The election may be over but the battle to protect the American Constitution has just begun. Do not think that if these rulings are allowed to stand that they will only be used  against non-citizens. It will only be a matter of time before someone born in this country is spirited away and termed an enemy-combatant…

BURIED WITHIN a recent government brief in the case of Guantanamo Bay inmate Majid Khan is one of the more disturbing arguments the Bush administration has advanced in the legal struggles surrounding the war on terrorism. Mr. Khan was one of the al-Qaeda suspects who was detained in a secret prison of the CIA and subjected to “alternative” interrogation tactics — the administration’s chilling phrase for methods most people regard as torture. Now the government is arguing that by subjecting detainees to such treatment, the CIA gives them “top secret” classified information — and the government can then take extraordinary measures to keep them quiet about it. If this argument carries the day, it will make virtually impossible any accountability for the administration’s treatment of top al-Qaeda detainees. And it will also ensure that key parts of any military trials get litigated in secrecy.

And the key to all of this is the following paragraph…

The trouble is that at least some of the secrets the government is trying to protect are the very techniques used against people such as Mr. Khan — and its means of protecting them is to muzzle him about what the CIA did to him. CIA official Marilyn A. Dorn said in an affidavit that Mr. Khan might reveal “the conditions of detention and specific alternative interrogation procedures.” In other words, grossly mistreating a detainee now justifies keeping him quiet.

Two more years of this gross misappropriation of powers.

Source: Top-Secret Torture – washingtonpost.com