Friday, July 20, 2007

War and property rights

Andronicus pointed this out in the comments to the last post. Apparently the Bush Administration allowed issued an executive order giving them the authority to block the property interests of those it deems to commit acts of violence that undermine our efforts in Iraq. Sure, the order focuses on acts of violence, which should be punished, but the (GINORMIGANTUAN) problem is that it also gives them the authority to block the property rights of those who "materially assist" in such acts. Does that mean that those who protest the war, say we should pull out, or even vote for people who say such things materially assist (after all, they give encouragement to insurgents who commit the acts of violence undermining the peace and stability in Iraq as well as our reconstruction efforts)? How direct of causation are we talking? You can bet that the executive branch will push for as weak of causation as possible. Scary thought.

Here's something scarier: No major news source seems to have picked this up. We must be quite used to the erosion of due process and the danger to civil liberties in the name of security by now.

No comments: