Bulletin 1:
The
New York Times’
“Must Do” List
On March 4, 2007,
The New
York Times published a “Must Do” list of changes that must be made to
undo the assaults of the Bush Administration against founding principles
of our American democracy. They
see this task as “a moral imperative to show the world that the United
States can be tough on terrorism without sacrificing its humanity and the
rule of law.”
Many of these “Must Do”
items involve undoing provisions of the atrocious Military Commission Act,
which was passed by the Republican Congress in the fall of 2006.
It formalized some of the worst aspects of the president’s
overreaching of power and undermining of the civil rights of prisoners and
American citizens.
The “Must
Do” list includes:
 |
Restore Habeas Corpus, the most basic right of a detainee to appeal his imprisonment and have a fair trial. This is “essential to bringing integrity to the detention system and reviving the United States’ credibility.” |
|
Stop illegal spying – eavesdropping without the mandated warrant. |
|
Really ban torture; follow the Geneva Conventions. |
|
Close the CIA prisons, which do not follow the Army’s rules for interrogation but allow coercive means and accept evidence obtained thereby. |
|
Ban secret prisons and account for disappearances and “ghost prisoners.” |
|
Stop Extraordinary Rendition – no more kidnapping of suspects and flying them to countries known to practice torture. |
|
Completely overhaul the prisons for terrorist suspects: |
a) Define “combatant” clearly (currently, an “enemy combatant” is anyone so designated by the president);
b) Careful screening of suspects to avoid imprisoning innocent people;
c) Charge detainees and have fair trials, not military tribunals, which the Supreme Court has twice said are not adequate;
d) Ban evidence obtained by coercive measures;
e) Make relevant evidence available to detainees’ lawyers;
f) Respect the right to effective legal representation for all suspects and detainees “to protect innocent people from illegal imprisonment.”
g) Stop classifying documents to avoid public scrutiny and stop encouraging agencies to reject or limit information from Freedom of Information requests.
h) Stop FBI spying on nonviolent antiwar groups.
i) Apologize to the two innocent individuals (Canadian and German) who were kidnapped, flown to other countries, and tortured.
j) Close the Guantanamo prison.
