The official Republican excuse about the law to revoke a wide range of American freedom (bills HR 6166 and S 3930) is that it’s necessary just to deal with a small number of prisoners who have been caught in an odd legal limbo. They say that the new powers to revoke habeas corpus, set up kangaroo courts, imprison people without criminal charge, use torture to coerce confessions, and conduct searches of private property without a warrant will only apply to 14 prisoners, or only to a hundred or so…
But if that’s true, if the Republican government doesn’t plan to keep on using these powers on more and more prisoners into the future, then why did the Republicans in the Senate vote to kill an amendment to S 3930 that would have ended the powers after 5 years?
There’s only answer that makes sense is that the Republicans plan to use these new powers for much longer than 5 years, and to get new prisoners to use those powers against during that time.
