The Torture Twelve

Speaking of being pissed off...

Yesterday, late in the day, the U.S. Senate approved the reprehensible and un-American Military Commissions Act of 2006. This is the one that allows for the suspension of habeas corpus, which has been, as so many others have noted, a crucial part of civilized jurisprudence since the Magna Carta was adopted in 1215. It took a long time before I really understood why habeas corpus is important, but it's the Bush administration that has really hammered the lesson home. See, when you've suffered a terrorist attack and, in your national mood of panic, have arrested hundreds of people for the crime of being Muslim, a petition of habeas corpus is the mechanism by which those people arrested have the right to challenge their arrests. (In Latin, it literally means "You have the body.") It prevents the government from simply tossing people in prison and forgetting about them.

To pick only one example, if lawyers hadn't appointed themselves to argue on Jose Padilla's behalf, he would almost certainly still be held in a military trial without any rights whatsoever--and Padilla is an American citizen. The current legislation strips habeas rights from non-citizens, who already have less rights to begin with. Now there are those who will argue that non-citizens don't deserve the rights of citizens--and in truth, the original Greek definition of a citizen did indeed specify a set of rights--and obligations--that were reserved only for those born in that city-state, rights that were specifically excluded from non-citizens such as, for example, slaves. But the concept of human rights is one that only ever grows, and in the 2000 years-plus since the demos was first exalted in Athens, the idea has expanded, slowly but irrevocably, until we in our lifetime have a far broader view of citizenship than the Athenians did. Slaves, for instance. We're not real fond of the idea of slavery anymore.

It is a common truism among civil rights advocates that the truest test of an idea is when it is applied to the worst among us. That's why the ACLU always finds itself abused for defending the rights of, say, Ku Klux Klan members to march through a town. Defending the rights of a white supremacist in no way means that you are defending the point of view of that white supremacist; it simply defends Voltaire's assertion that "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." (Actually it wasn't Voltaire, but let's not get bogged down just now.)

So the whole idea that Democrats want to "coddle terrorists" by protecting their right to habeas corpus is not only wrong, it is willfully dishonest, election-year pandering of the worst kind. Hastert and Boehner know it isn't true, but as fear-mongers of the first order they know that it scares a few voters their way and that is the only thing they care about. This new Military Commissions bill actually legislates this sort of fear-mongering, while depriving thousands of human beings of basic civil rights observed by civilized nations around the world (a class of nations that used to include the United States).

And, to my utter disgust, twelve Democrats actually voted for this monstrous legislation. Salon is referring to them as "the Torture Twelve," and I think it's a good name for them. Senators Tom Carper, Tim Johnson, Mary Landrieu, Frank Lautenberg, Joe Lieberman, Robert Menendez, Ben Nelson, Bill Nelson, Mark Pryor, Jay Rockefeller, Ken Salazar and Debbie Stabenow--these are the dozen representatives of the so-called opposition party who, for craven political reasons, have willfully abandoned a whole host of bedrock American principles.

I am particularly ashamed to see Joe Lieberman's name among the Torture Twelve. I have deliberately stayed away from those calling for Joe's head because I think the Democratic party mustn't succumb to ideological purity tests for its members (that's something Republicans do). So I kept out of the Lieberman-Lamont race, despite contacts from organizations like moveon.org suggesting that I support Lamont. It seemed to me that Joe had earned the right to be a Senator, he was "loyal" on all sorts of important issues and I wasn't about to penalize just because of his regrettable lapses with regard to the Iraq war. But this one, this is finally too much. Now, at last, I hope he gets defeated--because he deserves to be. Anyone who would vote in favor of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 deserves to be sent home, to be chucked out of their seat of power at the earliest possible opportunity.

I have already said as much to my own elected representatives. I sent e-mails just the other day, warning that if they vote for unlawful detentions, or for expanded torture rights, or for warrantless wiretapping, then I would never vote for them again, no matter what other positions they might hold. I have never before been a one-issue voter, but I am now. And while I believe that even a Bush-appointed Supreme Court will strike down this awful legislation pretty damn fast, I am nonetheless disgusted that it was ever passed in the first place.

It really is time to clean house in the halls of Congress.