I don't usually think of Garrison Keillor as especially political or fiery, but this week's "Old Scout" column is serious! I often scan his columns in the Sunday Strib - and am sometimes bored - but not this time.
He begins: "I would not send my college kid off for a semester abroad if I were you. Last week, we suspended human rights in America, and what goes around comes around. Ixnay habeus corpus."
Turns out that Congress in its wisdom has determined that an "enemy combatant" is simply any noncitizen that the president declares to be an enemy combatant - and that person can be arrested and held for as long as authorities wish without any right of trial. Imagine now that your brother or sister - an American citizen - were suddenly arrested & held in another country - and you could not contact them, and they could not even contact a lawyer. For years. Oh, and it's up to the president how much torture is OK while they're imprisoned, too. Yup - America 2006.
We'd do well to remember - what goes around comes around...
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