On October 18 2006, President George W. Bush signed into law an act that would allow “unlawful enemy combatants” to be declared either by a court of law or military tribunal. This seems OK, military tribunal, that is like a court of law but in the military, right?
Here’s the rub, a military tribunal consits of people in the military. Who is the supreme commander of the military in the United States? George W. Bush! The implications of this are that effectively George W. Bush can declare any one he wants, US citizen or not, an “unlawful enemy combatant”.
If you are declared an “unlawful enemy combatant”, things that we consider necessary for a fair trial, the right to know your accuser, the right to know what charages are being brought against you and the right to know what evidence is being used to convict you (all of these rights and more are part of Habius Corpus, a concept fundamental to what most of the western world would call democracy), would not apply.
Recently SABDFL (Mark Shuttleworth) bloged about holding UbuntuWorld in the United States. In responce to this, Stephen Herman wrote this blog entry expressing his concerns over holding UbuntuWorld in the United States.
I agree with the commenters in that just holding UbuntuWorld in the US does not support the current ruling regime, but in light of recent developments (see the opening on the Military Commissions Act), I will not visit the United States. This is a simple, and some would say ineffective, protest, but it is easily do able (try travelling on a student budget) and it appeals to my moral sense.