Nat Hentoff: Hillary Clinton Wakes Up
The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty—and the destiny of the republican model of government—are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally, staked out on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people. — President George Washington, First Inaugural Address
Having often criticized the junior senator from New York for her tepid and too rare responses to Bush administration attacks on the Constitution's "sacred fire of liberty," I must credit her now for a September 28 speech on the floor of the Senate during the debate on the Military Commissions Act of 2006—which gives the presidency the most radical expansion of power in American history.
Senator Hillary Clinton's warning to her colleagues and the nation received scant press at the time and has been washed away by Mark Foley's e-mails and North Korea's bursting pride in having joined the nuclear club. Hillary, speaking of the June Supreme Court decision (Hamdan v. Rumsfeld)—which forced Congress to pretend to correct Bush's unconstitutional military commissions at Guantánamo, and his five-year violations of the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of our prisoners anywhere in the world—said of the new military commissions bill, since passed by House and Senate, that "it allows a discredited policy . . . to be largely continued and to be made worse."
For example, Clinton continued, "the bill before us allows the admission of evidence [against prisoners] of statements derived through cruel, inhuman, and degrading interrogation. This sets a dangerous precedent that will endanger our own men and women in uniform overseas."
She then gave the senators a history lesson that may well have been new to them, and to most Americans, in view of the steady disappearance of courses in American history throughout our school systems. Between the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the writing of the Constitution in 1787, New York and Long Island were captured by the British. George Washington and the Continental Army retreated to Pennsylvania, with huge casualties, and crossed the Delaware. In a pivotal victory at Trenton, Washington captured over 1,000 foreign mercenaries.
"The British," Senator Clinton added, "had already committed atrocities against American prisoners, including torture. . . . There are accounts of injured soldiers who surrendered being murdered; countless Americans dying in prison hulks in New York harbor . . . and other acts of inhumanity perpetrated against Americans confined to churches in New York City."
What were General Washington's orders on the treatment of thousands of new prisoners and other British soldiers captured? As reported by Hillary Clinton, Washington commanded: "Treat them with humanity, and let them have no reason to complain of our copying the brutal example of the British army in their treatment of our unfortunate brethren."
The senator from New York then turned to today's commander in chief, George W. Bush: "This military commissions bill undermines the Geneva Conventions by allowing the president to issue executive orders to redefine what are permissible interrogation techniques. Have we fallen so low as to debate how much torture we are willing to stomach?
By allowing this administration to further stretch the definition of what is and is not torture, we lower our moral standards to those whom we despise, undermine the values of our flag wherever it flies, put our troops in danger, and jeopardize our moral strength in a conflict that cannot be won simply with military might." (Emphasis added.)...
Read entire article at Village Voice
Having often criticized the junior senator from New York for her tepid and too rare responses to Bush administration attacks on the Constitution's "sacred fire of liberty," I must credit her now for a September 28 speech on the floor of the Senate during the debate on the Military Commissions Act of 2006—which gives the presidency the most radical expansion of power in American history.
Senator Hillary Clinton's warning to her colleagues and the nation received scant press at the time and has been washed away by Mark Foley's e-mails and North Korea's bursting pride in having joined the nuclear club. Hillary, speaking of the June Supreme Court decision (Hamdan v. Rumsfeld)—which forced Congress to pretend to correct Bush's unconstitutional military commissions at Guantánamo, and his five-year violations of the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of our prisoners anywhere in the world—said of the new military commissions bill, since passed by House and Senate, that "it allows a discredited policy . . . to be largely continued and to be made worse."
For example, Clinton continued, "the bill before us allows the admission of evidence [against prisoners] of statements derived through cruel, inhuman, and degrading interrogation. This sets a dangerous precedent that will endanger our own men and women in uniform overseas."
She then gave the senators a history lesson that may well have been new to them, and to most Americans, in view of the steady disappearance of courses in American history throughout our school systems. Between the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the writing of the Constitution in 1787, New York and Long Island were captured by the British. George Washington and the Continental Army retreated to Pennsylvania, with huge casualties, and crossed the Delaware. In a pivotal victory at Trenton, Washington captured over 1,000 foreign mercenaries.
"The British," Senator Clinton added, "had already committed atrocities against American prisoners, including torture. . . . There are accounts of injured soldiers who surrendered being murdered; countless Americans dying in prison hulks in New York harbor . . . and other acts of inhumanity perpetrated against Americans confined to churches in New York City."
What were General Washington's orders on the treatment of thousands of new prisoners and other British soldiers captured? As reported by Hillary Clinton, Washington commanded: "Treat them with humanity, and let them have no reason to complain of our copying the brutal example of the British army in their treatment of our unfortunate brethren."
The senator from New York then turned to today's commander in chief, George W. Bush: "This military commissions bill undermines the Geneva Conventions by allowing the president to issue executive orders to redefine what are permissible interrogation techniques. Have we fallen so low as to debate how much torture we are willing to stomach?
By allowing this administration to further stretch the definition of what is and is not torture, we lower our moral standards to those whom we despise, undermine the values of our flag wherever it flies, put our troops in danger, and jeopardize our moral strength in a conflict that cannot be won simply with military might." (Emphasis added.)...