Friday, September 29, 2006
Coleen Rowley: A Real Democrat
Former FBI agent Coleen Rowley says
Yesterday House Republicans, including my opponent in November, John Kline, approved legislation which violates many of the fundamental principles of American justice. This was not a vote to protect America; it was a vote to provide political cover for George Bush's feckless and incompetent leadership.
The only good news is that this bill explicitly prohibits 'cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment' of detainees.
The bad news is that it gives the President the sole authority to determine what meets that standard. ...
...[M]ost egregiously, this bill explicitly denies habeas corpus, the right to challenge one's arrest and detention. It would make it legal for the U.S. to arrest any foreign national, anywhere, detain them indefinitely without charge or trial, and subject them to treatment which the President alone decides is humane. ...
This bill was born out of fear: George Bush's fear of being called to account. He was asleep at the wheel on 9/11. He was wrong about Saddam's ties to al Qaeda, wrong about Saddam's WMD. His ill-conceived invasion of Iraq has been a failure, and last summer, Bush literally fiddled while New Orleans drowned. George Bush knows he cannot keep America safe, so he is illegally tapping our phones, indefinitely detaining those labeled as 'enemy combatants', and ignoring centuries of established legal precedent.
Shame on them. And shame on all of us if we don't stand up and declare that we the people will not be frightened into violating those principles.
In addition to being one of the few people who attempted to stop the 9/11 attack and a former FBI agent, Coleen Rowley is, of course, a real Democrat. You can tell: she actually believes in the Constitution.
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