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To: RedRover
Vokey calls the system "disgraceful." "Anytime you want to subvert the rule of law to the power of a government, you've got a very bad thing brewing," Vokey told NPR. "As an officer in the Marine Corps I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. And now we are perpetrating something that if any other country in the world was doing, we would likely step in and stop it."

If this is an accurate quote, the guy has been a defense lawyer too long. The guarantees of the Constitution do not apply to enemy combatants, especially ones who wear no uniforms and hide amongst, or behind, the civilian populace. This is long settled US law, despite what the current crop of judges and justices might say.

About the only thing they are entitled to is due process and then only to determine if they are indeed illegal combatants. Their specific "crimes" ( I would say "acts") don't really matter much after that, except in so far as we choose to treat them differently depending on their individual circumstances. We'd be well within US and international treaty obligation to just shoot them.

15 posted on 10/30/2007 4:27:46 PM PDT by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: El Gato
We'd be well within US and international treaty obligation to just shoot them.

First, this is not even close to true, and I have a few recent Supreme Court decisions that say otherwise. Second, I did not serve on active duty just so that this could even be true. We are a better country than that, but you know that since you acknowledge a requirement for due process - which universally means an "impartial" process whose judgments reasonable men would agree to be fair based on presentation of credible evidence and the rule of law.

31 posted on 10/30/2007 5:55:03 PM PDT by AndyJackson
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