Response to Morris D. Davis Concerning Guantanamo

Yesterday, I posted an article about how the meeting top officials were going to have about closing Guantanamo was canceled for relatively unknown reasons. (The proper steps weren't made yet? White House officials...) Then I related Guantanamo's legitmacy to be rather useless considering insider reports have said that only a "trickle" of information has led to any significant intelligence. They also reported that the higher level detainees are held at different places across the globe and not at Guantanamo.

Today, Morris D. Davis, a Colonel in the Air Force and the chief prosecutor in the Defense Department’s Office of Military Commissions, wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times, likening it to an aura of a rehabilitation center or a mental hospital:

"Reality for Guantánamo Bay is the daily professionalism of its staff, the humanity of its detention centers and the fair and transparent nature of the military commissions charged with trying war criminals. It is a reality that has been all but ignored or forgotten."

Hm. Where's he going with this, what kind of professionalism and humane practices? Read on:

"Today, most of the detainees are housed in new buildings modeled after civilian prisons in Indiana and Michigan. Detainees receive three culturally appropriate meals a day. Each has a copy of the Koran. Guards maintain respectful silence during Islam’s five daily prayer periods, and medical care is provided by the same practitioners who treat American service members. Detainees are offered at least two hours of outdoor recreation each day, double that allowed inmates, including convicted terrorists, at the “supermax” federal penitentiary in Florence, Colo."

Wow, how sweet and kind of our government. Do they give them clean bed sheet and new socks too? How bout they tuck them in and read them a bedtime story from Koran scripture? We are the NICEST prison wardens ever! BULL! Then, ironically, Mr. Davis makes a reference to my comparison to GULAGS:

"Critics liken Guantánamo Bay to Soviet gulags, but reality does not match their hyperbole."

Okay, I apologize. We let them pray and lift weights or pound rocks out in the sun. We really are humanitarians. Detecting the sarcasm yet? So,once again, I lead you to this really nice document America has called THE CONSTITUTION! Does anyone read this thing anymore?

Keith Olbermann's response to the loss of the habeas corpus to these detainees in 2006 proves how many rights via the Bill of Rights the detainees lose by being subjected to Guantanamo's mercy:

"No. 1 is gone. I mean, if you’re detained without trial, you lose your freedom of religion and speech, press, assembly, all the rest of that. So, you don’t need that any more.

And you know, you can’t petition the government for anything.

2. While you are in prison, your right to keep and bear arms just might be infringed upon even if you’re in the NRA, so that’s gone.

3. Well, OK, no forced sleepovers at your house by soldiers.Three’s all right.

4. You’re definitely not secure against searches and seizures, as it says here, with or without probable cause. And, in prison that’s not limited to just the guards, so forget the fourth.

5. Grand juries and due process, obviously out, so forget five and the little trailer up here.

6. Well, trials are gone too, let alone the right to counsel. Speedy trials? You want it when?

7. Well, this is about—I thought we just covered trials and juries earlier so forget the seventh.

8. Well, bail’s kind of a moot point isn’t it?

9. Other rights retained by the people. Well, you know, if you can name them during your water boarding, we’ll consider them.

10. Powers not delegated to the United States federal government. Well, they seem to have ended up there anyway. So as you can see, even without habeas corpus, at least one tenth of the Bill of Rights, I guess that’s the Bill of Right, now—remains virtually intact. No. 3 is still safe. "

So, Mr. Morris, while I'd like to sympathize with your possibly biased military backing view that they are treated humane, I'd like to end with a solid quote from Rep. Jim Moran's letter to the President: (Its debatable effectiveness is neither here nor there.)

"Holding prisoners for an indefinite period of time, without charging them with a crime goes against our values, ideals and principles as a nation governed by the rule of law. Further, Guantanamo Bay has a become a liability in the broader global war on terror, as allegations of torture, the indefinite detention of innocent men, and international objections to the treatment of enemy combatants has hurt our credibility as the beacon for freedom and justice.

We feel that it is also necessary to restore the right of habeas corpus to the detainees. This will allow for the implementation of fair and transparent trials to bring enemies of our country to justice. The closure of the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, however, represents a positive first step toward restoring our international reputation as the leader of democracy and individual rights."

So, in short, nice try...but I'm not buying into the picture of a Cuban oasis for prisoners. With explicit Constitutional freedoms cut short, questionable integrity concerning interrogation methods, and also questionable legitimacy of effectiveness concerning intelligence, I will be one of those "critics who liken Guantanamo to Soviet GULAGs." Sorry sir.

Massive Update Part III - CIA's Awesome Declassification

HuffPo brings this next little gem here:

"Little-known documents made public Thursday detail illegal and scandalous activities by the CIA more than 30 years ago _ wiretappings of journalists, kidnappings, warrantless searches and more.

The documents provide a glimpse of nearly 700 pages of materials that the agency has declassified and plans to release next week."

What will we be reading about in 30 years about this war? More of the same, I'm sure. Between backing military coups in Latin America and assassinations all over the world, the CIA are a bunch of shady dudes/dudettes. I can imagine, with all the crazy technological advances we have currently, there will be an enormous amount of atrocities that we will find out about many years from now on the History channel.

"Tom Blanton, head of the National Security Archive, pointed to more recent concerns, such as post-Sept. 11 programs that included warrant less wiretapping. "The resonance with today's controversies is just uncanny," he said."

The problem with this is that the public deserves to know NOW. Why are personal liberties infringed upon and kept secret to "protect" me. I'll take my chances and enjoy my government following this one document...I think it's pretty important...crap I forget its name. Wait. Let me Google it.....

Oh yeah...THE CONSTITUTION?

The purpose of these three articles comes to my conclusions to their communist Russia counterparts. Call me a radical or an idiot but how much different are these parallels? You can't deny the evidence that specific elements parallel them to each other. I didn't say the government was offing people for not following the government's stance on things or locking up journalists. (Or even me for writing this for that matter...) BUT withholding documents (losing emails or firing Federal attorneys for not towing Party lines?), prisoners being interrogated with questionable methods to people who are possibly not even terrorists, and CIA's questionable integrity in major world events add up to a very suspicious citizen.

Executive Branch's Secrecy = Kremlin
Guantanmo = GULAG
CIA's Shadyness = KGB

Write me off to the loony bin....but I'm not convinced we are as holy as we claim to be or even close to being noble. America is dressing up as a Nun during the day and going to Tony Soprano's Bada Bing! to strip at night. Who will hold all these governmental institutions to the law? And if these institutions who are supposed to uphold the law are corrupt....who do you turn to? I need an Excedrin and a bottle of Tums. I'm dying over here.