Civil Liberties, Habeas Corpus, and the War on Terror Essay

During the next few years the Bill of Rights began to be accepted by the

September 11, 2001 was not just any ordinary day for the citizens of the United States and the city of New York, but a devastating attack that has put us all in shock and fear. As all of you know, the Tuesday that this country was ambushed and attacked destructively by terrorists, was one of the saddest days America has ever seen. Not only did it affect the people that were in the World Trade Center Towers and the loved ones who unfortunately passed away, but it affected our country as a whole. Scared, devastated, astonished, and surprised are just a few words that begin to describe September 11th. As separate states and people, I can confidently say that America has never been closer together as one than on that

On September 11, 2001, I was seated in my third grade class at the age of eight years old. Every morning we had a “news” station that would automatically come on at 8:30 a.m. called Channel One News, tailored for children. However, after this five minute long news segment ended we started class. I remember commotion in the halls, and my teacher went out to see what was going on. She came back in, and immediately turned on the television that had just recently automatically shut off. There is was, a burning building, at the time I had no clue what was going

1. The general meaning of the right of habeas corpus in the U.S. Constitution and its relationship to the protection of other civil liberties.

Hamdi et al. v. Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, et al. could prove the undoing of the Bush administration’s legal defense of the abuses at Guantanamo Bay. In this case, four British citizens are suing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as well as a host of Army and Air Force Generals and policy apparatchiks for allegedly authorizing the use of torture in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. The four were captured in Afghanistan, either by Americans or America’s ally, the Northern Alliance, and transported to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba where they were held for over two years. Their status there was not as enemy combatant, which guaranteed them certain protections under the Geneva Convention, but rather as

Just as our parents and grandparents remember where they were and what they were doing when President John F. Kennedy was shot, so will it be with this generation when asked the same questions pertaining to September 11, 2001. This horrific event will be a scar on the body of our wonderful nation until the end of time. Parents lost children, children lost parents, spouses lost their heartmates – so much anguish and emotional devastation demands that something be done to prevent tragedy like this from occurring in the future. This is why President George W. Bush created the Office of Homeland Security.

POL 201 Week 5 Final Paper Civil Liberties, Habeas Corpus, and the War on Terror

To understand Habeas Corpus and how it has played its part in the war on terror, a look at what it is and how it started should be looked at. Habeas Corpus, (“you should have the body”), is an old legal procedure that protects against unlawful and indefinite imprisonment. It is issued by a judge and does not determine whether the individual is guilty or innocent, but whether they are illegally imprisoned. If the charges are considered valid, the individual will go to trial, if not, the person goes free.

When 9/11/2001 occurred I was sitting in the lunch room at Good Year Elementary School in Brunswick Georgia eating lunch. My classmates and I was talking normally like we always did until one of the lunch monitors told us to be quiet. I didn’t know exactly what was going on at the time. I just knew something serious had just happened. One of my teachers told the class that a plane had hit the Twin Towers. The teachers then turn on the television as all of us watch not exactly understanding what had happen or what the cause of it was. I remember some of the teacher crying while others got on their cells phones trying to contract their families in New York City, but the lines was so busy. That whole day I remember just sitting in class watching

There are many questions people ask and that is whether the Military Commissions Act’s habeas

On September 15, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln temporarily suspended Habeas Corpus, which is the right to due process. Anyone who was a confederate sympathiser or spoke out against the war were arrested, put in jail and weren 't given a trial until after the war was over. Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus because he wanted to suppress dissenters to strengthen the War effort. More than 13,000 civilians in the Union were arrested under martial law throughout the War. Lincoln viewed his action as justified since he believed the country was in a time of crisis.

Do you ever have one of those moments in your life in which you will never forget where you were? I remember waking up early on September 11, 2001, getting ready for school and my dad telling me hurry up to watch the news with him. Being in 8th grade at the time, the news really wasn’t something I would watch in the mornings so I knew it had to be something important. Then I saw it. An airplane crashing into a tower, people panicking, and mayhem ensuing in a city very well known to me. When any tragic event like 9/11 occurs, the effect it will have on a nation is tremendous. It left America in shock, anger, and sadness just to name a few adjectives to describe the insurmountable amount of feelings that we felt on that day.

When President Bush declared the War on Terror after the incident of September 11, 2001, he was declaring a new kind of war on a different kind of enemy. The al-Qaeda terrorist group who were responsible for the destruction of World Trade Center is organized differently than any enemy that the U.S. has faced before. Since the terrorists were determined to target large numbers of American civilians, the Bush administration issued a memorandum which declared the Geneva Conventions cannot apply to unconventional combatants such as al-Qaeda, it states “ I accept the legal conclusion of the Department of Justice and determine that none of the provisions of Geneva apply to our conflict with al Qaeda in Afghanistan or elsewhere through the world because; among other reasons al Qaeda is not a High Contracting Party to Geneva. (Bush 2002)”

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba is originally a naval base that was once used to house detention facilities for Haitian and Cuban refugees fleeing to the United States. It was also used as a refueling station for Navy ships. It was then converted into a high level detention facility to house enemy troops captured in the War on Terror campaign by Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfield. It has three main camps that house the prisoners. These prisoners of war were later referred to as enemy combatants. They were excluded from the prisoner of war statutes of the Geneva Convention because of their involvement in a foreign terrorist organization and therefore earning themselves the title of terrorists. The Guantanamo Bay Detention Center served as the perfect location to send these terrorists. It allowed the United States to strip them of any due process or protection that is provided by US law. Due to its location, being in foreign territory they are only subjected to military law. They are close enough for them to be monitored without interference of intentional agencies or international oversight. Furthermore, the US Government is holding these men without due process because they are deemed too dangerous to be released into the public because of their associations with terrorist organizations and possession of valuable information relating to National Security such as location of key members of a terrorist groups, whereabouts. However, the United States cannot release those

To start off, our country has come so far since September 11th, but right after caused a state of confusion with the entire nation. While it has only been 12 years since it has happened, it had caused my husband’s family to move away from their home in Oak Lawn. During that whole week after there was a bunch