Yesterday evening my sons and I watched the 1993 movie In the Name of the Father . It was my youngest son's suggestion. He and I had watched the movie just a few weeks ago - something in it caught his attention and he wanted to watch it again.
If you have not seen the movie, I highly recommend it. It is more than just a true life story, it is one we all should remember and learn a lesson from.
The movie begins in 1974 Belfast and is the story of Gerry Conlon, his friends and family, and how an over zealous government detained them, relentlessly interrogated them to the point of mental torture which caused their spirits to break and confess to a crime they did not commit.
The crime they confessed to was for a bombing of an English pup where 5 people lost their lives. A crime that was actually committed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and who also took credit for it.
It all happened during a time when tensions between the Catholics of Northern Ireland and England's Crown driven Protestant dominated police authority had boiled over violence in the streets - Some called it a civil war spawned out of discrimination - while others labeled the IRA as terrorists as the violence spilled out into other parts of the world and credited to the IRA.
As the movie details, in response to this England created a law - an Anti Terrorism law that allowed for the police to detain suspects for up to seven days with out the needs of formal charges being filed. During those seven days suspects could be grilled and interrogated such as Conlon, his father, his aunt, his cousins and his friends were. All of which were innocent people who because of their relation to Gerry Conlon, someone who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, were in the eyes of the Crown considered Irish -
Why? Well...put together that over zealous government - a new anti terrorism law - a corrupt police force looking for that feather in their cap...you have the makings of injustice in the name of justice.
Watching the movie last night reminded me of the new anti-terrorism law passed by our Congress and signed into law by President Obama just one week or so ago. Buried within the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 is something I consider a violation of every American's rights if it is ever carried out.
From Wikipedia
Any person meaning ANYONE, including American citizens on home soil or abroad can be detained for however long the government wants without ever having to have charges filed against them - This goes beyond England's anti terrorism act where they allowed for 7 days of detention - the anti terrorism act that was recently signed when Conlon and the others were picked up , detained and emotionally battered through interrogation. All innocent people and not a damn thing anyone could do to help them.
Eventually a form of justice prevailed for Conlon and the others...but it came after 15 yeas of imprisonment and after his father died behind bars as an innocent man.
What would their story be if the law was the NDAA, and if charges were never filed -there were no court hearings -no access to a legal defense or appeal? What if they were just locked up and the key was thrown away never to be found again?
This little 2012 provision in the NDAA quite frankly scares me - and it should in fact scare you too!
If you have not seen the movie, I highly recommend it. It is more than just a true life story, it is one we all should remember and learn a lesson from.
The movie begins in 1974 Belfast and is the story of Gerry Conlon, his friends and family, and how an over zealous government detained them, relentlessly interrogated them to the point of mental torture which caused their spirits to break and confess to a crime they did not commit.
The crime they confessed to was for a bombing of an English pup where 5 people lost their lives. A crime that was actually committed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and who also took credit for it.
It all happened during a time when tensions between the Catholics of Northern Ireland and England's Crown driven Protestant dominated police authority had boiled over violence in the streets - Some called it a civil war spawned out of discrimination - while others labeled the IRA as terrorists as the violence spilled out into other parts of the world and credited to the IRA.
As the movie details, in response to this England created a law - an Anti Terrorism law that allowed for the police to detain suspects for up to seven days with out the needs of formal charges being filed. During those seven days suspects could be grilled and interrogated such as Conlon, his father, his aunt, his cousins and his friends were. All of which were innocent people who because of their relation to Gerry Conlon, someone who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, were in the eyes of the Crown considered Irish -
Why? Well...put together that over zealous government - a new anti terrorism law - a corrupt police force looking for that feather in their cap...you have the makings of injustice in the name of justice.
Watching the movie last night reminded me of the new anti-terrorism law passed by our Congress and signed into law by President Obama just one week or so ago. Buried within the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 is something I consider a violation of every American's rights if it is ever carried out.
From Wikipedia
the President's authority to detain, via the Armed Forces, any person "who was part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners," and anyone who commits a "belligerent act" against the U.S. or its coalition allies, under the law of war, "without trial, until the end of the hostilities authorized by the [AUMF]." The text also authorizes trial by military tribunal, or "transfer to the custody or control of the person's country of origin," or transfer to "any other foreign country, or any other foreign entity.
Any person meaning ANYONE, including American citizens on home soil or abroad can be detained for however long the government wants without ever having to have charges filed against them - This goes beyond England's anti terrorism act where they allowed for 7 days of detention - the anti terrorism act that was recently signed when Conlon and the others were picked up , detained and emotionally battered through interrogation. All innocent people and not a damn thing anyone could do to help them.
Eventually a form of justice prevailed for Conlon and the others...but it came after 15 yeas of imprisonment and after his father died behind bars as an innocent man.
What would their story be if the law was the NDAA, and if charges were never filed -there were no court hearings -no access to a legal defense or appeal? What if they were just locked up and the key was thrown away never to be found again?
This little 2012 provision in the NDAA quite frankly scares me - and it should in fact scare you too!
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