Military Commissions Act of 2006

[sophied02]

This is a link for info about the Military Commissions Act of 2006 which Mr. Cheddar mentioned in class today

www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/10/20061017.html

This act gives the American justice system the right to try terrorists of not only September 11th, but of the recent bombings of the US Embassys in Kenya and Tanzania. It was passed to bring these people to justice and find the real reasons behind the terrorist acts on America so the government can work to prevent any attacks like these in the future. This helps the justice system to find out where the terrorists stand in matters of America just like the Alien Registration Act of 1940 fought to find out the political standings of all the immigrants coming to America. The main focus of both of these acts is to protect America from further corruption as seen in both the Red Scare and the Salem Witch Trials. The consensus in power of both of these major periods tried to find out who was against them and tried to correct the problem. The Americans during the Red Scare corrected the problem of communism by promoting anti-Communist ideas through the media and even by finding and prosecuting Communist spies. The Salem Witch Trials, as seen in The Crucible hanged any person thought to be guilty of witchcraft in order to try and correct the problem.

[markf2]

It reminds me of The Crucible in another way, but it goes along the same lines. The entire act takes away the write of habeas corpus to anyone suggested to be involved with terrorists. That is, that these people have little, if any, say in their defense. It seems to parallel The Crucible in that the people who are being tried and are outside of the consensus (Nurse, Giles, Proctor, etc.) try to defend themselves with evidence, but are either not believed or simply shoved aside.

[daniellez07]

I agree with both of the above wallposts. In The Crucible, the key characters that are tried in court are oustide of the consensus as previously stated. If they object to their trials, (which would be utilizing their right of habeas corpus) they are merely shut down by a higher power, which in The Crucible would be Danforth/Hathorne. The Military Commissions Act of 2006 correlates to this in the sense that those who are viewed to be terrorists, typically are not within what you could call the 'American' consensus. They do not speak the rhetoric and do not obtain the values, or so it would appear to the overall consensus (society) and especially to those who sit at the top of the consensus (ie, Supreme Court Judges, the President, Congress etc,.) Therefore, when they are tried by the American justice system to aid America in discovering the root of their problems, their objections are rejected because that in turn would not be solving the crisis that America is faced with. If the justice system were to actually listen to the objections of those that they believed to be terrorists, they may end up justifying the case of the 'terrorist' which would then not be aiding in solving the problem. The ideal strategy as it appears to be, is to listen to the case, however, use the supreme power of the court, President etc. to state that the case must clearly be wrong as a result of the attacks against America. Their arguement can be backed up by stating that there is no true way to prove that what the person being tried for terroism is stating is the truth, and it is merely a form of self-preservation. In The Crucible, (as previosly stated), Danfroth issues for the hanging of people whom he believes to be associated with withcraft. Although this may not be the case, and the issue of these hangings may not truly be just, the fact that they occuring is giving the overall impression that the problem is being handled and resolved.

[taylorm07]

When I looked up the meaning of habeas corpus, I came up with the following: the name of a legal action, or writ, through which a person can seek relief from unlawful detention of themselves or another person... and to determine whether that custodian has lawful authority to hold that person, or, if not, the person should be released from custody. The court in Salem chose to ignore this writ and hold its "witches" in jail even though they didn't have sufficient evidence to do so. When this was brought to light by others wishing to relieve others of their unlawful detention, it was even more ignored. This goes along with the tyranny of consensus, who shut out these people and ended up crushing them because they spoke for the discensus. The CIA program also ignored this writ, and, because of the MCA, they were, and are, legally allowed to hold suspected terrorists. The Military Commissions Act also can relate to the Patriot Act, which allows phone lines to be tapped and serch emails of suspected terrorists as well. Democracy (religion for the Puritans) was the pretext for these Federal Acts.