New York Times Calls for Roll-Back of Bush Administration Legal Assaults on Civil Liberties
Although right and left wing ideologues in the U.S. share the tendency to accuse the New York Times of being in their enemy's camp, a recent editorial (03/04/07) puts the newspaper solidly on the side of all those who champion the rule of law and civil liberties against the claims of those who assert that the attacks of 9/11 and the rise of international terrorism justify their suspension.
The editorial, which contains unusually strong language rarely seen in one of the country's most widely-read newspapers, is entitled "The Must-Do List". It was presumably written under the stewardship of a key new player at the paper, Andrew Rosenthal, who became editorial page editor earlier this year and reports directly to the publisher. It accuses the Bush administration of assaulting the founding principles of American democracy and crippling civil liberties and the rule of law in the U.S. and abroad.
These assaults, it asserts, are continuing in spite of recent Democratic advances in the midterm 2006 elections, which gave Democrats a slim majority in both houses of Congress. Not only must these assaults be stopped, the editorial asserts, but the severity of the damage that has been done demands that Congress take action to undo the "unwise and lawless policies of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney".
The "Must-Do" list" of modifications of existing U.S. laws and core components of the U.S. Constitution and their interpretation, which have taken place under the Bush administration and a compliant Republican Congress prior to the 2006 midterm elections, is so extensive as to raise questions as to whether the U.S. can still be considered a democracy.
The list addresses the following:
Its flouting of long-standing political and civil liberties and its military actions abroad have resulted in deaths and injuries to hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Its counter-productive killing of civilians and seizure, imprisonment, torture, and denial of due process to detained individuals has now been shown to swell the ranks of terrorist networks and increase terrorist attacks rather than decrease them.
Is it any wonder that a growing segment of world public opinion considers the Bush administration to be a greater threat to civil society and the safety and well-being of populations in war zones than the terrorist networks it claims to be fighting? Whereas the U.S. democracy once served as a beacon of hope to oppressed people around the world, is the U.S. government under the Bush administration not replacing that hope with fear and loathing?
The editorial, which contains unusually strong language rarely seen in one of the country's most widely-read newspapers, is entitled "The Must-Do List". It was presumably written under the stewardship of a key new player at the paper, Andrew Rosenthal, who became editorial page editor earlier this year and reports directly to the publisher. It accuses the Bush administration of assaulting the founding principles of American democracy and crippling civil liberties and the rule of law in the U.S. and abroad.
These assaults, it asserts, are continuing in spite of recent Democratic advances in the midterm 2006 elections, which gave Democrats a slim majority in both houses of Congress. Not only must these assaults be stopped, the editorial asserts, but the severity of the damage that has been done demands that Congress take action to undo the "unwise and lawless policies of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney".
The "Must-Do" list" of modifications of existing U.S. laws and core components of the U.S. Constitution and their interpretation, which have taken place under the Bush administration and a compliant Republican Congress prior to the 2006 midterm elections, is so extensive as to raise questions as to whether the U.S. can still be considered a democracy.
The list addresses the following:
- Denial of the fundamental Constitutionally protected, internationally-recognized human right known as "habeas corpus", which prohibits governments from taking people into custody and imprisoning them with charging them with any crime
- Illegal spying on American citizens
- Use of the practice of "extraordinary rendition" by which U.S. forces seize individuals in foreign countries and place them in foreign and U.S.-run prisons and detention centers without charging them with any crimes
- Violation of U.S. and international laws prohibiting the torturing of people taken prisoner by U.S. forces
- Imprisoning of individuals who are held for years without being charged with any crimes or provided due process of law by which they can challenge the charges against them and have access to the evidence being used against them.
Its flouting of long-standing political and civil liberties and its military actions abroad have resulted in deaths and injuries to hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Its counter-productive killing of civilians and seizure, imprisonment, torture, and denial of due process to detained individuals has now been shown to swell the ranks of terrorist networks and increase terrorist attacks rather than decrease them.
Is it any wonder that a growing segment of world public opinion considers the Bush administration to be a greater threat to civil society and the safety and well-being of populations in war zones than the terrorist networks it claims to be fighting? Whereas the U.S. democracy once served as a beacon of hope to oppressed people around the world, is the U.S. government under the Bush administration not replacing that hope with fear and loathing?
posted by the Third Force Network at 4:57 PM
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