Nexus - 1601 - New Times Magazine-pages

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template for future immigration reform, human rights _ eliminates checks and balances from the legislative and advocates warn that the system seriously victimises judicial branches. The only restriction on government immigrant workers. Workers, labour organisers, lawyers and eavesdropping on Americans is an executive order that policy makers say that the program, designed to open up the _ limits surveillance to those whom the Attorney-General legal labour market and provide a piece of the American _ determines to be agents of a foreign power. dream to immigrants, has instead locked thousands into a However, in light of the first declassified OLC modern-day form of indentured servitude. proclamation that the President can secretly change his Labour recruiters usually charge fees—sometimes many _ signing statements at will, US citizens are left exposed to the thousands of dollars—to the worker to cover travel, visas whims of a secret, unchecked, executive agenda. and other costs, including profit for the recruiters. The workers, most of whom live in poverty, frequently obtain 9. Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Testify high-interest loans to come up with the money to pay the Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans are coming forward to fees. Recruiters sometimes require them to leave collateral, recount the brutal impact of the ongoing occupations. such as the deed to their house or car, to ensure they fulfil © Investigations by The Nation (July 2007) as well as the the terms of their individual labour contract. Winter Soldier hearings held in Silver Spring, Maryland, in The entirely unregulated recruiting business is lucrative. | March 2008—organised by Iraq Veterans Against the War With more than 121,000 workers recruited in 2005 alone, and which brought together over 300 veterans—have made tens of millions of dollars in recruiting fees are at stake. This _ the veterans' experiences public. financial bonanza provides a Soldiers' harrowing testimony of powerful incentive for recruiters atrocities they witnessed or and agencies to import as many The senator warned of the directly participated in indicate a no regard Tor the impact on | _ danger of the poorly written riicry cat has created ‘an workers and their families. Protect America Act legislation, environment 0 jfawlessness. . . ome international law experts say 8. Executive Orders Can Be which provides no statutory the soldiers' statements show the Changed Secretly ge On December 7, 2007, Senator restrictions on government Sheldon Whitehouse, as a| wiretapping of Americans and member of the Senate Intelligence oo. Committee, disclosed on the floor | €liminates checks and balances... of the US Senate that he had Though the BBC predicted that declassified three legal documents the Winter Soldier event would of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) within the Department dominate headlines around the world that week, there was a need for investigations into potential violations of international law by high-ranking officials in the Bush administration and the Pentagon. of Justice that state: near total blackout on this historic event by the US corporate 1. An executive order cannot limit a President. There is media. no constitutional requirement for a President to issue a new Dozens of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan executive order whenever he wishes to depart from the terms — occupations publicly testified at the four-day Winter Soldier of a previous executive order. Rather than violate an gathering about crimes they committed during the course of executive order, the President has instead modified or _ battle, many of which were prompted by the orders of or waived it. policies laid down by superior officers. Such crimes include 2. The President, exercising his constitutional authority targeting innocent, unarmed civilians for murder and under Article II, can determine whether an action is alawful detention, destroying property, desecrating corpses, severely exercise of the President's authority under Article II. abusing detainees (often torturing them to death) and using 3. The Department of Justice is bound by the President's corpses for medical practice. legal determinations. Winter Soldier 2008 was organised to demonstrate that Senator Whitehouse discovered the OLC's classified legal _ well-publicised incidents of US brutality, including the Abu opinions while researching the Protect America Act Ghraib prison scandal and the massacre of an entire family legislation, passed in August 2007, which he warns will __ of Iraqis in the town of Haditha, were not isolated incidents allow the administration to bypass Congress and the courts _ perpetrated by "a few bad apples", as many politicians and in order to facilitate unchecked spying on Americans. He military leaders have claimed. They are part of a pattern, the noted that for years under the Bush administration, the OLC _ organisers said, of "an increasingly bloody occupation". has been issuing highly classified, secret legal opinions The veterans also stressed the similarities between the related to surveillance. occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan: "...units that are The senator warned of the danger of the poorly written getting the exact same training and the exact same orders are Protect America Act legislation, which provides no statutory _ being sent to both Iraq and Afghanistan," explained a former restrictions on government wiretapping of Americans and —_ US Army medic. eliminates checks and balances from the legislative and judicial branches. The only restriction on government eavesdropping on Americans is an executive order that limits surveillance to those whom the Attorney-General determines to be agents of a foreign power. However, in light of the first declassified OLC proclamation that the President can secretly change his signing statements at will, US citizens are left exposed to the whims of a secret, unchecked, executive agenda. danger of the poorly written Protect America Act legislation, which provides no statutory restrictions on government 14 ¢ NEXUS The senator warned of the www.nexusmagazine.com DECEMBER 2008 — JANUARY 2009