American Liberty, RIP

Yesterday, the United States' Senate voted to approve new legislation which would circumscribe the right to habeas corpus for terrorism suspects, put their cases before military tribunals rather than civilian courts, and authorize interrogation of those suspects using techniques defined by the President. Particularly chilling was that several Democractic Senators voted for this legislation.

Essentially, if you are arbitrarily detained under this legislation, you do not have the right for a civilian court to determine whether your detention is lawful. You do not have the right to trial in a civilian court - assuming you are ever charged with a crime. You may also be interrogated by people who use methods which you, I and most rational people would define as torture. The Bush Administration is already on record as saying that non-life threatening interrogation methods such as "waterboarding" would not be defined as torture. For those of you who never spent any time among the Khmer Rouge, "waterboarding" means being tied to a door and lowered into a pool of water, repeatedly, as a means of breaking down your will to resist questioning.

Particularly chilling is the idea that the Republican Senator John McCain - who was actually tortured while a prisoner of the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War - supported this legislation. Until recently, he was a vocal opponent of the use of torture, and on the record for his inveterate hostility towards any legislation which would authorize the practice. Now, he seems to have had a change of heart. He was joined by 12 Democrats.

For the record, Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry voted against the legislation, along with 29 of their Democrat colleagues, the Senate's one independent senator, and one principled Republican, Lincoln Chaffee. These 34 senators were almost immediately condemned by the White House as de facto allies of the terrorists.

Earlier in the day, the House of Representatives approved identical legislation by 232 to 191.

By such margins, 230 years of constitutional history and 800 years of the rule of law are swept aside in the interests of political expediency and in order to win "the War on Terror". The latter is, of course, becoming the touchstone justification for almost every travesty of logic or law that the United States Government wishes to enact. Forget the fact that not one terrorist attack has taken place in the United States since September 11, 2001. Forget the fact that the CIA itself recently stated that American foreign policy in Iraq and the Middle East is contributing to the wave of anti-American fanaticism around the world. Forget the fact that the United States survived the War of 1812, the Civil War, the First World War, the Second World War, Vietnam and the Cold War without once suspending habeas corpus or officially using torture as a technique of law enforcement.

One Republican senator, Arlen Spector, who had earlier said he opposed the legislation, changed his position and voted for it anyway, explaining afterwards that "the Supreme Court will strike down the habeas corpus provision anyway."

One hopes that none of the people detained have any pressing engagements between the time of their arrest and the time the Supreme Court has a crack at the new law. One also hopes that the Supreme Court has the moral decency to follow the rule of law and strike down this legislation without hesitation or qualification.

Several months ago, I asked the question whether George Bush is the worst president the United States ever had. Without hesitation, I can now say that the answer is yes.