Bye-Bye Civil Liberties

The American Civil Liberties Union is mad as hell. President Bush signed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 into law and the ACLU called the new law one of the worst civil liberties measures ever enacted in American history.
“With his signature, President Bush enacts a law that is both unconstitutional and un-American. This president will be remembered as the one who undercut the hallmark of habeas in the name of the war on terror. Nothing separates America more from our enemies than our commitment to fairness and the rule of law, but the bill signed today is an historic break because it turns Guantánamo Bay and other U.S. facilities into legal no-man's-lands.
“The president can now – with the approval of Congress – indefinitely hold people without charge, take away protections against horrific abuse, put people on trial based on hearsay evidence, authorize trials that can sentence people to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses, and slam shut the courthouse door for habeas petitions. Nothing could be further from the American values we all hold in our hearts than the Military Commissions Act.” – Anthony D. Romero, ACLU Executive Director
Who watches the watchers? What liberties are you willing to give up in order for government officials, who authorized or ordered illegal acts of torture and abuse over the past 9 years, to save face?
ACLU Letter to the Senate Strongly Urging Opposition to S. 3930, the Military Commissions Act of 2006
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