Greenwald (1/31/10): Nostalgia for Bush/Cheney radicalism
Thanks to Marcy Wheeler, "emptywheel" at Firedoglake, for the link to this very fine post. In it Greenwald makes the very potent argument that the trend in the current political establishment is to demand less of the rule of law in the fight against terrorists than either President Reagan or G.W. Bush. These policy stances are cast as normal, while support for criminal trials, adherence to habeas corpus, etc. are cast as those of "the leftist fringe." It is becoming a sad day for America that we have seem to have less respect for civil liberties than was shown in the Reagan and Bush administrations.
Amplify’d from www.salon.com
From indefinite detention and renditions to denial of habeas rights, from military commissions and secrecy obsessions to state secrets abuses, many of the defining Bush/Cheney policies continue unabated under its successor administration.
In sum, there is clearly a bipartisan and institutional craving for a revival (more accurately: ongoing preservation) of the core premise of Bush/Cheney radicalism: that because we're "at war" with Terrorists, our standard precepts of justice and due process do not apply and, indeed, must be violated.
our political and media establishment demands that we replicate the policies of Libya and Saudi Arabia: simply hold accused Terrorists without trials or, at most, invent special due-process-abridging military tribunals to ensure they are convicted.
Mitch McConnell
said today on CNN that Bush's mistakes were giving civilian trials to some accused Terrorists and releasing too many people from Guantanamo.
George W. Bush: Far Leftist Civil Libertarian Extremists.Read more at www.salon.com
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