I Hereby Declare Myself an Enemy Combatant

by Bill Losapio

October 19, 2006

‘‘(1) UNLAWFUL ENEMY COMBATANT.—(A) The term ‘unlawful enemy combatant’ means— “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.”

~HR6166, The Definition of Enemy Combatant, ushering in the utter destruction of Habeas Corpus in its mirrored form SB3930 (actually signed into law)  

I hereby declare myself an Unlawful Enemy Combatant.  No, I am not, nor have I ever been part of the Taliban, al Qaeda, or associated forces, but I will save a Combat Status Review Tribunal or any other [in]competent tribunal established by Dubya or Rummy the trouble.  

Yes, I know this means I can be tortured under whatever distorted definition of “information gathering” these war criminals utilize to make me admit that I am a terrorist.  Maybe by admitting it now, I can save them the trouble of doing that too, but they may do it anyway just for practice.  You know, keep the torture machine nicely greased and all that.  Don’t want it to get messy, mind you.  

And yes, I know this means I’ll end up in Gitmo or in one of those nifty new Kellogg Brown and Root Detention Centers .  But I would suffer the fate of demons should I make a whore of my soul, to paraphrase another Unlawful Enemy Combatant.  Why do I consider myself even remotely capable of being labeled this way?  

Posted on www.whitehouse.gov, the National Security Council’s “Strategy for Winning the War on Terror” states the following:  

“Subcultures of conspiracy and misinformation. Terrorists recruit more effectively from populations whose information about the world is contaminated by falsehoods and corrupted by conspiracy theories. The distortions keep alive grievances and filter out facts that would challenge popular prejudices and self-serving propaganda.”  

On Monday, October 16, 2006 , Fatherland Security Chief Chertoff stated that an “area of concern” is the threat of “plots involving local communities, American citizens, who may become radicalized over the Internet . . . .”  

It is clear:  the next front of control is the blogosphere and the alternative news media.  By contributing towards the “subculture” exposing the fascist nightmare oozing out of D.C., I must be necessarily “keeping alive grievances” that make our population a ripe recruiting ground for bad people.  

Any parent can quickly imagine how horrible it would feel being forcibly separated from one’s children.  Any parent would sacrifice lofty ideals to see their children and loved ones protected from the ugliness of the world, and from suffering.  We are willing to tolerate so much just to have the chance to watch our children grow up happy.  Never did I think that I would find myself dragged to the horrible grey area between keeping my mouth shut in the hopes that nothing bad would happen, or risk persecution (no exaggeration) for speaking out against these travesties of freedom in the fear that the future for my children fades to bleakness.  Economic margin theory now comes into play.  We must now make the determination within our own value systems as individuals:  Is the future in which our children must live too horrible to contemplate for those who value liberty?  Are the ever-increasing chances of this nightmare becoming real high enough now that we can no longer sit on the sidelines hoping it will fix itself?  

Keep our mouths shut and hope for the best, or speak out in defiance against this nightmarish Orwellian veil descending on our lives -- though that exposes us to renegade kangaroo proceedings with the real chance of being held indefinitely with no charges filed, and no ability to even see the evidence against us.  I’m afraid for many of us who see the writing on the wall, this quandary looms quite closely overhead.  

Come and get me, you sons of bitches!  I will not suffer this farcical disgrace.  I will not silence myself in the hope that maybe this evil machine of injustice, oppression, and horror overlooks me, though I, of all that is good and decent, expose my family to God knows what.  By writing this article, I may very well have doomed myself to a first class ticket to the KBR Camp o’ Horrors.  

Has it come to this?  Am I hallucinating?  Is this really what is going on in this country?  I sit typing this, pausing, looking around, thinking “I’m sure I’m not just reflecting on a really bad nightmare I might have had last night . . . .”    

Have you not seen the legislation, now law?  Are you so foolish as to think that “it will only be used against bad people . . . terrorists . . . . It’s just to keep us safe”?  

To those who believe this childishness, to those frightened sheep who do not wish to rock the boat, or who either misguidedly or in brown-shirt fashion support this travesty against humanity, I say, “Beware the father who fears for his children’s future.”  I offer you, in closing, the following quote from Samuel Adams:   

"Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say, 'What should be the reward of such sacrifices?' Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship, and plough, and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth?  If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!"