Constitutional Crisis Part 1

From Dan Froomkin comes this bit of actual news.

Dan Eggen writes in The Washington Post: "Critics of U.S. detention policies warned yesterday that a brief legal document filed by the Justice Department this week raises the possibility that any of the millions of immigrants living in the United States could be subject to indefinite detention if they are accused of ties to terrorist groups.

"In a six-page motion filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond, Justice Department lawyers argue that an anti-terrorism law approved by Congress last month allows the government to detain any foreign national declared to be an enemy combatant, even if he is arrested and imprisoned inside the United States."

Eggen wrote in Tuesday's Washington Post: "After years of denials, the CIA has formally acknowledged the existence of two classified documents governing aggressive interrogation and detention policies for terrorism suspects, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

"But CIA lawyers say the documents -- memos from President Bush and the Justice Department -- are still so sensitive that no portion can be released to the public. . . .

"The ACLU describes the first as a 'directive' signed by Bush governing CIA interrogation methods or allowing the agency to set up detention facilities outside the United States. . . .

"The second document is an August 2002 legal memo from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel to the CIA general counsel. The ACLU describes it as 'specifying interrogation methods that the CIA may use against top al-Qaeda members.'"

In the upcoming days of Democratic investigations into Bush's crimes, this information will be fought over. The neo-cons will scream "national security" as America moves closer to a Constitutional crisis, not unlike the Nixon days.

Information about secret prisons where people are renditioned and then tortured under Bush's ordered new "interrogation techniques" will be denied by Abu Gonzales and the rest of Bush's crime syndicate because they are oh "so sensitive". How would release of this information endanger national security? It wouldn't, but that is the fight the neo-cons are asking for and I'm afraid it's the fight that America is going to be forced into having.

And did you notice it's not just terrorists anymore, it's immigrants now. I wonder how long before Halliburton starts working on those internment camps that make Michelle Malkin all tingly inside. Gotta' put all those immigrants somewhere.