An American Conscience ("Under this pres. and vp, we are beginning to live in a banana republic.")

[Pirate Smile]

From Andrew Sullivan's blog

An American Conscience
31 Mar 2007 02:04 pm

More and more military prosecutors are refusing to prosecute "enemy combatants" in the terror war. Why? Not because some of these combatants are innocent. Many are not. But because many have been subjected to torture by the U.S.. From the WSJ today (subscription only, alas):

When the Pentagon needed someone to prosecute a Guantanamo Bay prisoner linked to 9/11, it turned to Lt. Col. V. Stuart Couch. A Marine Corps pilot and veteran prosecutor, Col. Couch brought a personal connection to the job: His old Marine buddy, Michael "Rocks" Horrocks, was co-pilot on United 175, the second plane to strike the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

The prisoner in question, Mohamedou Ould Slahi, had already been suspected of terrorist activity. After the attacks, he was fingered by a senior al Qaeda operative for helping assemble the so-called Hamburg cell, which included the hijacker who piloted United 175 into the South Tower. To Col. Couch, Mr. Slahi seemed a likely candidate for the death penalty.

"Of the cases I had seen, he was the one with the most blood on his hands," Col. Couch says.

But, nine months later, in what he calls the toughest decision of his military career, Col. Couch refused to proceed with the Slahi prosecution. The reason: He concluded that Mr. Slahi's incriminating statements - the core of the government's case - had been taken through torture, rendering them inadmissible under U.S. and international law.

The Slahi case marks a rare instance of a military prosecutor refusing to bring charges because he thought evidence was tainted by torture. For Col. Couch, it also represented a wrenching personal challenge. Laid out starkly before him was a collision between the government's objectives and his moral compass.

The critical paragraph in the story for me is the following:

In the following weeks, Mr. Slahi said, he was placed in isolation, subjected to extreme temperatures, beaten and sexually humiliated. The detention-board transcript states that at this point, "the recording equipment began to malfunction." It summarizes Mr. Slahi's missing testimony as discussing "how he was tortured while here at GTMO by several individuals."

Remember the missing critical Padilla DVD? Recall that David Hicks has been put under a gag-order against discussing the torture techniques used against him by the US? Evidence is "disappeared." Detainees are gagged. Verdicts are pronounced based on testimony procured through torture. Col Couch is not stupid. He must also know that prosecuting a detainee while knowing he has been tortured is a war-crime. Every military prosecutor tasked by Bush and Cheney to prosecute torture victims is being set up as a war criminal. Bush and Cheney, meanwhile, secured their own legal impunity in the Military Commissions Act last year.

Under this president and vice-president, we are beginning to live in a banana republic.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/03/a_american_cons.html

[mnhtnbb]

1. You're giving bananas a bad name. More like the gulags of old Soviet days

[pat_k]

2. The stark realities of our national crisis. . .

From day the felonious five on the Supreme Court violated the principle of consent -- the sole moral principle on which the Constitution, and therefore the nation rests -- to install Bush in the executive office, the Constitution has been in breach. Since that day, it has been obvious to an ever increasing number of Americans that Bush and Cheney are advancing a relentless campaign to turn the American presidency into an Un-American and Unconstitutional unitary authoritarian executive with unbounded power. Like squatters, they are trespassing in plain sight. They are laying claim to unconstitutional power through openly hostile possession. Members of Congress, who we empowered and charged with the duty of evicting (impeaching) such trespassers, are refusing to act.

By refusing to stand up for We the People, the true owners of this nation, Members of Congress have created a national crisis graver than any natural disaster or social ill. It is bigger than any international crisis. By tolerating the intolerable, they are surrendering our capacity to recover from disaster with humanity, solve our common problems in ways that reflect our common values, and serve as a force for good in the world. When the good will of the American people is cut out of the loop, no peoples, not our fellow Americans, not other nations, can look to us for help.

Members of Congress can redeem themselves at any time -- just open their mouths, tell the truth, and do what truth demands.

[AnneD]

4. Here Here....

Words that would make Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Ben Franklin, John Adams, or John Q Adams proud. This last 6 almost 7 years have left me most disappointed in my fellow Americans. Your words give me hope. I am not alone. Thanks for those well written remarks.

If we have justice...Bush WILL end up in jail along with Cheney and Rumsfield in the Hague for war crimes against humanity and all their ill gotten gain seized (along with many of their friends)and returned to the Treasury. Carl Rove will be tarred and feathered and driven out of town for ruining the reputation of decent people.

[pat_k]

8. Like Homer Stokes in "O Brother Where Art Thou?" I can just see. . .

. . .Rove being run out on a rail. (He even looks kinda like Stokes).

Thanks for the kind words.

[AnneD]

11. And you even quote my fav movie...

I think I'm in :loveya:

[shain from kane]

3. The Chimperor wants to control all the bananas. But it ain't no republic.

[izzie]

5. It ends up like the lawyer firing business.

Once Bush puts the mark on to 7 of his lawyers it moves to what all 93 did. This is the same. If one person will say anything to stop being tortured and we know that Bush will put up with this form of treatment than it moves to all the prisoners and what they say. By doing it this way Bush has lost any thing he does on these points as being right. Not that some of the lawyers or prisoners may not be guilty of what they are said to do. I am sorry that is put so poorly but you can see what happens. I do not understand Bush and Co. not seeing it also.

[cassiepriam]

6. Beginning? We are already there.

[WinkyDink]

7. The coup d'etat occurred in 2000.

[bdamomma]

9. and in other countries what do they do to get rid of coup d'etat?

????????...........

[Pirate Smile]

10. kick