[GT40FIED]

What do you mean "where did that come from?"? That's the basic point of the bill...to give the president the power to interpret the Geneva convention as he sees fit.

Chirs...did you read the link I posted to the bill itself? It says, in part:

Section 948a(1) defines an unlawful enemy combatant as


"(i) a person who has engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States or its co-belligerents who is not a lawful enemy combatant (including a person who is part of the Taliban, al Qaeda, or associated forces; or


(ii) a person who, before, on, or after the date of the enactment of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, has been determined to be an unlawful enemy combatant by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal or another competent tribunal established under the authority of the President or the Secretary of Defense."

The term "a person" is all inclusive. It does not define nationality or citizenship. I'm sure Rob will start bitching about about article 948c where it defines what an alien combatant is, but that's a seperate subsection. So my question to you would be how does this section NOT deal with citizens? Yes, we as citizens do have some rights, but they're being slowly erroded. This bill just takes more of them. And while the acts specified in this bill might fall under treason or espionage, either of those allegations is a bitch to prove under old statutes. This gives the government a huge length of rope...and they'll likely hang us all with it. While it might not be a bad idea to make it easier to prosecute acts like this, stripping people of basic rights afforded at trial isn't the way to do it and neither is the idea of "coersion" that this bill would make legal.