Also, in class someone mentioned the fear of communism spreading during the “Red Scare.” During the 1950’s Senator Joe McCarthy held investigative hearings about the spread of communism and basically labeled all witnesses at the hearings as “communist sympathizers.” It was not until journalist Edward R. Murrow spoke out against McCarthy with special commentaries, did others begin to take on the McCarthy machine. Check out the movie “Good Night, and Good Luck” for more information. Murrow stated:
His [McCarthy] primary achievement has been in confusing the public mind, as between the internal and the external threats of Communism. We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men.
In a more intense clip than the one shown in class, Olbermann attacks the Military Commissions Act ala Edward R. Murrow:
2 comments:
due to the suspension of habeas corpus, thanks to the Military Commissions Act, there is no legal recourse for detainees of the United States. the lawyers for hospital administrator Adel Hamad, a detainee at Guantanamo, thus took the unprecedented step of releasing video testimony on YouTube to the court of public opinion.
You can see this compelling video at:
projecthamad.org
where you can also add your name in support of habeas restoration as well as read a blog posting by Brandon Mayfield, the U.S. citizen wrongfully incarcerated for the Madrid bombings who is now challenging the constitutionality of the Patriot Act in district court
After discussion of Habeas Corpus and its dying effectiveness, I found it interesting to discover the parallelism between current events and the popular television drama 24.
Currently, President Bush and his administration plan to pretty much eliminate Habeas Corpus by enabling themselves to assume anyone as an enemy. In 24, the United States is faced with extreme threats of terrorism. Acting desperately, one of the presidents’ options is to detain all people of Middle Eastern decent in order to learn more about the terrorists and to hopefully catch them in the process. This is a direct violation of Habeas Corpus, an idea that seems to be dying in the modern era.
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