<p>On October 20, 2006, Senator Obama was a guest of the [Diane</a> Rehm Show<a href=“link%20includes%20full%20audio%20of%20interview…the%20section%20transcribed%20below%20is%20at%20about%206%20minutes%20into%20the%20interview”>/url</a>. The Harvard Law Grad’s rhetoric attempts to re-write our country’s history on Habeas Corpus during the interview while making a political argument. </p>
<p>From the interview:</p>
<p>
Diane Rehm : …Earlier this week the President signed into law the [url=<a href=“http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:SN03930:]Military ”>http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:SN03930: ]Military</a> Commissions Act](<a href=“http://www.wamu.org/programs/dr/06/10/20.php#12039]Diane ”>http://www.wamu.org/programs/dr/06/10/20.php#12039 ); the new law that gives the President quite far reaching authority on the war on terror. You [voted</a> against](<a href=“U.S. Senate: Request not Accepted - Security Risk Detected ”>U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 109th Congress - 2nd Session ) the measure. Tell us why.</p>
<p>Sen. Obama : I think it was a sloppy piece of legislation. It was rushed in part to match the election schedule. And had we stepped back and thought this through there was a way of making sure that the military could do it’s job in charging and trying those persons who seek to do us harm, but do so in a context was consistent with our core constitutional principles. This wasn’t that bill.</p>
<p>One of the most disturbing aspect of the legislation was the elimination for the first time in our history of the principle of Habeas Corpus. And those that are familiar with our jurisprudence know that Habeas Corpus predates the American Revolution; it’s a principle going back to the 13th Century.</p>
<p>And the basic principle is one that should be so obvious to people that I think all of us take it for granted. That is, if the government grabs you and hauls you into custody they have an obligation to charge you and allow you to answer those charges. And this piece of legislation said for the first time that it is permisible for this adminstration or the military to capture people and not give them that basic hearing in court…
</p>
<p>It is a fact of history that [President</a> Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus during the Civil War](<a href=“http://porkopolis.blogspot.com/2006/10/porkopolis-calls-********-on-rock-star.html]President ”>http://porkopolis.blogspot.com/2006/10/porkopolis-calls-********-on-rock-star.html ). A fact that should be know by any high school student of American history, to say nothing of Constitutional lawyers trained at Harvard.</p>
<p>The legality of the Military Comission Act would later be argued in [Boumediene</a> v. Bush](<a href=“{{meta.fullTitle}} ”>{{meta.fullTitle}} ), but Senator Obama’s revision of history is too cute by half.</p>