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Sunday, June 15, 2008
Guantánamo Bay Gulag
by
Charles M.
Melchior,
Chester County, Pennsylvania
By railing against
this week’s Supreme Court ruling granting the Guantánamo Bay Gulag
detainees the right under the law to challenge their detention in
Federal Court, John McCain, the Republican Party’s presumptive
candidate for President in this fall’s election, displays an ignorance
of the most elementary principles of our Constitution and its first
ten amendments, and fundamental principles of justice. This is
appalling for one who has held federal elective office so many years.
He thus demonstrates how utterly unqualified he really is for the
Presidency of a democracy:
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Under our
traditional rule of law, every individual has the right to be
presumed innocent until proven guilty, except in a police state,
even if John McCain does not agree.
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The Bill of Rights
applies to all individuals, not just citizens. Senator McCain needs
to read Amendment #V: “No person shall be compelled to be a witness
against himself” and Amendment #VI: “…the accused shall enjoy the
right to a speedy and public trial…” and to be informed of the
charges against him with the right to legal counsel and to confront
his accusers and to compel witnesses in his defense, even if John
McCain would like to deprive them of all those rights they enjoy
under the Constitution.
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While Senator
McCain may wish to repeal the writ of habeas corpus for these
detainees, he can not do so, since the Constitution states
explicitly in Article I, Section 9 paragraph 2 that it may only be
suspended in cases of rebellion or invasion, something which has
occurred only during the War of 1812 by Great Britain, the Civil War
by the South, and WWII by Japan in the Aleutian Islands.
Since the 4 dissenters to this decision, the
Judicial Axis of Evil, would have allowed McCain’s neo-Fascist (held
without charges and incommunicado for as long as 5 years and subjected
to coercive interrogation methods) interpretations of our precious
Constitution. To prevail, for this reason alone, it becomes starkly
clear to American voters they cannot afford to elect as the next
President, one who would appoint another Judicial Axis of Evil member
to the Court as George W. Bush did.
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