I posted those pictures of Iraq just to remind everyone what those people are going through over there. Every single day there are more tortured, assassinated bodies laying in the streets of Bagdhad than were killed at that college last week. Every day more people are blown into little bitty pieces by suicide bombs and car bombs.
We didn't put those bombs there.
No, but the reason those bombs were planted and exploded is because we've fucked up their country.
But there's all these terrorists there now!
The actual Iraqi terrorists weren't terrorists until we came in and fucked up their country. The foreign terrorists weren't there until we invaded because Saddam wouldn't let them in. We failed to maintain the intergrity of the borders... our fault again.
Notice I say "we" even though the people that are ultimately responsible for this giant clusterfuck are part of a group of Americans they are still Americans. No matter how deluded and... less than intelligent they may be. It seems a shame that when you've got a choice between going to war or working diplomatically and the will of the American public is split right down the middle you wouldn't choose peace.
I keep hearing we should behave badly because our enemy would do so. This is the sign of the true coward and traitor. America is (or was?) the best country on earth. That means
everything we do should be better. We should hold ourselves to the highest standards because that's what we have always done in the past. Only now do we cheat and lie and hide the way this administration has.
This American Life rebroadcast a show for which they got the Peabody prize in journalism. Of course to the righties this is just some kind of liberal bias bullshit but one would think that a prize as prestigious as this might be given on a fair and balanced basis. Anyway, it points out to me how far from grace we have fallen and relates not only to Gitmo but to our prisons, police, and politics and how we have turned our back on the law under this administration. It's a really good show and highly recommend giving it a listen. It's available for free download right now.
http://audio.thisamericanlife.org/special/310_bonus.mp3
http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=331
The right of habeas corpus has been a part of our country's legal tradition longer than we've actually been a country. It means that our government has to explain why it's holding a person in custody. But now, the war on terror has nixed many of the rules we used to think of as fundamental. At Guantanamo Bay, our government initially claimed that prisoners should not be covered by habeas—or even by the Geneva Conventions—because they're the most fearsome enemies we have. But is that true? Is it a camp full of terrorists, or a camp full of our mistakes?
Prologue.
Joseph Margulies, a lawyer for one of the detainees at Guantanamo, explains how the detention facility there was created to be an ideal interrogation facility. Any possible comfort, such as water or natural light, is entirely controlled by the interrogators. (3 minutes)
Act One.There's No U.S. in Habeas.
Jack Hitt explains how President's Bush's War on Terror changed the rules for prisoners of war, and how it is that under those rules, it'd be possible that someone whose classified file declares that they pose no threat to the United States, could still be locked up indefinitely — potentially forever! — at Guantanamo. (24 minutes). Clarification: When Seton Hall Professor Baher Azmy discusses the classified file of his client, Murat Kurnaz, in this act, he is referring to information that had previously been made public and published in the Washington Post. That material has subsequently been reclassified.
Act Two. September 11th, 1660.
Habeas Corpus began in England. Recently, 175 members of the British Parliament filed a "friend of the court" brief in one of the Supreme Court cases on habeas and Guantanamo, apparently the first time that's happened in Supreme Court history. In their brief, the members of Parliament warn about the danger of suspending habeas: "During the British Civll War, the British created their own version of Guantanamo Bay and dispatched undesirable prisoners to garrisons off the mainland, beyond the reach of habeas corpus relief." In London, reporter Jon Ronson, author of Them, goes in search of what happened. (6 minutes)
Act Three. We Interrogate the Detainees.
Although over two hundred prisoners from the U.S. Facility at Guantanamo Bay have been released, few of them have ever been interviewed on radio or television in America. Jack Hitt conducts rare and surprising interviews with two former Guantanamo detainees about life in Guantanamo. (20 minutes)
Song: "The Clash," Know Your Rights
[size=75]You are as bad as Alan, and even he hits the mark sometimes. -charlie
"Not all conservatives are stupid, but most stupid people are conservative." - John Stuart Mill[/size]
