In a secret ceremony in the Oval Office on October 17th, George Bush signed a law that gives him the power to declare martial law “to suppress public disorder” in the United States. Without consent of governors or local authorities, President Bush can now commandeer National Guard units and deploy them against American citizens.
This news is especially grim, especially when paired with the swift, silent passage of the Military Commissions Act (which makes it legal for the government to arrest people without revealing why) and news of a creepy government contract awarding a Haliburton subsidiary $385 million dollars to build “detention and processing facilities” in preparation for “a national emergency.”
This is not tin-foil hat science fiction. Right now, right this minute, in America, today, President Bush could
a) declare a state of emergency
b) declare martial law
c) arrest thousands of people without explanation, and
d) detain and process them in secret camps.
and all of this would be completely legal.
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