Torture won't end with foreign POWs

America's legislators have given its leaders tacit permission to flout accepted international law by torturing foreign prisoners.

Once they have crossed that line, those same leaders are more apt to extend that torture to American citizens. America's president has been given permission to incarcerate any American citizen at will and forever, without an obligation to grant the prisoner benefit of legal recourse.

With the enactment of the Military Commissions Act, our president has been granted power to use the military to control "domestic disturbances" in place of local police personnel.

Could peaceful demonstrations be construed as such? A leader with such broad powers is prone to exercise those powers.

Such legislation is not in the best interest of the American people and our democracy.

Americans need to open their eyes and insist that their legislators and the next president restore the guarantees of our Constitution.

Karen Wagner

Rolling Meadows