On September 27, 2006, Congress voted in HR 6166 into law as the Military Commissions Act of 2006. With lightning speed, a centuries old pillar of the law has been taken down with not a whimper from the mainstream press. The salient portion of the Act runs: "No court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained by the United States who has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination." What the act does is give the executive branch the power to declare not just aliens (which would be bad enough) but also U.S. citizens, "unlawful enemy combatants." Then the state gets to lock you up and throw the keys away. Anyone who donates money to a charity on a list of "terrorist" organizations, or who speaks out against the government's policies could be declared an "unlawful enemy combatant" and imprisoned indefinitely now. Anyone could be convicted on the basis of coerced testimony and hearsay and, without full judicial review of the conviction, be put to death. And no one could challenge his detention in court. Habeas corpus is a fundamental right that the state does not have the power to lock you up forever arbitrarily and without review of a court It is part of the U.S. Constitution. Do you remember that document, dear reader? Most Americans have forgotten it. They think we're in a 'new era' of politics, where the old principles and old rules no longer apply. But as one group of diplomats wrote to the administration, "To proclaim democratic government to the rest of the world as the supreme form of government at the very moment we eliminate the most important avenue of relief from arbitrary governmental detention will not serve our interests in the larger world."