So now I am a convict. I was arrested, handcuffed, searched, shackled, interrogated, charged, imprisoned, arraigned, prosecuted, and tried. The trial process took 5 days, and the jury deliberated for 12 hours before finding me guilty. The judge sentenced me to 5 days incarceration, suspended, 6 months probation, $200 assessment (to be paid to the Victims of Violent Crime Fund), and 100 hours of community service. What did I do…? I stood in the gallery of the House of Representatives and shouted opposition to the Military Commissions Act for 29 seconds.

The Military Commissions Act (MCA) has been denounced by the American Bar Association, the American College of Trial Lawyers, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Center for Constitutional Rights among many others. It ignores international law and is a breach of the U.S. Constitution. It suspends the writ of habeas corpus for foreign prisoners, and legalizes torture. Furthermore, our Supreme Court has already ruled that the Bush administration acted outside the law with regard to prisoner detention in Cuba. The MCA retroactively exonerates their illegal actions. Simply put, it is an egregious affront to our judicial system. It was signed into law by President Bush on October 17, 2006.

The evening after I had been sentenced, I attended a live videoconference with ex-Guantanamo detainee, Moazzam Begg and his lawyer, Gitanjali Gutierrez of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Moazzam is a British citizen who was working to construct a girls school in Afghanistan when he was taken into custody by U.S. military forces. He was tortured and held as a prisoner in Cuba and at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan for over 4 years; much of that time in solitary confinement. He was never charged with a crime, nor shown any evidence against him. Due in great part to his British citizenship, he was finally released and repatriated, but for well over 400 prisoners still being held in Guantanamo, the nightmare continues. These men do not speak English, have had no contact with their families or access to news or any reading material other than the Koran. By our government’s own admission, a significant percentage of those detained at Guantanamo have no connection to terrorism. We have been holding for several years, and intend to hold indefinitely without trial or any recourse to justice, a substantial number of innocent people who were picked up wrongly. Furthermore, the MCA says that we can torture them and use any information gained through torture against them, should we ever decide to prosecute.

It is the height of irony that simply by standing up and raising my voice, I committed a crime that was punished to the full extent of the law, and while I was committing that crime, Congress was dismantling the cornerstone of our entire judicial system by negating the fundamental protection against arbitrary arrest and imprisonment.

By going through this entire legal process, I was able to gain an understanding of our judicial system, which I never would have had otherwise. Although I believe mine was definitely a case of misplaced justice, I did receive all the protections of the law. I knew the reason I was arrested, and when I would be released. I was allowed to testify in my own defense, and be represented by an attorney. I was shown the evidence presented against me, and my case was heard by a jury of 12 people. What I went through helped me gain a tiny bit of insight into the imperative value of habeas corpus protection. I cannot, nor can anyone, truly imagine, what it is like to be imprisoned indefinitely, subjected to torture, held in solitary confinement, and unable to communicate with anyone. If these men are ever released, they will have emotional scars that will never heal. Many of them will have gone insane, and others will take their own lives. The damage that has been done in our country’s name is permanent and irreconcilable.

What Congress and the President have done is completely illegal and unconstitutional. I believe we have caused irreparable harm to our credibility as a moral authority, and we have now set the standard by which we can expect U.S. citizens to be treated by other governments. Many experts are confident that ultimately, the Supreme Court will find this law unconstitutional. But we should not wait for that long process to run its course. This despicable law must be revoked immediately.

Contact the Center for Constitutional Rights to learn more and to support them in their effort to overturn this abomination.
http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/gac/