Walt Whitman’s Niece

Last year or the years before that

I won’t say which year

A President friend of mine

I won’t say which President friend

Said bring them on

I won’t say bring who on

Lock them up he said

I won’t say who or why

Last year or the years before that

I won’t say which year

That President friend of mine

I won’t say which President friend

Lost interest in the prisoners

I won’t say which prisoners

Last year or the years before that

I won’t say which year

Another President friend of mine

I won’t say which President friend

Said I am going to close that prison

I won’t say which prison

Last year or the years before that

I won’t say which year

One of the elected parties

I won’t say which party

Said no to closing that prison

I won’t say which prison

Last year or the years before that

I won’t say which year

America’s good name

I won’t say which name

Turned from good to something else

I won’t say what the else was

Last year or the years before that

I won’t say which year

America lost its courage

I won’t say which courage

And forgot to live by the rules of law

I won’t say why

Last year or the years before that

I won’t say which year

Guantanamo or someplace like that

I won’t say where it was

Cried out for courage or common sense

I won’t say which one

 

It is time to Close Guantanamo !

Apologies to Billy Bragg and WILCO.

It is time and long overdue for the US to close Guantanamo Detention Facility.  It is time for Americans to remember their historic rules of law and cease acting like a third world country.  Close Guantanamo.

Justice Revisited

Late last week, the Justice Department announced they were reconsidering the location of the first Guantanamo detainee trials. New York City had been chosen for four detainees and now even Mayor Blumberg is against holding the trials in Manhattan. His reason is the disruption and enormous estimated cost ($1 billion). On top of that, columnist Charles Krauthammer, an unrepentant conservative and great supporter of the failed Bush years, has declared that Obama doesn’t get it about terrorists.

I am prepared to concede that justice does not require a $1 billion show trial. A compromise might be to use a military installation in or around New York and hold a civilian court on that site. Safety, security and Constitutional Law.

With respect to Krauthammer’s whining about “he doesn’t get it”, this should be dismissed as the rantings of an unencouragable “ends justify the means” conservative. “Ends” do not justify any means and that is what separates America from third rate countries in the world.

The Guantanamo detainees represent a relative new phenomena. Some of the detainees are hard core extremists who if given the chance will gladly again violate international norms and laws. Others at Guantanamo simply had bad luck and were picked up, tortured and shipped to the modern day “Papallion”. Detaining these individuals, who may in fact engage in terrorist activities again, is like trying to build a sand castle faster than the advancing high tide… you can not build fast enough. Look around, there is no shortage of Taliban, terrorists in Yemen or Iraq, or extremists in the Palestinian territories.  One can not be serious that the US can detain all of them.

Civil trials are necessary for several reasons. First, America is a country governed by law. If we allow authorities to separate some from the rule of law, then it is only a matter of time before these authorities may deny us the rule of law. Second, the military commissions are unnecessary and as constituted represent an affront to the sensibilities of law (they allow hearsay, limited legal counsel, and keep certain “evidence” secret, even from the detainee). And thirdly, holding detainees indefinitely is a huge message to the world that America is not special and may in fact be deserving of some of the terrorist’s violence.

It is long past the time for speedy trials by ones peers.

Where’s The Shame?

Obama Administration officials are saying that the deadline to close Guantanamo Detention Facility will not be met. The reason given was that there was not enough time to complete a careful review of each case. What do they think we are smoking?

Almost all the detainees have been in Guantanamo (or detention someplace) for over 5 years and many for 7 years. Do we not have a legal tradition of a “timely presentation of charges and subsequent trail”? Do we not have a tradition of enacting laws that apply to US citizens around the world? How then could any Justice Department allow individuals to be detained for 7 years and authorities not have an open and shut case to justify this detention?

The devastation of 9/11, for sure, caught the Bush Administration off guard. This Administration loved to wear its religious values on its sleeves and was understandably at a loss when a radical and religious group, citing authority from the great one in the sky (the same location of the Bush higher authority), could and would do so much damage. In an effort to eliminate this threat, and possibly to settle the score with the “higher authority” impostors, the Bush Administration encouraged the round up of as many radicals as they could find. Like so many other things the Bush people did, step one was accomplished without any idea what would be step two.

That is water over the damn so to speak. President Obama inherited Guantanamo and it is on his watch that it should be closed. There are undoubtably some very dysfunctional people there, and we are probably better off with them in detention. The only criteria should be a reason supported by evidence. No evidence, no detention. Other wise the shame will continue and the values of America’s past will be done a continuing disservice.

American and Apple Pie

What is more American than Apple Pie? From our earliest days, the founding fathers stressed the importance of due process, the rule of law, and habeas corpus. The founding fathers did just not make these concepts up. They were determined to set the new Country on a course that would avoid the abuses that were so common place in Europe. With few exceptions those values have lasted untouched from the revolution days until the dark days following 9/11.

Congress (both Houses) have now rejected appropriating funds for the closure of Guantanamo. Their argument goes “not in my back yard”. Congressmen are politicians first and legislators/statesmen a far second. The thought that any of the detainees might get transfered to a States side prison (in one of their districts), only to be later tried, acquitted, and released as our Justice system would demand, is simply politically too frightening. No Thomas Paine here.

The words used, however, by Democratic leaders is that President Obama has not shared a complete plan for how he is intending to deal with the entire lot of detainees. While this is fair enough, the real reasons are also clear.

Other claims that these detainees are bad people or if released will return to extremist activities are totally besides the point. If they are at Guantanamo (in US custody), they must have broken a US law. In that case, they should be charged, be allowed to prepare a defense (with all the information that may be used against them), and given a speedy trial. That is the American way. There are no other valid considerations.

For sure, Vice President Cheney would like us to think there are other considerations. He asserts that these are very bad people and should be separated from society. He implies that their detention is, in and of itself, a deterrent to other terrorists. Cheney under the kindest of interpretations is simply wrong and at the extreme is staking out a defense for his possible war crimes indictment. What is becoming clearer each day as Dick Cheney takes center stage, is that he, and not George W Bush, was the architect of the “war on terror”.

The Country has a chance to stand tall in this sorry mess. President Obama should release the bulk of the detainees and ship the worst of the worst to the US mainland. These men should be charged, tried, and then either imprisoned or released. Once release is the option, they should be released to the US Immigration Service and deported. The rule of law is straight forward and does not smell.