This American Life: Habea Shmabeus--anyone listen?

[American liberal]

I try to listen to This American Life on NPR pretty much every week. Tucked between quirky, anecdotal stories of regular, everyday people (my very first exposure to the show was when I stumbled across the episode about the people in Minnesota participating in a contest to win a truck by being the last one standing there with a hand on the truck--it was an amazingly told story of how far people are willing to go for material gain) are hardhitting pieces of journalism that you will never hear in the corporate-owned media, nor even on All Things Considered.

This week was one of those shows. Here's a link. Next week, you will be able to listen for free via RealAudio: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/ I strongly encourage ALL DU members to listen and listen well. It was about the best civics lesson I have had in some time--if ever. AND, it provided me with yet another notch to add to Bush et al.'s impeachment belt.

"Habeas Shmabeus" provided an up-close-and-personal look at the REAL tragedies of Gitmo. The reports on torture of prisoners made my stomach churn. I cried yesterday and pounded my fist on a table in frustration while listening to the stories of disgrace and humiliation and the thumbing of this administration's nose at the Geneva Convention. Journalists also interviewed two detainees recently released who sounded nothing like the suicide-bombing bad men that the Bush admin. and corporate-owned media have been claiming Gitmo detainees to be.

In addition, I got my best historical lesson ever about the writ of habeas corpus, which, according to a source on the show, is what the bedrock of the U.S. Constitution is built upon and part of what the Revolutionary War was all about! And this corrupt, lying, stealing, poor excuse for an administration believes it is above a law that has been ON RECORD for almost ONE THOUSAND YEARS!!! (I believe the historian on TAL said it was first signed into law in 13th century England--somebody please correct me if I'm wrong--and that it is the most fundamental law of Western civilization, adhered to even during the Dark Ages when dissenters were killed and hung from poles all over the countryside as an example to citizens on how NOT to behave). Even way back then during a time when, by today's standards, barbaric behavior was being perpetrated on people by rulers, the accused had a right to be brought before a court and have a court decide whether the person was being detained legally. According to one of the reports, almost 900 people were detained as alleged terrorists during the first Gulf war (during Daddy Bush's watch) and, under habeas corpus, about 75% of them were released within a few months.

The people being detained at Gitmo for going on 5 years do NOT have that right, according to our so-called leaders. And, if I remember correctly, there is currently legislation pending to completely suspend habeas corpus during this time of war.

After listening to this show (and I will listen again once it's available online--it was that powerful), next to paper trails on voting machines and illegal wiretapping I think this is THE single most important issue to rally around. When elected officials begin acting as if they are ABOVE the law, especially a law that has driven how societies treat its citizens for almost one thousand years, it is time to vote them down and show them who is REALLY the boss of them.

Come on, people. Listen up, get mad, and take action! People are being tortured and detained without the most basic protections--in OUR NAMES! Enough is enough!

[dorkulon]

1. I love TAL

It's the best damn radio show ever. Can't wait to listen to this, thanks! :headbang:

[Jackpine Radical]

2. I caught most of it

and was wishing at the time that it would get air time out where "real people" would hear it.

[Flubadubya]

3. kick...

:kick: in hopes that American Liberal finally finds the post. :)

[American liberal]

4. thanks, flubadubya. actually, I reposted it!

[Flubadubya]

6. Kewl...

If you did that all from memory then your tin foil hat is working better than mine. LOL! :rofl:

[American liberal]

8. I actually used the Back button, as somebody suggested,

and it was there, fully intact. Must have been an electronic glitch the first time I tried to post it.

[mirandapriestly]

5. I think TAL gets past the right wing censorship of NPR

because they are not overtly political. I heard part of the Gitmo story and I couldn't believe what the US did to those people for NO REASON and how well adjusted the interviewees sounded despite what had been done to them.

[Thorandmjolnir]

7. Right

The new act denying the detainees at GITMO is called the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 and it states that:



Section 2241 of title 28, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

(e) Except as provided in section 1005 of the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, no court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider--

(1) an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; or

(2) any other action against the United States or its agents relating to any aspect of the detention by the Department of Defense of an alien at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who--

(A) is currently in military custody; or

(B) has been determined by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in accordance with the procedures set forth in section 1005(e) of the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant.'.


If you want to learn more, just Google David Hicks (one of four detainees on trial currently before the military commissions. Also Google Major Dan Mori, the Pentagon defense counsel for Mr. Hicks. He is a true hero)

(PS. I am doing directed research for Mr. Hicks defense team.)

[American liberal]

9. Thanks for the info. And please keep up the good work!

So, has the act passed? I was under the impression that it's still under consideration?

[Generic Other]

10. Magna Carta established right to a jury trial instead of trial by battle

Before 1200s, one established one's innocence through a trial by battle to the death.

My Anglo-Saxon ancestors forced King John to sign that document that guarnateed free men certain inalienable rights. Habeus corpus being one of the most important.