Belligerent lawmakers

As Benjamin Franklin famously wrote, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” The recent introduction of a bill to the U.S. Senate threatens the liberty of all American citizens.

Senate Bill 3081, sponsored by Senator John McCain, was introduced earlier this month and will soon be sent to committee for consideration and review. Also called the Enemy Belligerent Interrogation, Detention and Prosecution Act of 2010, this bill allows government agents to designate an individual as a belligerent enemy, and therefore deny them the reading of Miranda rights and other basic liberties such as due process.

The bill would also allow these rights to be stripped from any U.S. citizen, not just the big, bad foreigners who hate our freedom.

The problems presented by this bill are numerous and staggeringly unconstitutional.

The Miranda warning, which we probably all know just from watching cop dramas on television, was developed by the United States Supreme Court in 1966 to prevent authorities from psychologically coercing confessions out of suspects and to protect the constitutional privilege against self-incrimination. Under SB 3081, suspected terrorists would no longer receive the Miranda warning.

Well, that’s fine, right? These are the same people strapping bombs to their bodies with the intent of murdering U.S. citizens, so why should we care what kind of rights they get read?

Putting aside for a moment the ridiculousness of extending rights to people only when we feel like it, one must also consider what defines a terrorist in the eyes of this bill. In the language of the bill, one may be classified as an “unprivileged enemy belligerent” if they have “engaged in hostilities against the United States…materially supported hostilities against the United states,” or if they’re “part of al-Qaeda.”

Now, I know what you’re thinking, dear reader: “Why, that couldn’t possibly be me.” I have no doubt that all the fine voters with this paper in hand are upstanding citizens of the highest caliber who would never even dream of seditious acts or terrorism. Prudence shows, however, that even innocuous actions can get one in trouble in this new age of fear mongering.

In light of the failed bombing attempt in Times Square, for example, the Associated Press released an article about a government program to help parking attendants look out for terror suspects. Among the activities mentioned to look out for were people “hanging around,” taking photographs, or “people who seem to be conducting surveillance by taking photos or drawing sketches.”

Back in 2008, amateur London area photographers were being pulled aside and questioned as if they were terrorists for doing something as simple as snapping pictures at public events or of government buildings.

Or perhaps you donate to a charity and don’t know where all the money goes, or you lent money to a relative who turned out to be a member of a terrorist organization. Under the wording of this bill, you may very well qualify as a belligerent enemy.

The lack of specificity in these cases puts every single American in danger of losing essential liberties due to mere suspicion. So if you think that this bill won’t affect you, think again. When everyone is a potential terrorist in the eyes of the government, everyone stands to lose their rights.

Our Constitutional rights are not something to be taken lightly and thrown away at the earliest convenience. It is our broad rights as Americans that set us apart from would-be terrorists and fundamentalist dictatorships.

The task of combating crime and whatever passes for terrorism will always seem of such great importance that some may be enticed by the appeals of expediency and false security into compromising our commitment to protecting individual liberty.

So you see, changes to our rights such as SB 3081 do not affect just the guilty, or just the bad guys who got what they had coming. These changes affect everyone who enjoys liberty and believes in it. In the long run, we as a society will pay a heavy price for expediency.

Governments are not especially well known for their willingness to cede power once it has been given. Obama’s extension of the constitutionally abhorrent PATRIOT Act is a good example of this maxim. We need, therefore, to protect our dearly held rights, for once they are lost, they may be gone for good.