EDITOR:
For years, we have seen in other countries where their governments are able to arrest someone and hold them as long as they want without letting the arrested person talk to a lawyer, or indeed talk to anyone. These people just disappear. In these countries it doesn't matter whether the person in guilty or not.
It is sad to say that this is now about to be the law in the United States. Our government has declared martial law here. They don't call it that, but that's what it is.
The Senate and the House of Representatives have both passed S1867.
Part of it allows the U.S. military to arrest anyone in this country and detain him or her as long as they want without formal charges and without trial. For more information on this, get on the Internet and use Google (or any other search engine) and type in "S 1867". You will find a lot of information about this bill.
The senators and representatives that voted for this bill will try to tell you that this cannot affect American citizens, but in section 1032 (b)b (1), it states:
"(1) United States Citizens - The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to citizens of the United States."
It says the requirement to detain a person does not extend to citizens, but it does not say that the military is prohibited from doing so. They could have easily worded this so it excludes citizens, as a matter of fact, some senators tried to have this changed, but it was not.
If and when the president signs this bill, we will officially be under martial law in this country. At one time, the 6th amendment to the U.S. Constitution clearly gave citizens the right to a speedy trial. This bill takes that right away.
We as citizens need to do what we can to see that this is repealed. It is not likely this will ever be decided by the Supreme Court, because these people will never even have a trial of any sort that might be appealed to the supreme court.
We deserve to know where the presidential candidates stand on this issue.
James Dupont
Berkeley Springs