When the Supreme Court decided Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, The New York Times said
The Supreme Court on Thursday repudiated the Bush administration's plan to put Guantánamo detainees on trial before military commissions, ruling broadly that the commissions were unauthorized by federal statute and violated international law.
Clearly they were wrong because The Military Commissions Act (HR 6166) passed the House today giving the President essentially the same ability to try terrorists that was taken from him by the US Supreme Court. What the Supreme Court actually said was that the President needed Congress' participation in the process, which it now has done.
HR 6166 also clearly defines what is and is not torture so that when the US interrogates deadly killers, they don't cross the line.
After its passage, and subsequent introduction to the Senate, Senator Leahy introduced an Amendment to the bill that would grant terrorists the right of Habeas Corpus. It was rejected. In response Vermont's Senior Senator said
“This is un-American, this is unconstitutional, this is contrary to American interests, this is not what a great and good and powerful nation should be doing,” said Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont.
But this is wrong as well. Habeas Corpus is guaranteed only to American citizens, not to foreigners who are trying to kill American citizens. Habeas Corpus was not granted to German or Japanese soldiers during WWII when they became prisoners of war. Habeas Corpus was not extended to North Korean prisoners of war nor was it extended to North Vietnamese prisoners.
Yet Senator Leahy believes it is un-American and unconstitutional to deny terrorists habeas corpus.
And so does Congressman Sanders.
Sanders sided with 160 Democrats in voting against the military commissions bill.
Similarly, HR 5825 The Electronic Surveillance Modernization Act updates FISA rules and gives the Administration the power, under law, to continue to spy on terrorists when they call on folks in this country.
Bernie Sanders voted against giving the President the power to prevent acts of terrorism within the US. Leahy will likely follow suit in the Senate.
Sanders, Leahy and many, many (but not all) Democrats believe that we are not, or should not be, at war with the Islamists. They believe we should be dealing with these people with rules that tie our hands and force us to pick up the pieces of an attack after they happen.
One of the problems with that strategy is that the more attacks we suffer, that we do not prevent, the greater the outcry will be to kill them all. This must be prevented at all costs because one of the main strategies of our enemy is to instigate open warfare against all Muslims, not just the Islamists. And to prevent such an outcome we need to be able to discover attacks before they happen by properly interrogating terrorist operatives, listening in on their conversations, and searching their homes without their knowledge.
And they need to be treated as enemy spys when caught because that is precisely what a soldier who wears civilian garb while conducting war is.
The Left, which it appears includes a large majority of Democrats, have lost all historical, and ethical perspective.
