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Barack Obama issued an Executive Order allowing for the indefinite
detention of Guatanamo detainees—even if a US federal court finds
them "not guilty" of any offense for which they could be incarcerated.



On Mar. 8 Judge Andrew Napolitano took over for vacationing Glenn Beck and hammered the White House. Not for for Barack Obama's flipflopping on closing the terrorist detention camp, nor on providing what amounts to granting "prisoners of war" with the constitutional protection enjoyed by American citizens rather than the conditional rights afforded to all people outside the United States under the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. There is an assumption that enemies of the United States, who are not in the United States, are entitled the constitutional rights of American citizens. They should only be afforded the same rights afforded foreign nationals under the UN Covenant.

Napolitano criticized Obama for signing an Executive Order to allow the indefinite detention of at least 48 of the 174 detainees remaining at the Guantanamo detention facility. We have now become so politically correct that we no longer call prisoners of war "prisoners of war." It also appears we have now stopped calling them "enemy combatants." Now they are simply "detainees." Words that minimize the seriousness of the nature of the detentions. Given the chance, any of the 174 "detainees" in Gitmo would slit your throat, become a human bomb in a shopping mall, or blow up a school bus full of children—our children—in the name of Allah. In point of fact, although the enemy combatants captured in the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan do not wear "uniforms" which identity them as combatants, they are, nevertheless, soldiers fighting a real war to maim and kill real people. As such, when they are captured, they are prisoners of war and can be held until that conflict ends.

Since Islam's jihad against every non-Muslim nation in the world has been ongoing since the 10th century, you can rightly surmise that being taken prisoner in that war can amount to a lifetime sentence. Unless, that is, you are a non-Muslim who has been taken prisoner by a Muslim enemy. In that case, your "life sentence" may be measured in minutes, hours or days since it is more likely the captive's throats will be slit, or they will be beheaded, shortly after their capture. No Geneva Convention. Only Sharia law.

CNN reported on Dec. 7, 2010 that a declassified Dept. of Defense document showed that roughly 25% of the Gitmo detainees released returned to insurgency or terrorist groups. Of the 598 detainees transferred out of the Guantanamo facility, the Defense Department has confirmed, or has evidence which suggests, that 150 of them have taken part in terrorist or insurgent activities in Afghanistan. Sixty-six detainees were transferred to other countries where they were "paroled." Two of them have re-engaged in terrorist activity, and three others are now suspected of joining terrorist cell groups. President George W. Bush learned early on that radical extremists do not quit nor retire. Mohammed Ismail was a Gitmo detainee who convinced the US government he would not rejoin the Taliban if he was paroled back to Afghanistan. In 2004, he was one of 74 Taliban fighters paroled from Gitmo. They returned to Afghanistan to continue their jihad against the infidel. Ismail was recaptured four months later in a firefight with US troops.

Obama seemed to finally understand that radicalized Muslims will remain radicalized extremists as long as they live, which was the reason for the caveat in his March 8, 2011 Executive Order that mandated the resumption of military commission trials (rather than criminal trials) for accused terrorists at Gitmo but also decreed that even if the military tribunal finds the accused "not guilty," they will not be released from custody. "Enemy combatants" should be construed as non-uniformed "enemy soldiers" under the Geneva Convention. You incarcerate enemy soldiers until the end of the conflict and the signing of a peace treaty with the warring factions. No trials. No paroles.

That eliminates the need for "indefinite detention" outside the scope of the Geneva Convention. And, it eliminates Judge Napolitano's heartburn—and the precedent "indefinite detention" poses against a constitutional backdrop. While it solves the problem of not releasing radical extremists to return to the battlefield to kill more Americans, Obama's Executive Order poses a serious problem for the American people. By actually doing so, Obama's Executive Order asserts that the Chief Executive has legislative authority to amend both statutory law and the Constitution. This Executive Order effectively erases the 4th, 5th and 6th Amendments—not just for people who are not citizens of the United States and who, in most instances, have never been here; but also, through precedent, American citizens who may be construed to be "domestic terrorists.' And, with the right social progressive judges on the bench, American citizens who are construed to be the "political enemies of the State" simply for exposing wrongdoing of government.

Not stated by Judge Napolitano on the video is the fact that the Constitution does not provide the President with the authority to create law. Executive Orders have no legal standing other than as a "interoffice directive" from the boss of the Executive Branch to his employees. Executive Orders are not binding on the Legislative or Judicial Branches of government. When a president controls both Houses of Congress, his party will generally "legalize" the Executive Order by enacting them into law although, by precedent, they are deemed to be "law" 90 days after they is published in the Congressional Record—violating the Constitution since the Executive Branch has no constitutional authority to write law. When a president crosses the line and asserts dictatorial authority via Executive Orders, Presidential Decision Directives or Presidential Proclamations, it's time to remove that president from office through impeachment.

 

 

Just Say No
Copyright © 2009 Jon Christian Ryter.
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