Our wonderful new President has proposed something troubling and we have to persuade him what a bad idea it is: to detain those people now at Guantánamo “who cannot be prosecuted for past crimes, but who nonetheless pose a threat to the security of the United States.” As examples, he listed “people who have received extensive explosives training at al Qaeda training camps, commanded Taliban troops in battle, expressed their allegiance to Osama bin Laden, or otherwise made it clear that they want to kill Americans.”
He said this would be for Guantánamo detainees that the Bush Adninistration captured, some call them Bush "legacy" detainees (like "legacy assets" i.e. toxic, worthless, subprime mortgages that melted down the global economy). Administration officials say that these men were tortured so the information gained from them or about them cannot be used in court. This is a terrible idea. During a speech delivered in May at the National Archives, standing in front of the actual Consititution, he spoke beautifully about how we must adhere to our values. But he shocked all of us when he said some people could not face trial, but neither could they be released. What kind of precedent would this establish, both in the U.S. and around the world? Once this is done, can it ever be undone when most politicians are so easily intimidated by the politics of fear? Watch and read the speech here.
See how Rachel Maddow outlined the problem here. Then vote in our poll in the right sidebar...
Friday, July 17, 2009
Prosecute Torture? Listen to this debate...
Listen to this debate: Glenn Greenwald (civil rights lawyer) vs. NBC's Chuck Todd...do not miss out!
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