Permission To Travel To Costa Rica and America’s ‘Freedom’ to Torture.

It appears to me that there are two vitally important items that seem to have escaped the attention of my fellow Americans.

You Will Need Permission To Travel To Costa Rica

A while back on this website’s sometimes controversial Discussion forum we discussed that the USA will eventually implement “a carefully planned system where you will have to ‘apply’ to retire outside the USA ‘for your protection.'”

We foolishly thought that maybe we had a “5-10 year window.” Sadly it seems that this window will be very much smaller.

America the so called ‘land of the free‘ is not nearly as free as it was and, will be even less free in the New Year when you – a US citizen living in the United States of America, will need permission to travel to Costa Rica and any other foreign country

The Department of Homeland Security proposed new rules back in July that totally changes the right of American citizens to travel abroad.

On January 14th 2007, all airlines and cruise lines will be required to submit the names of all passengers to Homeland Security prior to departure and to obtain permission from Homeland Security to board those passengers.

According to the actual ruling; … the carrier will not permit the boarding of a passenger unless the passenger has been cleared by CBP (Customs and Border Patrol)

Justice William O. Douglas once wrote for the Court: “The right to travel is a part of the ‘liberty’ of which the citizen cannot be deprived without due process of law under the Fifth Amendment…. Freedom of movement across frontiers in either direction, and inside frontiers as well, was a part of our heritage. Travel abroad, like travel within the country, … may be as close to the heart of the individual as the choice of what he eats, or wears, or reads. Freedom of movement is basic in our scheme of values.”

But we are told that it all changed on 9/11 and now like Russia of old, the USA will need to give you permission to travel abroad and you thought that the government worked for us? Dream on!

Having bought real estate in Costa Rica, what will you do if they decide NOT to give you permission to leave the USA?

America’s Freedom To Torture

On 17 October 2006, President Bush signed the Military Commissions Act, a bill that legalised torture and kidnapping and in effect repealed the Bill of Rights and habeas corpus.

The Central Intelligence Agency (who have proven themselves to be not as intelligent as we would have hoped) is now able to legally abduct people, send them to secret prisons in other countries to be tortured and the evidence extracted under torture is now allowed in “military commissions” so that people can be sentenced to death based on testimony beaten out of witnesses.

That may sound like a great idea to some people but Army Col. Stuart Herrington, a military intelligence specialist who conducted interrogations in Vietnam, Panama and Iraq during Desert Storm, and who was sent by the Pentagon in 2003 – long before Abu Ghraib – to assess interrogations in Iraq. Aside from its immorality and its illegality, says Herrington, torture is simply “not a good way to get information.”

Retired Air Force Col. John Rothrock,”… if I take a Bunsen burner to the guy’s genitals, he’s going to tell you just about anything,” which would be pointless. Rothrock, who is no squishy liberal, says that he doesn’t know “any professional intelligence officers of my generation who would think this is a good idea.”

You are now guilty until confirmed guilty and no! This does not just apply to foreign born aliens.

Yale University professor of law Bruce Ackerman agrees that the Act; “authorizes the president to seize American citizens as enemy combatants, even if they have never left the United States. And once thrown into military prison, they cannot expect a trial by their peers or any other of the normal protections of the Bill of Rights”.

We must remember that these laws condoning torture were proposed by “a Congressman’s son, young George Bush was able to get a rare slot in the Texas Air National Guard, and thus escape service in Vietnam. He was accepted for pilot training, even though he scored only 25 percent on the aptitude test, the lowest acceptable grade.” Whilst in the Texas Air National Guardwhere “the 12 months from May 1972 to May 1973 are a black hole. No record of his showing up for duty, period.”

“I like guys who’ve never even been there, that criticize us who’ve been there. I like that. I like guys who got five deferments, have never been there, and send people to war and then don’t like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done,” said congressman John Murtha, D-PA, 37 year Marine Corps veteran who was decorated in Vietnam responding to Dick Cheney who NEVER served a day in uniform and managed to avoid the draft FIVE times.

These cowards will not pay the price, the real patriots who will pay a very high price are the real American heroes, our fathers, mothers, sons and daughters in the US Armed Forces who feel that they are doing their duty to protect our once great nation.

When the press starts featuring stories of dead soldiers where “bodies often show signs of beating using electrical cables, wounds in heads and genitals, broken legs and hands, electric and cigarette burns” then just maybe, we’ll start shouting about it a bit more?

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Written by Charlie McCormack* who is ex-Special Forces now happily ‘retired’ in Costa Rica. Charlie uses a pen name because he doesn’t want his real name put on the no-fly list when he travels back to the USA.

If you would you like to comment on this topic, please do so by visiting the Discussion Forum here.

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.