The President’s Prison...NYTimes

[spanone]

~snip~ wow this is heavy stuff


March 25, 2007
Editorial
The President’s Prison
George Bush does not want to be rescued.

The president has been told countless times, by a secretary of state, by members of Congress, by heads of friendly governments — and by the American public — that the Guantánamo Bay detention camp has profoundly damaged this nation’s credibility as a champion of justice and human rights. But Mr. Bush ignored those voices — and now it seems he has done the same to his new defense secretary, Robert Gates, the man Mr. Bush brought in to clean up Donald Rumsfeld’s mess.

Thom Shanker and David Sanger reported in Friday’s Times that in his first weeks on the job, Mr. Gates told Mr. Bush that the world would never consider trials at Guantánamo to be legitimate. He said that the camp should be shut, and that inmates who should stand trial should be brought to the United States and taken to real military courts.

Mr. Bush rejected that sound advice, heeding instead the chief enablers of his worst instincts, Vice President Dick Cheney and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Their opposition was no surprise. The Guantánamo operation was central to Mr. Cheney’s drive to expand the powers of the presidency at the expense of Congress and the courts, and Mr. Gonzales was one of the chief architects of the policies underpinning the detainee system. Mr. Bush and his inner circle are clearly afraid that if Guantánamo detainees are tried under the actual rule of law, many of the cases will collapse because they are based on illegal detention, torture and abuse — or that American officials could someday be held criminally liable for their mistreatment of detainees.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/opinion/25sun1.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

[Supersedeas]

1. now he has become one of them -- now he has no where to turn

[saltpoint]

2. Agree -- it is heavy stuff, and very welcome.

The president and his gang need to be held accountable. The TIMES is doing its job especially well on this one.

[scarletwoman]

3. Wow, the SUNDAY NYT at that! So often during the past 6 years they've published their most critical

editorials on Saturday, when the fewest readers will see them.

Anyway, not much to add -- the editorial does a pretty good job -- but here's a 'k & r'.

Thanks for posting this.
sw

[n2doc]

4. I wish Bush and his buddies would end up at Gitmo

That would be justice. a 100 year sentence with no parole at Gitmo. Just him and a few dozen of his closest confidants.

[bvar22]

9. They could make naked pyramids....

...to help pass the time!
:rofl:

[n2doc]

13. They'd enjoy that too much

For all we know, That's what Jeff Gannon was up to at the WH....

[TahitiNut]

5. "many of the cases will collapse"?? Wrong. All of them. All.

When de facto President Cheney embarked on torture, extortion, rendition, and other crimes against humanity, he made the US an outlaw nation, without honor.

[williesgirl]

6. k&r - thanks from DUers w/o subscriptions

[merh]

7. "or that American officials could someday be held criminally liable for their mistreatment of

detainees"

Wow - it's been said aloud and not just by "moonbats" on a message board.

or that American officials could someday be held criminally liable for their mistreatment of detainees.

Just wow.

K&R -

[caligirl]

8. just wondering if * and his puppetmeisters will need to be carted off

by the JC's around 2009.

[spanone]

10. ...and impeachment is off the table. Guess I don't get it.

:shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug:

[Vincardog]

11. American officials could someday be held criminally liable for their mistreatment of detainees.

[The River]

12. The Torture President

Thats his legacy.
The "worst" ever is to generic (but true)
If there is one specific trait.. it would be his cruel nature.
From the cold and mocking use of the death penalty in Texas to Guantanamo,
George W. Bush = The Torture Presidency.

[WinkyDink]

14. Everything about him---eyes, smirk, aggressive touching of others, language, half-wit appearance,

defiant walk---bespeaks his sadistic, narcissistic psychopathology.

Just because he's President doesn't mean he isn't a mass murderer.

[sammythecat]

15. His cruel nature.

Of all the reasons to despise this man, that is probably at the top of my list.

At his very best, he has a pathological indifference to the suffering of others.

[gratuitous]

16. Does Bush dare let go?

Like an animal wrangler who's finally managed to get a grip on a rabid wolverine, Bush doesn't dare let go of his gulag, lest it turn on him. All he can do is hold on for dear life, because the consequences of letting the animal loose are far worse than the the untenable position he's now in.

This administration never considered the possibility of slipping from power, never dreamed that the American people would overcome their fears and vote them out of a majority in either house of Congress. They're in a very bad way right now, and I hope the Congress continues to flick lit matches at them. Sooner or later, they'll let go, and all hell will break loose. Then we can start to get our country, the one that is a beacon for freedom and justice, back on track. Right now, all the stars and stripes stand for can be summed up by a prisoner in an orange jump suit in a stress position. That's what our tax dollars are paying for, that's what our military is fighting for. Nothing else except torture, imperialism and corporate greed.

[Olney Blue]

17. Common sense and ethical advice from Secretary Gates....

what was he thinking? :sarcasm: