Corp., which began trading for pennies and today is at more than $16 per share. Gutierrez was the fourth person to join First Majestic Silver, originally as general manager, then manager for new business initiatives and strategic planning. He left First Majestic Silver to work with Sonora Resources and yet maintains strong contacts with First Majestic. In fact, First Majestic is a large shareholder in Sonora and has a joint venture with the company.
For more information about Sonora Resources, please visit:
http://www.SonoraResources.com
