Senators John McCain, John Warner, and Lindsey Graham were presented with an opportunity to uphold the fundamental human right known as habeas corpus, or flinch and write a law that would retroactively make sure that George W. Bush could not be prosecuted for violations of habeas corpus in our overseas concentration camps and prisons. It was a contest between protecting the President and protecting the Constitution.
We don’t need rights right, I mean what’s this whole thing about for Freedom anyway… For those of you that don’t know what this term means – Habeas corpus is the Latin for “you [should] have the body”, is the name of a legal instrument or writ by means of which detainees can seek release from unlawful imprisonment. A writ of habeas corpus is a court order addressed to a prison official (or other custodian) ordering that a detainee be brought to the court so it can be determined whether or not that person is imprisoned lawfully and whether or not he or she should be released from custody. The writ of habeas corpus in common law countries is an important instrument for the safeguarding of individual freedom against arbitrary state action (Wikipedia definition and history)
The modern institution of civil and human rights, and particularly the writ of habeas corpus, began in June of 1215 when King John was forced by a group of feudal lords to sign the Magna Carta at Runnymede.
Two of the most critical parts of the Magna Carta were articles 38 and 39, which established the foundation for what is now known as “habeas corpus” laws. The concept of habeas corpus in the Magna Carta led directly to the Fourth through Eighth Amendments of our Constitution, and hundreds of other federal and state due process provisions.
Articles 38 and 39 of the Magna Carta said:
“38: In future no official shall place a man on trial upon his own unsupported statement, without producing credible witnesses to the truth of it.
39: No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land.”
For those that don’t know our own constitution, it’s a quick but important read:
The question these tragic Republican senators, ultimately, propose to decide is whether our nation will continue to stand for the values upon which it was founded. And they have chosen timidity and convenience – to trash habeas corpus and the Geneva Conventions and the US War Crimes Act – instead of fulfilling their oaths of office to “defend the Constitution of the United States of America.”
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Write your state Senator
Let them know now this action will have detrimental effects to not only our current generations but all generations of Americans to follow. No man should go above and beyond his country, and this is just the position Bush has put himself in, with the help of men like McCain, Warner, Graham , Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Rove (among others).
(The original writer of some of this post is from the Baltimore Chronicle – please read the rest of Thom Hartmann’s prose)