You Have No Rights

[helderheid]

AP Photo / John Marshall Mantel

Posted on Aug 14, 2007
protester arrested


Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive and author of “You Have No Rights,” explains how our president became a “medieval king,” and why your civil liberties are in greater danger than ever.

Click here to listen to this interview.
Transcript:

James Harris: Here again on Truthdig this is James Harris with Josh Scheer. On the phone is Matthew Rothschild, the editor of The Progressive and the author of the new book “You Have No Rights.” I feel like I have some rights left, and so do other Americans. So why did you choose this title for your book?

Matthew Rothschild: I took the title of the book from a couple of brothers, Yasser and Hany Ibrahim, who were Egyptians living in the United States after 9/11 and they had the police come knock on their door, come in and drag them away and hold them in a pen for 24 hours where they weren’t allowed even to go to the bathroom. And then they dragged them through the Metropolitan Detention Center, banging their heads against the walls, especially on the wall that had an American flag on it. And then these guards played a little sadistic game, stepping on the chain between their legs, and then they’d fall down, and then the guards would say “Get up!” and then they’d step on the chain and then they’d say “Get up!” again. Ultimately, one of the brothers said to the guards, “Look, don’t we have any rights here?” And the response came back, “You have no rights.” What rights do we have, actually, if the president can say, even of U.S. citizens, that you’re enemy combatants and throw you in jail as he did, into solitary confinement, of two American citizens: Yaser Hamdi and Jose Padilla. And the Military Commissions Act allows them to identify any of us as an enemy combatant, and if you’re not a U.S. citizen, you can be thrown into jail and never have a right to talk to a lawyer or see a courtroom again for the rest of your lives.

Josh Scheer: Or they can outsource you for torture.

Rothschild: They can disappear you. I mean, Bush and Cheney—they act like we’re an Argentinean junta and they’re disappearing people here, or sending them overseas to secret CIA prisons.

Harris: Now, something—.

Rothschild: Now, just let me go on for a second.

Harris: OK.

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http://www.truthdig.com/interview/item/20070814_rothsch...

[mmonk]

1. I'm sure there's an exception for each of us

somewhere. I believe those special exceptions were passed sometime, weren't they? I mean after all, the new laws and the new stripping of the constitution's Bill of Rights only applies to "terrorists", right?

[helderheid]

2. This is making sick.

[Jim__]

3. Just the other day I heard a caller on CSPAN say, ...

... "If you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about". I just hope I wind up with one of those people next to me in the camp. It will take away some of the pain.

[helderheid]

6. That answer drives me CRAZY

[helderheid]

4. I'm listening to the interview now - nothing I didn't know but still makes me ill.

[helderheid]

5. This needs to be sent to every American.

[Demeter]

7. You Have the Rights You Are Willing and Able To Defend

Which means teamwork. And if things don't start turning around, a Constitutional Convention, if not another Revolution cum Civil War sequel.

[helderheid]

8. k