Bush, the internationally most hated (3rd world) and laughed at (1st world) president this country has ever had, has severely compromised and massively denigrated the security of the USA and its citizens through the counterproductive war of aggression against Iraq, an unprecedented pre-emptive war that was based on nothing but spin, lies and deceit, not satisfied with that senseless bloodshed, he is also hell bent on turning the very elements that define us as a country on their head: our civil liberties, freedom, and judicial due process. We cannot just chant the new slogans from our very own Ministry of Propaganda / Deception while burying our heads deep in the sand, if we let the neoconservative extremists that have hijacked this country continue on their path of destruction, deception, and infringement of what we stand for, we will start looking like all what we ever professed to be fighting. quote "Patriot Act Author Has Concerns Detaining citizens as 'enemy combatants' -- a policy not spelled out in the act -- is flawed, the legal scholar says. By Richard B. Schmitt Times Staff Writer November 30, 2003: ((Los Angeles Times) WASHINGTON â The Justice Department's war on terrorism has drawn intense scrutiny from the left and the right. Now, a chief architect of the USA Patriot Act and a former top assistant to Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft are joining the fray, voicing concern about aspects of the administration's anti-terrorism policy. At issue is the government's power to designate and detain "enemy combatants," in particular in the case of "dirty bomb" plot suspect Jose Padilla, the Brooklyn-born former gang member who was picked up at a Chicago airport 18 months ago by the FBI and locked in a military brig without access to a lawyer. Civil liberties groups and others contend that Padilla â as an American citizen arrested in the U.S. â is being denied due process of law under the Constitution." unquote continued http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5325.htm quote " Military Officers File Brief Against Bush's Policy in Guantanamo by Frank Davies We took an oath to defend the Constitution. Not the president or secretary of defense. Navy Rear Admiral Don Guter WASHINGTON - Navy Rear Admiral Don Guter felt the Pentagon shudder when an airliner hijacked by terrorists crashed into it on Sept. 11, 2001. He helped evacuate shaken personnel and later gave the eulogy for a colleague killed that day. "I would have done anything that day, and I fully support the war on terrorism," said Guter, who served as judge advocate general, the Navy's chief legal officer, until he retired last year. Nonetheless, he's joining his predecessor and a retired Marine general with expertise on prisoner issues to challenge the Bush administration's indefinite detention of suspected terrorists at the Navy base in Guantanamo, Cuba. Guter, Rear Adm. John Hutson and Brig. Gen. David Brahms worry that lengthy incarcerations at Guantanamo without hearings will undermine the rule of law and endanger U.S. forces. "For me it's a question of balance between security needs and due process, and I think we've lost our balance," Guter said. The trio of retired officers recently filed a Supreme Court amicus brief on behalf of 16 detainees held for almost two years. The government contends that all are enemy combatants, most captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and have no legal rights, prisoner of war status or access to federal courts. For two years, the Bush administration has described the detainees as "the worst of the worst" and "killers." The three former officers are skeptical, noting that 88 have been released so far from the prison camp. "We're trying to separate the goat-herders from the real terrorists, and that's not easy, but I'm not convinced they're all guilty," said Hutson, now the dean of the Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, N.H. The trio also worries that the Guantanamo precedent will make it easier for other countries, groups and warlords to hold Americans, keep them isolated and ignore the Geneva Conventions. "If we want the world to play by the rules, we have to be on the moral high ground," said Brahms, who spent 26 years in the Marines before opening a private law practice in Carlsbad, Calif. Early next year, the Supreme Court will hear the case in a potentially historic clash between presidential authority and judicial oversight. " unquote continued http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1201-13.htm