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What Are War Powers?
Jon Rappoport | November 12 2004
As Ashcroft fades away, he has issued a critique of judges who have made decisions that countermand the spirit of orders issued by Bush in a time of war.
Presumably, these judges' decisions involve limiting the power of government to hold a terror suspect indefinitely without allowing the suspect to consult a lawyer.
Which raises the question: what war are we talking about?
The war against Iraq? Afghanistan? Terrorism?
Certainly, not all of the suspects held in Cuba and other foreign locations are accused of being enemy combatants in the wars against Iraq and Afghanistan.
So we have the war against terrorism.
This is right out of Orwell's 1984. No end. Goes on forever. Anyone can be called a terrorist.
Therefore, no matter who occupies the White House in future years, he/she is still at the helm of the endless war.
Which justifies any and all actions.
This is not merely a semantic distinction.
It creates a permanent state of emergency which can be escalated into martial law, and this latter condition can be focused on precise or vague locales.
It's much more pervasive than the Cold War.
The basic principle of this kind of state of emergency is: there is no principle. The executive branch of government and its minions can strike out at any target, foreign or domestic.
Any new supposed terrorist act anywhere in the world can be used to say, "Well, you see, we're still fighting the war against terror. If the terrorists can do it over there, they can do it here."
In 2004, 2012, 2020, 2050...
Right now, every action taken against US troops in Iraq is labeled a terrorist act. Not the work of insurgents who want the US out of Iraq.
Any hostile move against a US-headquartered transnational corporation anywhere in the world can surely be called terrorism.
There is no debate about whether such moves are, in fact, terrorism. The call is made from the White House.
Having that power---is that what the framers of the US Constitution had in mind?
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