‘‘Enemy Belligerent Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010’’.

Brr…I think a cold chill just swept through the room. Can you hear the war drums beating towards Iran?

Back to reality in year 2 of the Obama administration though.

McCain unveiled this radical piece of legislation while providing the wisdom that only a Senator as old and as wise as he can provide:

“Mr. President, I rise to introduce legislation that sets forth a clear, comprehensive policy for the detention, interrogation and trial of enemy belligerents who are suspected of engaging in hostilities against the United States.  This legislation seeks to ensure that the mistakes made during the apprehension of the Christmas Day bomber, such as reading him a Miranda warning, will never happen again and put Americans’ security at risk…

..A key provision of this bill is that it would prohibit a suspected enemy belligerent from being provided with a Miranda warning and being told he has a right to a lawyer and a right to refuse to cooperate.  I believe that an overwhelming majority of Americans agree that when we capture a terrorist who is suspected of carrying out or planning an attack intended to kill hundreds if not thousands of innocent civilians, our focus must be on gaining all the information possible to prevent that attack or any that may follow from occurring.  Under these circumstances, actionable intelligence must be our highest priority and criminal prosecution must be secondary…

…Mr. President, deliberate mass attacks that intentionally target hundreds of innocent civilians are an act of war and should not be dealt with in the same manner as a robbery.  We must recognize the difference.  If we don’t, our response will be hopelessly inadequate.  We should not be providing suspected terrorists with Miranda warnings and defense lawyers.  Instead, the priority and focus must be on isolating and neutralizing the immediate threat and collecting intelligence to prevent another attack…I believe the handling of the Christmas Day bomber – including the law enforcement focus and the decision to read a Miranda warning after only 50 minutes of interrogation– demand that Congress and the Administration first address the issue which is most crucial to our national security. ” (Mar. 4th, 2010)

For a taste of what exactly Senator McCain prescribes to lessen the burden of those pesky civil liberties, continue past the jump or read it for yourself in its entirety here.Considering all the partisan debate over whether or not suspected “enemy belligerents” should be read Miranda rights, McCain offers a novel solution : inserting a Republican talking point that is completely devoid of factual support.

Now that that problem is solved, time to move onto the ever lingering question of whether habeas corpus is really a universal right under the Bill of Rights. Clearly channeling the founding fathers, Senator McCain hits another home run!

Just make it illegal to fund prosecutions of terrorists! So subtle, so nuanced, you can almost smell the sweet Caribbean breezes washing over the concrete block walls of Guantanamo…

Ah, but I jest – I’m still reeling from this vivid reminder of precisely how much of a difference elections make. These next two tenets of McCain’s “enemy belligerent” detention manifesto are what tipped the scales for me.

Let me repeat:

“(E) Such other matters as the President considers appropriate.”

Do you think McCain liked Power a bit?

As Andrew Sprung points out, this clause has a host of implications, most of which basically tarnish the notion of the inalienable rights of Americans. McCain is not satisfied by the mere endowment of extra-constitutional  executive power though, he needs longer lasting, heavier impact measures to stop them terrorists.

And detention “without criminal charges and without trial for the duration of hostilities,” will be one hell of a sentence considering this legislation is coming up in the context of a failed-Nigerian terrorist who was apprehended, mirandized, interrogated, proceeded to divulge actionable information that the Republicans think should have just been thrown in a military lock-up. We aren’t at any sort of war with Nigeria. But somehow this legislation (and McCain’s statement about it) tries to suggest that if only this law had been on the books before the scorched underpants of that Nigerian landed on American soil, we’d all be safer and the terrorists would be defeated.

I don’t see much of a disconnect, any at all really, between the Republican’s synchronized response to the Obama administration’s handling of the failed underpants bomber and the drafting of legislation such as this. There is a direct line between the Republican’s overt partisanship after Christmas Day and the insertion of this legislation into their legislative agendas. Yet that line fails to pass through the realm in which we all live and in which all those events occurred. The overt partisanship in this case should be read as overt hypocrisy. No facts either divulged by agencies involved or obtained by the press indicate that the mirandizing of the undie-where(?) bomber had any negative consequences and similarly no facts exist regarding the prosecution and conviction of terrorists in the US criminal system leading to negative consequences precipitating the need for legislation like this. But that doesn’t stop career politicians like John McCain from releasing statements and drafting legislation that presumes nobody will check to see if those facts he spews exist. I’m glad the adults still have the 59 seat majority for at least 10 more months and that we know at least one source of responsibility and decency in public service will be Commander in Chief for another couple of years.

Take it away Rachel :

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