Christopher Manion explains very clearly what has happened to our civil liberties, they now belong to history. He carefully explains the US Court of Appeals (4th circuit) ruling in the El-Masri case, and what it all means.
"Thus, if you are kidnapped, raped, tortured, or even killed by persons "whose identities must remain confidential in the interest of national security," you and your heirs have no recourse under the laws of the Land of the Free.
"But wait," I hear you saying (or, perhaps, screaming), "the judge is able to decide for himself whether the "state secrets" claim is bogus, right?"
Wrong. The Executive Branch, all on its own, has the right to assert that the secrets are so sensitive that even the Federal Judge himself cannot see them."
...
"As always in things governmental, there is a certain irony here. In the Declaration of Independence, our Founding Fathers condemned the insane and tyrannical King George III for the outrages committed by his foreign mercenaries, including, "For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states."
At least the Colonists were given a "mock trial" that exonerated the Hessian criminals. In modern cases involving "national security,"the criminals need not worry about being subjected to any trial at all."
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