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Letters to the Portland editor: March 2, 2007

In September 2006 Congress passed the Military Commissions Act. This law is a horrific, un-American, un-Constitutional, and immoral piece of legislation.

Senator Susan Collins voted for this law. It is my understanding that Senator Olympia Snowe was in Maine for a funeral during the vote for this legislation. However, Snowe wrote that she strongly supported the bill. How could Collins, who worked to find answers regarding the crisis of Katrina, vote for this legislation, which I believe has created another crisis? And how could Snowe, who I believe wrote about the soul of the Iraq nation, support what Senator John Warner (R-Virginia) introduced ? I believe that the Military Commissions Act allows for torture, and I believe that torture is tearing at the very soul of this nation.

It my understanding that the Military Commissions Act does the following four things: 1) takes away habeas corpus (the legal right to challenge one’s detention in the light of a court hearing that we have had since the 1200s); 2) lets the Bush administration interpret the Geneva Conventions, thus allowing the administration to continue to allow for torture; 3) allows the Bush administration to determine who is an American enemy combatant (even though a person could be completely innocent) and to detain this person indefinitely; and 4) allows for increased sweeping up of innocent legal immigrants in America and to their indefinite detention.

It is my understanding that the Bush administration has been allowing for the torture of children, women, and men around the world for five years including at Guantanamo Bay.

I know of no major world religion that condones torture. I believe that torture is a moral issue.

I think that senators Collins and Snowe should publicly apologize to the people of Maine for what they have done, and that both of these senators should work in Congress to make sure that this legislation is repealed. Then I think that both of these senators should join with the people of Maine and work to abolish torture everywhere. In addition I think that senators Collins and Snowe should work in Congress to make sure that all innocent prisoners that our government is detaining are released and that all prisons (secret and otherwise) where innocent prisoners are detained and tortured are closed.

Brian Noyes Pulling
Cape Elizabeth