Torture on American Soil

Thirteenth in a series

The other day, I pointed out that the tortures inflicted upon detainees at Gitmo were performed on American soil. The Supreme Court agrees with that interpretation and said so, in Rasul v. Bush, 542 U.S. 466 (2004).

The Administration seems to think that is hunky dory and makes a big distinction about the detainees not being given civil rights because they are not American citizens.

Respondents’ [ed note: President Bush is Respondent] primary submission is that the answer to the jurisdictional question is controlled by our decision in Eisentrager. In that case, we held that a Federal District Court lacked authority to issue a writ of habeas corpus to 21 German citizens who had been captured by U.S. forces in China, tried and convicted of war crimes by an American military commission headquartered in Nanking, and incarcerated in the Landsberg Prison in occupied Germany.

Rasul v. Bush, ibid. SCOTUS completely rejected that argument in Rasul.

This got me thinking about what else might be inflcited upon non American citizens on American soil.

A while back, Pach wrote a series [here and here] on internment camps that Michael Chertoff had built by the Department of Homeland Security with the capacity to hold large numbers of illegal immigrants. He also wrote about massive roundups of workers at a meatpacking plant.

Yep, the same Michael Chertoff who promised John Yoo that DOJ would not prosecute government torturers back when Mike was Chief of the Criminal Division at DOJ.

On page 11 of the Yoo 2003 Opinion [long pdf] he tells us that he checked with Skelator and that

"[t]he Criminal Division concurs in our conclusion that these canons of construction preclude the application of the assault, maiming, interstate stalking, and torture statutes to the military during the conduct of a war."

So, if it is OK to torture detainees at Gitmo who we merely suspected of violating or wishing to violate one or more US laws because they are not US citizens; does it not follow that ICE can torture illegal immigants (whose very presence in this country is prima facia evidence that the person has broken at the very least one immigration law) and it is also OK since that person is also not an American citizen?

Am I missing something here?

Where does it stop?

[Editor's note: This photo by takomabibelot features a banner created and designed by Firedoglake reader BonnieT of Austin, Texas, where she operates OpposeTorture.org.]

Related posts:

1. The Next Terrorist Attack on US Soil, Courtesy of Dick Cheney’s Dark Side
2. With His Children Still Missing, KSM’s Torture Continues
3. Rich Lowry Suddenly in Favor of Criticizing American Presidents on Foreign Soil
4. Gitmo Lawyer Says Detainee Treatment Mirrored Own Torture Training; Harsh Treatment Tears “Fabric of Who We Are”
5. Yoo’s Nightmare: A Trial Showing Torture was Unnecessary