Metes & Bounds: In the King¹s name

President George Bush is pressuring Congress to pass legislation
that will protect him and his Administration from criminal
prosecution. He is concerned that a Democratic victory in the House
and/or Senate this November will result in efforts to hold him
responsible for abuses of authority, civil rights violations and
arbitrary and illegal treatment of suspected terrorists ³rendered²
to foreign prisons known to engage in torture. Officials in the
Counter Intelligence Agency also are worried and are purchasing
private insurance policies to pay for their defense if they face
similar indictments.
The urgent rush to build a firewall before the November election
is evidence that the President and his neo-con cronies are
concerned that their dream of an ³Imperial Presidency² is fading,
along with their hopes for a permanent Republican domination of the
House, Senate, White House and Supreme Court.
A similar situation existed in England prior to 1215 with King
John asserting unlimited authority over his subjects. He made
oppressive demands, imposed extortionate taxes and ruthless
reprisals against defaulters and his administration of justice was
considered capricious at best.
At the demand of a group of Barons who rebelled and captured
London in May 1215, King John met with them in June 1215, and
signed a charter of liberties, called the Magna Carta. The document
established an important constitutional principle: that the power
of the king could be limited by a written document.
Our Constitution and Bill of Rights serve the same purpose in
limiting the powers of the President. President Bush has presumed
to ignore those documents and the laws adopted by Congress,
claiming that he has unlimited powers as Commander in Chief in time
of war, a title he achieved by starting a war. In effect, he has
issued ³Carte Blanche² to his subordinates to proceed in a number
of questionable practices on his authority. Historically, ³Carte
Blanche² described a letter that stated simply: ³What the bearer
does, the bearer does in the name of the King.² When signed by the
King or his designate, the letter literally authorized the bearer
to commit murder ­ and get away with it.
One of the more important provisions in the Magna Carta reads:
³No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his
rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his
standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against
him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgement of his
equals or by the law of the land.²
The law is the only protection individual citizens have to
protect us from arbitrary seizure and imprisonment. What President
Bush is seeking is a Congressional revision of the law that will
excuse and justify past violations by his Administration and
establish a precedent for a police state in which dissidents and
critics can be intimidated, silenced or eliminated without due
process of law, legal counsel or a fair trial. It is a matter of
record that American citizens have been picked up on the street,
taken to jail, abused, and ³rendered² to foreign prisons for
³aggressive² interrogation. Their families were not informed and
they had no access to legal council. And if they succumbed to
torture, their ³confessions² could be used against them by the
special tribunals Bush is demanding be substituted for courts of
law. The torture techniques used in some foreign prisons reportedly
are so severe that a victim would confess to anything and even
curse his mother for giving him birth.
We are a Republic, if we can keep it. We are not a monarchy,
unless the Republicans win.
– Bill Haigwood is a Sonoma West Times & News columnist.