Der Nacht- und Nebel-Erlaß:

You know, history has a funnny way of repeating its self. I was just thinking of Nazi Germany's Der Nacht und Nebel Erlaß (The Night and Fog Directive, 1941) and how the Gestapo would show up in the middle of the night and take people away never to be seen again. I wonder why I've been thinking of that?

A Wikipedia entry goes like this:

"Up until the time of the "Night and Fog" decree, prisoners were handled by German soldiers in approximately the same way other countries did: according to national agreements and procedures such as the Geneva Convention. Hitler and his upper level staff, however, made a critical decision not to have to conform to what they considered unnecessary rules. The Third Reich, after all, was not a party to the Geneva Concentions and so observed it only as needed to reduce tensions with other nations."

Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel wrote:

"The prisoners are, in future, to be transported to Germany secretly, and further treatment of the offenders will take place here; these measures will have a deterrent effect because - A. The prisoners will vanish without a trace. B. No information may be given as to their whereabouts or their fate."

Arlen Specter, who could have fought harder to stop this tyrranical "anti-terror" bill said after voting for it: "I did my best to get Congress to do the job, and when I couldn't get sufficient votes, the next alternative is the courts. That part of the bill is unconstitutional and the court will clean it up. I think when it comes up, the court should disregard it. The court is not going to give up its authority on these matters."

This is all we have to count on now?