This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The terrorist attacks of 9/11 were followed by two giant, and wholly self-inflicted, wounds on the American people. One, the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, formally came to an end Thursday.
The other, the ongoing war on the rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States, continues. In fact, when President Obama signs, as he is expected to, the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, it will be the most direct assault so far on the concept found in the Declaration of Independence that humans are endowed with certain inalienable rights.
The record should show that, while the bill rolled through Congress on the Tough on Terror bandwagon, Utah's Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Jason Chaffetz had the guts to vote against it. Sadly, Sen. Orrin Hatch and Reps. Rob Bishop and Jim Matheson voted for it.
Lee, in fact, has filed legislation that would take the edge off some of the more heinous provisions of the defense bill. His bill would make it clear that, even when Congress has declared war or otherwise authorized military actions, the habeas corpus rights of all U.S. citizens and legal residents found within the borders of the United States are not compromised.
The defense bill will, for the first time, actually codify the vulgar idea, previously only assumed and argued, that the president may order, and the military may enforce, the detainment and indefinite custody of any person accused of being a member, agent, sympathizer or admirer of the al-Qaida terror network.
The bill specifically cuts the civilian criminal justice system judges, prosecutors, FBI agents out of the loop, unless the president goes out of his way to bring them back in on specific cases. And with that structure, of course, goes all judicial oversight, all public accountability, all constitutional guarantees of trial by jury, the right to confront witnesses against you, the requirement that evidence be submitted to a judge and be substantive enough to justify the continued detainment of anyone not yet duly convicted of a crime.
This is a disgusting turn of events on many levels. The most troubling is the fact that Obama, after running for office on a promise to be smart, not just mean, about the war on terror, has finally shoved aside all pretense of standing for the rule of law over political gain.
Despite some last-minute changes that gave the president more flexibility, but offered the rest of us no protection, this bill is the most damaging strike on Americans' liberties in a long time. That makes it a victory for terrorism.