US Army Empowered to Imprison Suspects Without Trial

Both chambers of the U.S. Congress did away with whatever was left of American constitutional rule this week. Trial by jury, something that is the right of every American citizen even according to international law, is now a thing of the past. The U.S. constitutional guarantee to a fair trial has been tossed aside by Congress as something outmoded and quaint, as have other constitutional guarantees of freedom. Thursday’s 83-13 Senate vote on the defense budget onto which this vote was tacked empowers the military to take into custody anyone suspected of terrorist activity without the benefit of an arrest warrant. Further, suspects may be sentenced to life imprisonment in a military stockade without benefit of counsel or recourse to appeal. The House of Representatives had already passed the law by a margin of 283 to 136; it was sent to the White House for the president’s signature on Friday.

The last time Congress passed such a law authorizing imprisonment without trial was during the McCarthy era and the witch-hunt on liberal intellectuals. Then-President Truman had the courage to veto it. With an eye on potential votes from the left-liberal spectrum, Obama had originally threatened to similarly veto this bill, but Senate debate on the bill revealed that the new police state law was supported by the Obama administration; thus, a veto is hardly likely.

The effect of the new U.S. terror law has already been seen here in Germany during the trial of the so-called Sauerland terrorists. The German army and not the police had arrested the suspects and consigned them to military prison, where they had access neither to legal counsel nor to visits by family members. There was no trial. The military wasn’t even obligated to inform the suspects of the charges against them. They disappeared quietly and secretly into a military dungeon. Similarities may be seen in the vile “oubliettes,” those rock holes deep beneath the prisons where medieval autocrats hid their opponents away.

The United States, would-be role model for human rights and modern democracy around the globe, appears to be tending more and more strongly toward medieval values in their justice system. Today’s torture, extraordinary rendition of suspects and targeted assassination of certain civilians based solely on suspicion belong to that same era of robber barons and inquisitions, but they are now business as usual for the American justice system and the president who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.