mmm. I got sucked into the National Archives project on wikisource this weekend, and spent some time categorizing some of the legal documents from Guantanamo. Yeah, that place, the one that's still there and that houses the worst of the worst supposedly. One particularly telling affidavit from one of the prosecutors tells of charges against a minor based on a supposed written confession validated with a thumb print. Turns out that the kid was illiterate, did not speak the language the confession was written in, and oh by the way that wasn't his thumb print on there either, it turns out. Oh and he was tortured at Baghram.
The prosecutor says he was not able to obtain the kid's release and took him to court after Hamdan figuring, well, he's already been here six years, so if he gets a sentence then at least he can one day *complete* that sentence. I was already pretty cynical about allowing the government unchecked power to imprison people without judicial review. I'm several orders of magnitude past that now. I can conceive of someone being too dangerous to release, I suppose, but I am not sure that applies to everyone at Guantanamo, and no, actually, I don't believe in Rumsfeld's assurances any more. The same sentiment applies to to this recent killing. I can conceive of such a killing being needed, but don't know if this one was and really do not believe government assurances on this one either. Maybe it was necessary but hey... it was also allegedly necessary to imprison an illiterate teenager for years without trial. If you think this does not affect you, ask yourselves why copyright enforcement is now within the purview of Homeland Security. Just saying. First they came for the terrorists, then they came for the file-sharers, and when they come for you there may be no-one left to speak for you. To paraphrase the German adage. On Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 2:17 PM, Gruss Gott <[email protected]> wrote: > > It seems pretty universal by people in govt that this guy was a bad guy, but > it's also troubling that the US would assassinate a US citizen on foreign > soil without due process; especially given this administrations previous > assertions that trial of terrorists is possible. > > Anyone else bothered by this? > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:343221 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
