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Traveler Detained for Anti-TSA Message
scifience writes "A traveler frustrated with recent changes to airport security procedures found himself detained in Milwaukee after writing a message critical of the TSA's leader on a plastic bag presented for screening. The message, which read "Kip Hawley is an Idiot," resulted in a confrontation with law enforcement, the traveler being told that his right to freedom of speech applied only "out there (pointing past the id checkers) not while in here [the checkpoint]." The story, which is detailed in a rapidly-growing thread on a discussion forum catering to frequent flyers, has attracted the interest of the ACLU, an AP reporter, and many others. The incident raises a number of interesting questions and concerns regarding just where our rights end."
But increasingly, your rights end where dissent begins.
"The incident raises a number of interesting questions and concerns regarding just where our rights end."
Don't you mean "... when our rights ended"?
"The incident raises a number of interesting questions and concerns regarding just where our rights end."
Well, they end right there at the point where people happily exchange freedom for that so called "security".
-------
Born stupid? Try again.
Don't you yanks have a constitiution for this sort of thing?
> regarding just where our rights end.
Your rights ended on the morning of September 11th 2001 - apparantly the morning of a successful coup of the US government by Al-Queda.
In Civilization IV's Civilopedia there is a Benjamin Franklin quotation on article about Liberalism.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both"
In this context the society is not the State but the airport. Do people feel more secure on security control when a person before them is pointed out because of critisim about the system or are they going to be looking around for the lion in the bushes.
Kip Hawley and the entire TSA are rice-bowlers, collecting paychecks from a spectacularly moronic WPA that spends money as fast as the real WPA ever did but doesn't produce a damned thing.
This guy knows it, and said it in a particularly insulting way. To the people collecting those paychecks, who also know it in their hearts, and are ashamed.
So, yeah, they got angry. The twaddle about 1st Amendment rights applying ~out there, not in here~ was just angry-stupid horking, not worth getting in a flap about.
As always, all IMO. Insert "I think" everywhere grammatically possible.
They clearly ought to have let him or her go through. There was no security risk, and being held up for 25 minutes can easily make you miss your flight. On the other hand, as abuses of authority go, this is fairly mild.
But what I'm wondering is why people think it's a good idea to go out of your way to be rude or insulting. If you shout "pig" at every cop you pass in the street, pretty soon you will find somone who takes it to heart and will give you a bad time. Maybe this is a violation of your freedom of speech. But why do it in the first place?
I thought our rights ended years ago. Is there some question about that?
If I wanted a sig I would have filled in that stupid box.
I was thinking to myself while reading this travellers story - and I know from my own experience, these airport security people are much the same everywhere in the world - why do we tolerate security people like this.
It's like Doctors - they are expected to be arrogant, aloof and possessing of a certain air of infallibility. But they're not infalable, we know that and they know that.
Same thing with security people, customs, immigration etc etc. We expect them to be rude and aggressive - but in point of fact they have absolutely no right to be.
When planes blow up etc - the individual security people aren't berated for this. The system maybe - but not the individuals. Also, their lives are not a risk - it is we who travel on the planes that are at risk - and if we can be light-hearted about it, why can't these idiots be? (Gotta love the guy with cocaine).
I think it goes back to the same old thing - give a small man a little power and he will abuse it.
I would like to say that a number of these people are actually very nice and endowed with a decent sense of humour. And you know what - they get the job done just as well.
Genesis 1:32 And God typed
Are not very bright, have an over important opinion of themselves and become hostile if contradicted.
Punishing those responsible isn't going to solve this problem in the general case.
Can anyone suggest a more proactive solution?
This is nothing new, and hardly a TSA phenomenon. Try insulting a cop's mother when he arrests you; you'll see how far your free speech rights extend.
The TSA is basically a hall monitor in the heirarchy of law enforcement. So they're even more sensitive to taunts, and more likely to elevate an insult to the level of national emergency.
"with the war on terror that gave all those security authorities the power to make your life miserable and still keep public support."
To be honest, the 'new' laws to support the war on terror are not really that new. The Government (Federal, State, and Local) have laws on the books that are so open to interpreration giving law enforcement extreamly (and scary) broad powers. The burden of proof has been on the accused for a very long time. It's just that the majority of the laws in place are not enforced. Most officers/Govt folks are normal people too.
There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.
Reminds me of being 'detained' as a teenager, back in the '60s, because the car we were in had a small American flag on the antenna that was upside down...
That was regular cops and they seem to have come around since then. These TSA wonks are more like renta-cops - got shot at by one of them, back then as well, and the regular cops that came out said they would have been 'ok' with me shooting back.
Amazing what a little taste of authority will do for an otherwise flimsy backbone.
I think you meant "when did our rights end".
Here in the usa, what rights we had left pretty much ended on 9.11.01, when the government seized the opportunity to grab the rest of them after a tragic event.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
If you don't think too clearly, then it's best you don't think to much.
Evidently philosophical acumen apprently isn't high on the list of qualifications for being a TSA screener.
That said, I fly a great deal, and TSA personnel seem to be fairly representative of the rest of the human race; some are automatically grouchy and unpleasant, some are tempermentally helpful and friendly, and the majority are like most people, they give you back what you bring them. When you're snide or difficult, the grouchy ones return with interest; when you are pleasant and courteous, the friendly ones return that with interest.
Speaking of philosophy, in Plato's ideal state there were three classes of people, rulers, who required the virtue of wisdom (sophia); soldiers, who required the virtue of courage (andreia); and the rest of the people who required the virtue of sophrosune, which is translated often as moderation, but is perhaps better thought of as temperance. The Greeks thought of this as a kind of self-control over pleasure seaking, but it applies to the negative emotions like anger and suspicion as well. In a modern democratic republic, people (even soliders -- possibly especially them) are called on to excerise the virtues of all three Platonic classes of people, although in different measure.
TSA is above all a civilian agency, although security is its function. And the civilian virtue of temperance is critical to the efficient execution of its duties. Consider the grouchy, aggressive and irritable inspector, on one hand, and the overly friendly one on the other. These are both bad, not because the travelling population is comprised mostly of decent people (it is) on one hand, nor because the travelling population contains dangerous bad people (it does). The reason these characteristics are bad in a screener is that they are both forms of distraction from the actual job.
TSA was cobbled together pretty much overnight, so its a mixed bag. But consider the benefits of moderation. If you're too suspicious, you jump to conclusions and you dwell on irrelevant details. If I were a terrorist, I'd want to be a couple of people behind the guy with the Kip Hawley bag, so I could pass through while everyone was dealing with the First Amendment brouhahah. Likewise, you want the inspectors to be pleasant, but not too friendly. Pleasant behavior is a social lubricant; it makes things run faster. That means more people inspected in a given number of time, or the same number scrutinized in more detail. But you don't want pleasantness to rise to outright friendliness. Chatting and making small talk would get in the way of business.
Of course, you need a wide selection of people if you want to consistently pick the ones from the middle of the deck. For better or worse, security is just one of those things we think anybody is able to do; we don't see it as a job with high professional or personal qualifications. By paying accordingly, we don't a work force which is consistently fitted to do the job with excellence. We end up with a workforce that is representative of the population, and have to accept the natural variations in performance that involves. Perhaps that's good enough. Freedom isn't going to fall apart because of some hot-headed TSA employee taking it upon himself to impose loyalty on the citizenry. Society isn't going to unravel if the occasional airplane is hijacked. We don't like to think of it this way, but we really treat these things as part of the cost of doing the business of society. If we didn't, we'd do what was necessary to have a more consistenly professional TSA.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
The problem with our current "war" is it has no defined condition for winning. We won WWII when Germany and Japan were defeated, but our current military escapades have no potential end in sight.
How will we know when the War On Terror is over? George W. Bush said, on 9/20/2001, that it "will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated". How the hell are we going to determine that? Who can possibly predict how long that'll take?
Similar problems present themselves in Iraq. "Major combat operations" officially ended over three years ago, when that banner was unfurled on the aircraft carrier. But we're still there. We've been hearing phrases like "as the Iraqis stand up, we'll stand down" and "the next six months will be critical" for years now, with no end in sight.
We have no definition of victory. You can't compare this current erosion of rights, done in the name of perpetual war, with any erosion of rights that might've occurred during the well-defined WWII, because no one has any idea when we'll even know that it's time to expect our rights back.
Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
May the Maths Be with you!
Capisci? Your freedom of speech, or press, or whatever, exist _only_ in your relation to congress. Noone else. Not an airline, not your neighbour, not Slashdot, not your employer, etc.
Congress, and by extension, the government. Most airports are federal government property and the TSA is a government agency. Because of that, the first (and the rest) amendment applies to them.
By your interpretation, someone only has those rights when they are in the congress.
"Bloody Jews in the queue ahead of me. Giving disrespectful looks to the SS. All those delays while they're taken out of line and shot. Bits of brain all over my shoes. It's disgusting. About time that someone did something about them."
K.
Let's say you're a frequent flyer, for reasons of business. If your local TSA supervisor gropes you or someone you know at a bar or on the street, what are you going to do? What if they get in a property dispute with you? What if their child is tormenting your child at school? What if they don't like the clubs or places you want to frequent? What if you want to campaign for a political party they don't really like?
What will you do? Exercise your rights? Do something that might displease the officials? Perturb or them in some small way? You will on your fuck! You will drop everything and anything the moment you smell that this petty prick might make flying more difficult for you. Only fools and people with the right kind of friends will do otherwise.
As the TSA officials and persons like them grow in number and influence, expect such situations to arise. You think it won't happen? The people who set up the TSA, the people in the TSA, they all believe that such a state of affairs would be right and proper. They have a world view, and it does not involve tolerance for yours. If they can find a way to make life miserable for people who don't follow them, they will.
May the Maths Be with you!
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759 that seems to be relavent in this case
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You hit the nail on the head - my country is turning (in places) into a police state. OK, OK, it's not smart to exercise your free speech in certain times and places. I wouldn't call a local police officer an "idiot" on a routine traffic stop on a dark country lane, even though it would be legal to do so if you weren't threatening
That being said, this is inexcusable. My wife and I aren't going to travel to a cousin's wedding this winter because it has become an exhausting, aggravating, and sometimes demeaning struggle to fly from place to place within the US.
If we (the people of the United States) don't use our right to vote this year and in 2008 to shake up those who imposed these draconian "solutions" to terrorism, well, shame on us all.
Using plain ol' text since 1968
...to be stupid.
Everyone knows you don't make threatening, disparaging, or otherwise inflammatory remarks when you're in an airport. The security there takes things very seriously, as they must. Putting comments like that on a bag going through the security checkpoint is going to make them look at you twice or three times, possibly in a way that usually requires buying someone dinner first.
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
The US government has monitored potential threats and "alternative political parties" (witness the whole communist thing) for decades, if not centuries. Actual detainment was not what the GP was referring to. Congratulations on beating up your straw man.
picpix image polls. create - share - vote. fun!
This is not news for nerds.
Some idiot defames the TSA, right in their face, and then is surprised when they give him shit. That's not even news. It's just another indication of the stupidity of much of the human race: the idiot who wrote on the bag, the idiot who confronted him about it, the idiot who submitted this article, the idiot who approved and posted it, and all the idiots who have responded to it.
I am embarrassed for all of us.
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
* those who can't
You'd like that wouldn't you "everyone"?
threatening, disparaging, or otherwise inflammatory remarks
Threatening I'll give you. Disparaging? Go fuck yourself you knob-end. Inflammatory? That's all in the ear of the belistener and is too vague to mean anything.
If you don't like the freedoms of the USA including the Freedom of Speech I suggest you piss off to Cuba, China or Iraq.
Hey for a safer America you should be willing to do anything, right?
If you have nothing to hide, they wouldn't pick you up, would they?
The terrorists have won by allowing a regime that wants to do things the same as the countries we accuse of "not being free & democratic". The fear of this irrational thing called terrorism is pathetic. More people die from lung cancer every year in the US. More people have died (or will soon) fighting a stupid war with no real goal, direction or possible positive outcome.
This country is slowly moving down the road of fascism or some other "new" form of dictatorship. When a government keeps it's society in check by fear and hatred, only bad things come of it. How long until we get our Hitler? Stalin? Moussolini?
We are not impervious to failure. The almighty dollar seems to be the only concern in the U$A. Pathetic when a country can spend billions on war and nothing to help the poor and sick.
Jesus wouldn't have voted for Bush that is for certain. War is not the solution to the current problems in the world. Our external policies over the last 50 years or so has assisted in creating this monster. When will people wake up and realize we (the country and our representatives) are not infallible? Hopefully not before it's too late.
I'll conceed your point that violent acts change us, however I take issue with how you make that point. You say Muslims did these acts, not radical Muslims. This implys that all Muslims are responsible and condone these terrible acts. Here you are dead wrong, radical Muslims are a very small percentage of the Muslim population thankfully. We would stand no chance agains 1.3 Billion (1) determined attackers.
So yes acts of terror change us, but only as much as we let them change us. In 2005 14,493 people died in terrorist attacks (2) while 43,443 died in traffic accidents (3). So why are we so worried about terrorism when we are more likely to be killed by a jack-hole talking on a cellphone? We are letting a relativly minor problem get blowen way out of proportion.
I don't think most people here are denying that terrorism is a Bad Thing (TM) but that they take issue with how it is being used as an excuse to take away our cival liberties. Sure it probably wasn't the smartest thing to do but a goverment official saying your right to free speach end is scary and wrong. Its not like he was claming that carying a knife or some banned object was protected by free speach. He made a harmless critasism and was punished for it, that shouldn't happen.
1: Major Religious Groups
(edit: Ah thank goodness for reasonable mods. In the time it took me to write this the parent went from 4 Insightfull to 0 Troll, Thank you.) -- I deliberately put misspellings and grammatical errors in my posts so I know who the dumb people are who respond to criticize my spelling, etc.2: Page 4, Table I
3: DOT Traffic Statistics
Bah I'm sick of this shit. When did we become such a nation of pussies? I'm sure that any of my granparents would have snapped a potential terrorist's neck with their bare hands after 9/11. Heck either grandfather may have done it well before 9/11 (They always get evasive when they start talking about the war and you ask them if they ever killed a guy with their bare hands...) And John Wayne would have kicked the shit out of Tom Cruise all right.
Generations fought to keep the principles this country was founded on going. They fought against the idea of secret prisons and star courts and the government being able to make people disappear in the middle of the night. And we throw that all away because we're so preoccupied with the shit that we have and we're afraid that we might get killed by a terrorist?! Never mind that we lose as many people on a monthly basis as we did on 9/11 due to traffic accidents. We lose 10 times that number to tobacco related deaths. You're more likely to die from a paper cut than in a terrorist attack. It's a pretty thin excuse to let the Republicans destroy the foundations of our country. And the Democrats are no better. They may eventually lose on any given piece of legislation but they don't need to roll over and take it up the ass like the Republicans' inflatable love doll every time the Republicans try to ram one through.
I say we send them a clear message by voting all those retarded pig fuckers out of office in every single election until we get some leadership that's more interested in our well being than in sucking at the teat of the lobbyests and corporate sponsors in Washington. Register to vote, get out there and vote against the incumbant. If there's a third party running, vote for them. Don't whine at me about electronic voting machines being easily subverted either -- if you suspect that then find out how and subvert them! Vote Gary Coleman governor of California! And if you don't vote, don't complain. You didn't do so much as the least you could do to try to prevent this mess in the first place.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
How convenient. Extremists don't seem to follow their respective books very much.
Until the DoJ tries to claim that your freedom of speech is a danger to national security.
Then your lawsuit (usually) disappears.
:(){
>Whenever I see these threads about the US going to hell in a handbag I always ask, and how is this different? Sure there are somethings to be concerned about (e.g. domestic wiretapping.) But when people go on about how america isn't what it used to be, they loose at least some credibility in my eyes.
I was originally going to write about how different it is now, but you're right that for certain segments of the US population, this is just the same thing that has been going on throughout history. The biggest real difference in what is happening is that in the "good old days" the abuses were publicly condemned, as long as they were against white people. Now that the federal government is treating all of us like blacks under Jim Crow, it's interesting to see how much anger has been roused in just 5 years.
What do you think is the appropriate response? Martin Luther King? or the Black Panthers?
We are the 198 proof..
Taxes also subsidize automobile travel - you don't pay at the pump for oil wars to keep gas cheap. Roads are paid for partly by property taxes. And we just externalize the costs of environmental devastation.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
How convenient. Extremists don't seem to follow their respective books very much.
i would think that their copies of the books seem to be missing some pages.
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
Threats to nuke Iran if they continue their nuclear programme seem very hypocritical.
I don't blame Iran for pursuing nukes if the information on the matter isn't lie.
A nuclear arsenal is the ticket to respect and an insurance policy against invasion ala Iraq. Look at North Korea; a wild-eyed dictator brags that he can hit Palo Alto with a nuclear missle. His country doesn't get invaded, he gets nuclear talks and diplomacy. Pakistan is a dictatorship set up after a military coup and said to be a hiding place for OBL. Since they have the bomb and play ball with the US, they're allies and can sit at the big kids table with the rest of the nuclear-armed nations.
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
This is the Military Dictatorship Act (Bush overtly claims his authority comes as Commander in Chief). There's no two ways about it
There are millions of Americans out there who are distressed at what's going on, but think we're still ok, because no one has come to take them away for speaking their mind. They overlook the fact that dictatorship is not defined by whether or not they have come to take you away, but whether or not they have the legal authority to come take you away.
Once they have the legal authority when they finally come to take you away you will have no defense; and it is your ability to defend yourself under law that defines a free society.
But don't worry, they aren't likely to slap chains on you, what they do is slap chains on a few select people to make you afraid and get you to slap chains on yourself, like a "good little boy."
And your children will accept without question that you have no rights of speech, because they do not even understand the concept. Be afraid of . . . your children.
Yes, I'm being "alarmist." That's the frickin' point.
KFG
I fully agree! I have been anxiously watching this situation develop ever since the 2000 election when the US Supreme Court illegally stepped on states rights by overruling the Florida State Supreme Court decision to continue the recount, therefore depriving the Dems of the election they would have otherwise won, and installing GW Bush and his regime. It doesn't take a lot of study to see how the Rep. Regime has, from that moment, undertaken to systematicly, step by step, degrade, and then cancel entirely, every advance in human rights, civil liberties, environmental protections and the seperation of church and state that had been, laboriously, fought for and gained over the last half century. We are now in a position closely resembling a police state, where dissention and civil demonstration are met with brutality, police action, jail terms, and now even, apparently, with torture. No longer do we have any right to privacy, not even in our own homes, what with the 'Patriot' act allowing wire taps, web spying and total access to all records, medical or otherwise pertaining to anyone THEY CHOOSE, ARBITRARILY, to claim to be suspicious. You can't walk out of your home, today in the USA, without being under, at least, video surveilance from the moment you leave to the moment you return. They can even, if they choose, use IR technology to watch your every move WITHIN THE WALLS OF YOUR OWN HOME (unless you happen to live in a cave or deep underground). It's just not the USA that I grew up in and learned to love. I used to firmly believe that there was nowhere else on earth that could compare to the USA for personal, civic and human freedoms, and open happy life style. Well, that may still be somewhat true compared to most other places, but at the rate the USA and the Constitution and our freedoms are being degraded and set aside, and the corporate/government (should I whisper "fascist") machine is growing and gobbling them up, not to mention becoming fully entrenched, that 'prefered' status can't last much longer. Well, I've probably vented enough to put myself on any number of "lists", and I 'gotta live here', so I'd better stop there, but, that's the way the land lays, folks, and all I can do is to hope that a lot of other folks will wake up in time to do something about it.
"The incident raises a number of interesting questions and concerns regarding just where our rights end."
There is no interesting question about where our rights end. Our rights themselves continue to be what they were. The interesting question is where our rights begin to be oppressed.
If you fail to grasp this important distinction, you are granting others power over your inalienable rights.
With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter. -- William Lloyd
That happened about six years ago.
With his executive decrees, disregard for the law and the constitution, secret prisons, use of torture, and his blatant lying to the American public, I think it's fair to say Herr Bush fits the definition of dictator.
Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a soportar Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a espabilar
Reading through this thread leaves me with the impression that there are a lot of stupid people out there.
First; NOT ALL AIRPORTS are owned by the federal government.
Second; Not all of the security check points are manned by federal government employees.
Third; The biggest problem with Bush is that he is guided by religion in his management of the war against terrorism. Unfortunately wars are won by slaughtering people wholesale, not by trying to persuade them to moderate their beliefs. If people are really concerned about their rights in this country then they should be demanding the systematic de-population of the Arab world.
Fourth; Torture has been proven to be highly effective through out history. In this case it really shouldn't be a problem anyway as the people we have captured, from the middle east, should all be put to death anyways. Might as well get what useful information out of them that you can.
It is nice that everyone is concerned about their rights or at least the rights they have a personal interest in, but people have to realize that there is a culture out there that is entirely useless to humanity. So if you are concerned about your rights, and I'd have to say it is at least a reasonable concern you really have to press the federal government to take brutal action against the forces operating against us in the Arab world. Clearly we should be demanding the nuking of most of the middle east to completely render that culture as a figment of history.
It really has nothing to do with religion, it simply the fact that the Arab world has become such a negative impact on the development of humanity. Burnt out most of the cities over there and educate the people that remain to some sort of contemporary standard of intelligence and we might get some where. To do otherwise is to give up and relive the past couple of hundred years.
Dave
"his blatant lying to the American public"
It is not a lie if you believe it to be true. King George believes in an alternate universe from ours where invading a country without reasonable justification isn't a war crime (even though some Axis leaders were hung at Nuremburg and Japan for the exact same crime) and spending $500 billion on the DOD after the Cold War is over isn't pissing away the taxpayer's money, corporate welfare, or encouraging arms races. Hope your kids and their kids are ready to foot the bill for our national debt.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
Good of you to bring that up. There's a big difference between saying everyone who isn't on your side is your enemy, and saying everyone who is not your enemy is your friend.
I don't know about you, but my servers run on the power of cotton candy and happy thoughts. -Anonymous Coward
Leave.
Since you're the one who so vehemently despises this country and the values we stand for, why don't *you* leave and move to Saudi Arabia or some other country where they already have the system you want to live under rather than working to fuck up our country?
No, that would take integrity which is like Kryptonite to you amoral fascist Republican cowards.
Go to http://www.senate.gov./
Use the "Find your Senator" box at the upper right. Sorry, Javascript required. If you already know who your Senators are you can skip this step.
Dial the phone numbers given.
Politely (the staff member is not to blame) and concisely (s/he is busy) explain your values about trials and torture.
There was an amendment to the bill from the Democrats that would have resotred to the House version of the bill the removed protections. It's the amendment that was killed. :-(
Basically, some of the Senate said "Woah, that house version goes too far!" and they tried to tone it down. But once it got out of committee, the Senate as a whole smashed it and has gone on to procedure regarding the full-strength House version of the bill.
You can read both at senate.gov (see the right-hand column).
As I quoted to another poster, this is the most important bit:
"SEC. 6. HABEAS CORPUS MATTERS.
(a) In General- Section 2241 of title 28, United States Code, is amended--
(1) by striking subsection (e) (as added by section 1005(e)(1) of Public Law 109-148 (119 Stat. 2742)) and by striking subsection (e) (as added by added by section 1405(e)(1) of Public Law 109-163 (119 Stat. 3477)); and
(2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
`(e)(1) No court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained by the United States who--
`(A) is currently in United States custody; and
`(B) has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination.
`(2) Except as provided in paragraphs (2) and (3) of section 1005(e) of the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 (10 U.S.C. 801 note), no court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider any other action against the United States or its agents relating to any aspect of the detention, transfer, treatment, trial, or conditions of confinement of an alien detained by the United States who--
`(A) is currently in United States custody; and
`(B) has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination.'.
(b) Effective Date- The amendments made by subsection (a) shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this Act, and shall apply to all cases, without exception, pending on or after the date of the enactment of this Act which relate to any aspect of the detention, transfer, treatment, trial, or conditions of detention of an alien detained by the United States since September 11, 2001."
You'll notice that the bill claims to apply to aliens. But once you're picked up as an alien, no court has jurisdiction to review your status. So if they come by your house to pick you as a citizen up, there is no way for you to say "No way, dude, I'm a citizen!" because the moment you're picked up, the courts lose jurisdiction.
If they decide you're an alien, not a citizen, that's it under the law. And who is they? At the top of the bill it spells out clearly: the Secretary of Defense or anyone he designates. So, basically: party members.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW