Oh, THE HORROR:
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who runs the giant agency that keeps track of threats to the United States, has shared what he calls his “chilling vision” of the future – a time when U.S. government actions might be constrained by international law.
Chertoff outlined his nightmare scenario in a Nov. 17 speech to the Federalist Society, an organization of right-wing lawyers who spearheaded the legal arguments for granting President George W. Bush authority unbound by any law, including the constitutional rights of Americans.
But the focus of Chertoff’s warning was that the United States is under growing pressure from legal scholars and the world community to comply with international law, especially on war crimes and humane treatment of detainees in the “war on terror.”
“The fact is, whether we like it or not, international law is increasingly entering our domestic domain,” Chertoff said.
The culprits, according to Chertoff, include a narrow majority of the justices on the U.S. Supreme Court.
“The Supreme Court has begun to bring it through cases like Hamdan,” a reference to Hamdan v. Rumsfeld in which the high court cited the Geneva Conventions in ruling that hundreds of suspects being held without charges at Guantanamo Bay had legal rights.
Chertoff objected to the Supreme Court’s reference to the Geneva Conventions despite the fact that the U.S. Constitution states that treaties entered into by the U.S. government are the “supreme law of the land” and all four Geneva Conventions were long ago signed by the U.S. Executive and ratified by the U.S. Senate.
Chertoff also protested the mounting worldwide legal criticism of the U.S. government.
“International law is being used as a rhetorical weapon against us,” Chertoff said. “We are constantly portrayed as being on the losing end, and the negative end of international law developments.”
How DARE those damned foreigners use pesky wounding WORDS against the right-by-definition American government?!?!
Can’t everybody see how terrible this is? State sanctioned ghouls, vampires, werewolves, psycho killers have to go about their business, and how are they supposed to do that if the happy meals on legs start fighting back with fancy words and guys in robes?
What Chertoff’s speech highlighted is the growing transatlantic divide between two visions of the world. The Bush administration’s view is that national sovereignty – often defined by the dictates of the so-called “unitary executive” – is held as inviolable. Meanwhile, the EU views national sovereignty as secondary to principles of environmental protection, human rights and individual dignity.
Under the European concept, authority is shared and fragmented in a way that both protects the rights of the individual and ensures that no member state of the EU could develop the sort of arbitrary power needed to institute an authoritarian government.
In the Bush administration’s view, international law in no way constrains actions of the U.S. President. Bush, who calls himself The Decider, can personally decide whose phone will be tapped, whose medical records are gathered, who will be detained without charges and who will subjected to “alternative” interrogation methods, such as waterboarding.
Bush’s own opinion about international law is one of contempt. When asked once if the occupation of Iraq violated U.N. or other legal principles, Bush joked, “International law? I better call my lawyer.”
After all, where is the Waterboarder In Chief supposed to get his snuff films if someone stands up to him? High Def updates on torture, death, destruction and despair are SO much better than blowing up frogs.
