Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

December 27, 2011

The National Defense Authorization Act includes a provision mandating the military arrest and indefinite detention of anyone, including U.S. citizens, who is designated a terrorist suspect or enemy combatant. That measure also permits the rendition of detainees ? including, once again, American citizens ? to foreign countries for interrogation and torture.

Investigative reporter Alexander Cockburn [pronounced ?CO-burn?] points out that a lawsuit making its way through the courts may result in an expansive new grant of immunity to civilian prison guards, including contractors employed by privately owned prisons. The plaintiffs are 72 Iraqis had been illegally held and tortured at Abu Ghraib prison. The abuses inflicted on them included rape, being forced to watch others ? including relatives ? being raped, beatings, mock executions, and other forms of torture. Much of this was done by private contractors employed by the U.S. military and the CIA. None of the victims was ever charged with a crime.

The corporate defendants have claimed absolute immunity under the doctrine of ?military preemption,? despite the fact that the personnel were private contractors, rather than soldiers. Because the victims were designated ?enemy aliens,? from this perspective, all of their rights are subject to ?military pre-emption.?

The same may soon be true of American citizens considered potential troublemakers under the new military regime.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.