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From: Marpessa Kupendua Sent: Friday, January 04, 2002 11:01 PM Subject: [From Mumia Abu-Jamal] !"Military Courts and Congress" MILITARY COURTS AND
CONGRESS
(Col. Writ. 12/29/01) Copyright 2001 Mumia Abu-Jamal In the aftermath of 9/11/01, the Bush Administration has announced plans to form, staff and adjudicate military tribunals to try anyone the U.S. deems a "terrorist." These courts will be presided over by military
officers,
as will any appeals process, with the final
arbiter, either
the defense secretary or the president, ending the
case.
No civil judge, of any division or rank of the federal judiciary, will ever hear any syllable of appeal from anyone tried before such a tribunal. So frenzied is the American mood, so supine the liberal elite, and so prostrate the nation's
legal
community to power, that barely a murmur is heard
in protest to this gross, naked power grab by the
Administration.
It is not enough that the institution of such courts are the very antithesis to the grand American claim to "due process." Nor is it sufficient to argue that such war measures are inappropriate in the absence of a formal, congressional declaration of war (this Congress would have no real trouble doing so). This Congress, already jittery in light of reports of anthrax contamination of some offices, rushed through in record speed (with little debate, no public hearing, and neither a committee report nor a conference) the unprecedented, complex, and radically repressive USA Patriot Act. The presidential decree ordering military tribunals is, on its face, unconstitutional. Indeed, the very provision which grants the president Commander In Chief powers, also limits his powers over judicial matters. Here's what it says: [Art. II: Sect. 2, Constitution of the U.S.] The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, ...
He
shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate ...; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint ... Judges of the Supreme Court ... And from Article III; Section 1 of the Constitution: The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. There it is. The president, acting in concert with the Senate, nominates and appoints Supreme Court judges, and Congress ordains
and establishes new courts.
Congress can't abdicate this duty to the executive.
The president's order establishes a court, one which has all of
its officers under his
direct control and
command. This is a
classic kangaroo
court, of the very kind
that Americans
condemned when the
Fujimori regime
established them in Peru
(interestingly, to fight
'terrorism').
Nor is this meant to heap false praise on U.S. civil courts, which are fundamentally
political institutions. Have we all forgotten
the trial of Tim McVeigh, the domestic
terrorist, where it was later learned that
the FBI withheld
thousands of pages
of
documents, until days before his execution?
Civil courts merely winked at this violation,
as a minor irritance.
And while the government had its way (by executing McVeigh) it was embarrassed by reports of their handling of the case. That won't happen now, will it?
Under the Bush Administration, military tribunals serve as an instrument of administrative whim.
Under the command structure of the military, each judge, each jury, each prosecutor, and
each court officer
is a sworn officer of the
military, in the sworn service of the Commander
in Chief. If they want to further their career in
the armed services, even if they ever wanted
promotion, they follow their administrative
cues. What do you think they would do to a
foreign national, who is already tagged as"the
enemy"?
With either Bush, the Secretary of Defense, or even another military panel serving as a
Supreme Court of Appeals, what would be
the result?
But, after all, the accused are (to use the term of popular appeal) 'sand niggers' (the Brits would call them 'wogs'), Arabs, Pakistanis, a few Afghans - so, why care?
The same was said in the '20s when Russian Jews were exiled from the U.S. after the Palmer Raids, or in the '40s when Japanese were thrown into concentration camps; they're just 'commie Jews', or 'slants' - right?
Such events were said to be separate, involving 'others', yet they tainted the judicial process and U.S. claims of fair play, up to the present generation. Let us fight this madness, or it will
return to haunt us all.
Copyright 2001 maj ============================> CHECK www.mumia.org AND ITS LINKS FOR IMPORTANT ACTION ALERTS!
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copyright
information: Text (c) copyright 2001 by Mumia Abu-Jamal. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission
of
the
author.
****************************************************** Mumia Abu-Jamal is the author of three books: 'Live from Death Row', 'Death Blossoms', and 'All Things Censored'. Write to Mumia directly at: Mumia Abu-Jamal AM 8335 SCI-Greene 175 Progress Drive Waynesburg, PA 15370 To subscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://TOPICA.COM/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================ |
