JAMEEL JAFFER

In addition to creating many protests from the public, the Bush administration was reprimanded by the Supreme Court which stated that the detention of an American Citizen as an enemy combatant. The administration must charge and try such an American for treason, assault, conspiracy or whatever crimes the facts substantiate. The administration could not just hold a citizen without due judicial processes. They certainly could not detain a citizen and then secretly or openly execute him/her without a trial, conviction, and sentence with all appeals exhausted.

The executive order gave the power to the Secretary of the Treasury to block and freeze assets of anyone or any organization that was assisting the insurgents and abetting the internecine violence in Iraq. Typical of many George W. Bush efforts, the idea was a good one and indeed necessary, but the way it was implemented was very poor. Bush was always trying to seize more power for the Executive Branch and wanted as little judicial review as possible. Under the Executive Order if any organization were accused of assisting the insurgents and a lawyer defended them from having their assets blocked, then the lawyer could also have his assets blocked as he was “assisting” the offending organization. The purpose was to prevent undemocratic elements from thwarting democracy in Iraq, but the method implemented was itself quite undemocratic—a contradiction that Bush found himself in very often. Allowing for judicial approval before seizure would have helped a great deal.

The executive order gave the power to the Secretary of the Treasury to block and freeze assets of anyone or any organization that was assisting the insurgents and abetting the internecine violence in Iraq. Typical of many George W. Bush efforts, the idea was a good one and indeed necessary, but the way it was implemented was very poor. Bush was always trying to seize more power for the Executive Branch and wanted as little judicial review as possible. Under the Executive Order if any organization were accused of assisting the insurgents and a lawyer defended them from having their assets blocked, then the lawyer could also have his assets blocked as he was “assisting” the offending organization. The purpose was to prevent undemocratic elements from thwarting democracy in Iraq, but the method implemented was itself quite undemocratic—a contradiction that Bush found himself in very often. Allowing for judicial approval before seizure would have helped a great deal.

In addition to creating many protests from the public, the Bush administration was reprimanded by the Supreme Court which stated that the detention of an American Citizen as an enemy combatant. The administration must charge and try such an American for treason, assault, conspiracy or whatever crimes the facts substantiate. The administration could not just hold a citizen without due judicial processes. They certainly could not detain a citizen and then secretly or openly execute him/her without a trial, conviction, and sentence with all appeals exhausted.