The Inquisition Strikes Back

[Hissyspit]

The Inquisition Strikes Back
By Jules Siegel, AlterNet
Posted on January 29, 2005, Printed on January 31, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/21105 /
http://www.alternet.org/rights/21105 /

We have by now all seen much of this material before, but reading it all in one piece, told by human voices in this book-length interview, is not easy to take. "Guantánamo: What the World Should Know" (Chelsea Green) – by Michael Ratner and Ellen Ray – becomes a heart-stopper once you cross the line and realize that you could be any of these victims.

Michael Ratner, President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, is co-counsel in Rasul v. Bush, the historic case of Guantánamo detainees now before the U.S. Supreme Court. His interviewer, Ellen Ray, is President of the Institute for Media Analysis, and a widely published author and editor on U.S. intelligence and international politics.

It's hard to say which is more disgusting, the descriptions of the torture or the bone-chilling analyses of how the president of the United States gave himself the powers of an absolute military dictator. Under Military Order No. 1, which the president issued without congressional authority on November 13, 2001, George W. Bush has ordered people captured or detained from all over the world, flown to Guantánamo and tortured in a lawless zone where, the White House asserts, prisoners have no rights of any kind at all and can be kept forever at his pleasure. Despite the at-best marginal intervention of the American courts so far, there is no civilian judicial review, no due process of any kind.

- snip -

Ratner writes: "A lot of the people picked up by warlords of the Northern Alliance were kept in metal shipping containers, so tightly packed that they had to ball themselves up, and the heat was unbearable. According to some detainees who were held in the containers and eventually released from Guantánamo, only a small number, thirty to fifty people in a container filled with three to four hundred people survived. And some of those released said that the Americans were in on this, that the Americans were shining lights on the containers. The people inside were suffocating, so the Northern Alliance soldiers shot holes into the containers, killing some of the prisoners inside."

Some prisoners were captured in battle; many others were picked up in random sweeps for no reason at all except being in the wrong place at the wrong time. As usual in these kinds of operations, some were turned in as a result of petty revenge or as an excuse to steal their property. When asked in court to explain the criteria for detention, the government had no answer.

MORE: http://www.alternet.org/story/21105/

[nashville_brook]

1. i know there's a buttload of ways to go after * -- why this isn't center

stage is beyond me. it's so blatant. so easy. it's hard not to feel let down with the lack of leadership on this issue -- it's what all our freedom is predicated on -- hello! FREEDOM. i thought we were FREEDOM-LOVERS.

i'm in such a mood.

[Hissyspit]

2. There Is Some Good Info On The Constitutional Issues In This Forum Link

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1199191&mesg_id=1199191

SUCH AS:
Beetwasher (1000+ posts) Mon Jan-31-05 12:48 PM
Response to Reply #42

49. READ THE CONSTITUTION

Edited on Mon Jan-31-05 12:50 PM by Beetwasher
Article II, Section 2, Clause 1: The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;--to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls;--to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction;--to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party;--to Controversies between two or more States;--between a State and Citizens of another State; (See Note 10)--between Citizens of different States, --between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects.

ONLY the courts can deal w/ issues related to the law and foreign subject. Get it? ONLY THE COURTS. The President is actually breaking the law when he intervenes and declares anyone he wants (foreign or domestic) an enemy combatant and denies them access to the courts.