My Letter to the Anchoress

(A conservative blogger who I have corresponded with in the past):

Dear Anchoress,

I must say I am extremely disappointed by your "agnosticism" on the question of torture.

When push came to shove, McCain et al voted AGAINST an amendment that would have put habeas protection back into the bill. Without habeas corpus, any rights are useless, because they can't be reviewed/vindicated in court (to even challenge the FACTUAL basis of the detention). There is a very sad and depressing article in last month's Harpers called American Gulag (it's not online, but I am sure you can find it in a library), which outlines the cases of dozens of people who were disappeared in Iraq and Afghanistan, kept without charges for months, and tortured, ALL innocent. There was also the instance of a 12-year old boy who was detained with his father. Luckily, the little boy wasn't tortured.

The other odious thing about this bill is that it gives to the President and the Defense Department the right to declare as enemy combatants even US citizens who "materially support" enemies of ALLIES of the US.

So, theoretically, if you give money to a charity that, unbeknownst to you, passes that money on to enemies of the US or its allies, you could be declared an enemy combatant, a decision purportedly unreviewable by any court.

Marty Lederman's analysis:

"Most of the attention in the press has focused on subsection (i) of the definition, which would designate as an UEC any "person who has engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States or its co-belligerents who is not a lawful enemy combatant (including a person who is part of the Taliban, al Qaeda, or associated forces)." And that subsection is, indeed, broad, and fairly indeterminate, depending on how "materially supported hostilities" is interpreted (something that the Administration apparently could do without much or any judicial review).

But the really breathtaking subsection is subsection (ii), which would provide that UEC is defined to include any person "who, before, on, or after the date of the enactment of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, has been determined to be an unlawful enemy combatant by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal or another competent tribunal established under the authority of the President or the Secretary of Defense."

Read literally, this means that if the Pentagon says you're an unlawful enemy combatant -- using whatever criteria they wish -- then as far as Congress, and U.S. law, is concerned, you are one, whether or not you have had any connection to "hostilities" at all."

Here.

So EVERYONE, including you and I, are at risk.

And this is what water-boarding, which we have used, and may still be legal looks like:

Here.

As a fellow Christian and American, I must re-state that I am extremely disappointed by your agnosticism on torture and support of the bill that was passed today.

I pray for your and America's soul.

Respectfully,

Tom English
Jackson Heights
New York