by Ralph Lopez
Fox News recently refused to air an ad that criticizes the Bush administration for “destroying the Constitution” by the use of torture and other tactics. The ad, “Rescue the Constitution,” is narrated by actor Danny Glover.
In a response to the Center for Constitutional Rights, which produced the ad, Fox News wrote that it could not approve the ad “with it being Danny Glover’s opinion that the Bush Administration is destroying the Constitution.” Fox said “If you have documentation that it is indeed being destroyed, we can look at that.”
If the Constitutional “documentation” against “cruel and unusual punishment” doesn’t float Fox’s boat, how about more? The Sixth Amendment of the Constitution, the “Bill of Rights” states: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused, shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State.”
On May 8, 2002, the government seized an American citizen, Jose Padilla, on American soil on allegations, but not formal charges, of terrorism. George Bush ordered the military to take custody of Padilla as an “enemy combatant” in the June 9, 2002, Presidential Order to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, which said:
“I, GEORGE W. BUSH, as President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the U.S. armed forces, hereby DETERMINE for the United States of America that…Jose Padilla, who is under the control of the Department of Justice and who is a U.S. citizen, is, and at the time he entered the United States in May 2002 was, an enemy combatant…you are directed to receive Mr. Padilla from the Department of Justice and to detain him as an enemy combatant. “
Dry words, but important. In military detention, Padilla was made to sleep on a metal cot, subjected to hooding, stress positions, assaults, threats of imminent execution, and the administration of “truth serums,” according to his lawyer. Padilla was not even allowed a lawyer until two years after his arrest. When the government released him to the civilian courts three-and-a-half years later, Padilla was docile, and did little to assist in his own defense. The charges against him bore no resemblance to the original allegations.