Getting Detained and Gassed
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
NYT
MANAMA, Bahrain
Nothing like getting pulled into a police car to glimpse, through a haze of tear gas, hints of a police state.
The royal family in this American ally of Bahrain deserves immense credit for turning a desert island in the Persian Gulf into a modern banking center. The rulers have educated Bahrainis, built a large English-speaking middle class, empowered women and fostered such moderation that the ambassador to Washington is a woman from Bahrain’s tiny Jewish community.
Yet our pals here also represent a brutal, family-run dictatorship, and few countries crushed the Arab Spring so decisively as Bahrain. The regime helpfully displayed this darker side a few days ago when riot police attacked the video journalist accompanying me and detained both of us.
We had tagged along to watch the small protests and clashes that continue to bubble up almost every evening in the villages of Bahrain. The pattern is invariably the same. A small group begins shouting “Down with Hamad,” the king, and begins winding through the streets, with men and women running from their homes to join in.
(More here.)
NYT
MANAMA, Bahrain
Nothing like getting pulled into a police car to glimpse, through a haze of tear gas, hints of a police state.
The royal family in this American ally of Bahrain deserves immense credit for turning a desert island in the Persian Gulf into a modern banking center. The rulers have educated Bahrainis, built a large English-speaking middle class, empowered women and fostered such moderation that the ambassador to Washington is a woman from Bahrain’s tiny Jewish community.
Yet our pals here also represent a brutal, family-run dictatorship, and few countries crushed the Arab Spring so decisively as Bahrain. The regime helpfully displayed this darker side a few days ago when riot police attacked the video journalist accompanying me and detained both of us.
We had tagged along to watch the small protests and clashes that continue to bubble up almost every evening in the villages of Bahrain. The pattern is invariably the same. A small group begins shouting “Down with Hamad,” the king, and begins winding through the streets, with men and women running from their homes to join in.
(More here.)
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1 Comments:
First, allow me to wish you and all your readers, Happy Bill of Rights Day (December 15, 1791) !
220 years ... but it appears that it's time for a change ... the Senate and House Conference Committee has approved the Defense funding bill ... the House voted yesterday approving it ... and every citizen should be aware of Sections 1021 and 1022 (previously Sections 1031 and 1032) which permits the President to indefinitely detain American citizens, without charge or trial, at his discretion.
Senator Lindsey Graham explained in plain language on the Senate floor: “[Section]1031, the statement of authority to detain, does apply to American citizens and it designates the world as the battlefield, including the homeland”
Unbelievable, but the question must be asked : Can the president use the military to arrest anyone he wants, keep that person away from a judge and jury, and lock him up for as long as he wants?
According to FOX News host Judge Andrew P. Napolitano, “In the Senate’s dark and terrifying vision of the Constitution, he can.”According to Senate Bill 1867, no proof, no charges, and no trial are required. They do not even have to draw spurious links to terrorist organizations in order to indefinitely detain you as they could easily declare the evidence as “critical to national security” and thus withhold it for as long as they deem “necessary” to protect “national security.”
Members of Congress who want to grant the President power to indefinitely detain American citizens, without charge or trial, will say that American citizens are specifically exempted under the following language in Sec. 1022: "The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to citizens of the United States."
RESPONSE: Don't be fooled. All this says is that the President is not REQUIRED to indefinitely detain American citizens without charge or trial. It still PERMITS him to do so.
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