Thursday, May 17, 2012

Ron Paul Fights Indefinite Detention


Lest we forget that despite still running for president (Something this story gets wrong. Seriously, how are they going to spin this once we get to Tampa?), Ron Paul is still fighting for our constitutional freedoms on Capitol Hill. Reports National Journal:

Rep. Ron Paul has joined the next battle over terrorism-detainee rules.

The Texan made a surprise appearance at a House press conference in support of a bipartisan amendment to the defense authorization bill, which hits the House floor today, that would ban indefinite and military detention of anyone captured on U.S. soil, regardless of citizenship.

“I do not believe a republic can exist if you permit the military to arrest American citizens and put them in secret prisons and be denied a trial,” Paul argued.

The amendment, cosponsored by House Armed Services Committee ranking member Adam Smith, D-Wash., and Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., with the support of Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., promises to reopen the decade-long debate over whether to prosecute terrorism suspects in federal civil courts or within the military…

Paul, with just a bit less fire than he showed in this year’s presidential debates, asserted that if 9/11 planner Khalid Sheik Mohammed had been tried the same way the World Trade Center bombing terrorists were tried in 1994, he could have received a death-penalty conviction “10 years ago.”

“The system works; we should not be so intimidated,” Paul said. “This cannot stand.”

The good news is a federal judge in New York has ruled this to be unconstitutional. The bad news is most of the people on Capitol Hill don’t care one wit about the Constitution.


Source: Paulitical Ticker with Jack Hunter

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