Replies to post #202137 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[F6]

dropdeadfred -- that was stupid, all right -- did you post that because you actually agree with it, or just to get a reaction?

[F6]

Shorter Lindsey Graham: Constitution? What Constitution?

The South Carolina senator wants Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, an American citizen, to be held as an enemy combatant.

David A. Graham
Apr 19 2013, 4:53 PM ET

Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, sent these two fascinating tweets [

If captured, I hope Administration will at least consider holding the Boston suspect as enemy combatant for intelligence gathering purposes.

— Lindsey Graham (@GrahamBlog) April 19, 2013

,

The last thing we may want to do is read Boston suspect Miranda Rights telling him to "remain silent."

— Lindsey Graham (@GrahamBlog) April 19, 2013

] this afternoon:

Lindsey Graham
@GrahamBlog
If captured, I hope Administration will at least consider holding the Boston suspect as enemy combatant for intelligence gathering purposes.
3:33 PM - 19 Apr 2013

Lindsey Graham
@GrahamBlog
The last thing we may want to do is read Boston suspect Miranda Rights telling him to "remain silent."
3:40 PM - 19 Apr 2013

This is pretty breathtaking. Graham (no relation) is suggesting that an American citizen, captured on American soil, should be deprived of basic constitutional rights.

Keep in mind that Graham isn't just an angry citizen; he's not even just a U.S. senator. He is also a trained lawyer, a colonel in Air Force Reserve, and a member of the Judge Advocate General's Corps, the legal arm of the Air Force.

In fairness, the senator is consistent. "It has been the law of the United States for decades that an American citizen on our soil who collaborates with the enemy has committed an act of war and will be held under the law of war, not domestic criminal law," he said in 2011 [ http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/12/ceding-liberty-to-terror-senate-votes-against-due-process-rights/249388/ ]. But that was in the context of Americans collaborating with al-Qaeda, a link that hasn't been drawn here. Graham also lamented [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2013/04/19/sen-lindsey-graham-boston-bombing-is-exhibit-a-of-why-the-homeland-is-the-battlefield/ ] to the Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin that there wasn't a drone tracking the suspect.

Copyright © 2013 by The Atlantic Monthly Group

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/04/shorter-lindsey-graham-constitution-what-constitution/275157/ [with comments]