Trashing the Constitution
As one who has spent my career as a legal philosopher and critic of totalitarian regimes, I cannot say what an appalling travesty the following is. Needless to say this was the way of fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism. Nietzsche said somewhere that enemies all too often begin to imitate each other. With the end of WW2 and the Cold War apparently the Bush administration is determined now to play the villain. The one good note I can add here is that I am reading my students exams at the moment and one after another is appalled at what we have been doing in our prison camps -- Guantánamo to Abu Ghraib. I don't think they are going to be able to get away with this sort of stuff much longer without imprioning half the country that is alerted to these horrors. It sounded per yesterdays reports that even Chief Justice Rehnquist has awakened to what is going on in the White House:
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20031231-104741-6525r
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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=3&u=/nm/20050102/ts_nm/security_usa_dc
US Said to Mull Lifetime Terror-Suspect Detentions
Sun Jan 2,12:41 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration is preparing plans for possible lifetime detention of suspected terrorists, including hundreds whom the government does not have enough evidence to charge in courts, The Washington Post reported Sunday.
Citing intelligence, defense and diplomatic officials, the newspaper said the Pentagon (news - web sites) and the CIA (news - web sites) had asked the White House to decide on a more permanent approach for those it would not set free or turn over to courts at home or abroad.
As part of a solution, the Defense Department, which holds 500 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, plans to ask the U.S. Congress for $25 million to build a 200-bed prison to hold detainees who are unlikely to ever go through a military tribunal for lack of evidence, defense officials told the newspaper.
The new prison, dubbed Camp 6, would allow inmates more comfort and freedom than they have now, and would be designed for prisoners the government believes have no more intelligence to share, The Post said.
"It would be modeled on a U.S. prison and would allow socializing among inmates," the paper said.
"Since global war on terror is a long-term effort, it makes sense for us to be looking at solutions for long-term problems," Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, was quoted as saying. "This has been evolutionary, but we are at a point in time where we have to say, 'How do you deal with them in the long term?"'
A Pentagon spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke of the Air Force, had no information on the reported plan.
The Post said the outcome of a review under way would also affect those expected to be captured in the course of future counterterrorism operations.
One proposal would transfer large numbers of Afghan, Saudi and Yemeni detainees from the U.S. military's Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention center into new U.S.-built prisons in their home countries, it said.
The prisons would be operated by those countries, but the State Department, where this idea originated, would ask them to abide by recognized human rights standards and would monitor compliance, a senior administration official was quoted as saying.
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20031231-104741-6525r
--
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=3&u=/nm/20050102/ts_nm/security_usa_dc
US Said to Mull Lifetime Terror-Suspect Detentions
Sun Jan 2,12:41 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration is preparing plans for possible lifetime detention of suspected terrorists, including hundreds whom the government does not have enough evidence to charge in courts, The Washington Post reported Sunday.
Citing intelligence, defense and diplomatic officials, the newspaper said the Pentagon (news - web sites) and the CIA (news - web sites) had asked the White House to decide on a more permanent approach for those it would not set free or turn over to courts at home or abroad.
As part of a solution, the Defense Department, which holds 500 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, plans to ask the U.S. Congress for $25 million to build a 200-bed prison to hold detainees who are unlikely to ever go through a military tribunal for lack of evidence, defense officials told the newspaper.
The new prison, dubbed Camp 6, would allow inmates more comfort and freedom than they have now, and would be designed for prisoners the government believes have no more intelligence to share, The Post said.
"It would be modeled on a U.S. prison and would allow socializing among inmates," the paper said.
"Since global war on terror is a long-term effort, it makes sense for us to be looking at solutions for long-term problems," Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, was quoted as saying. "This has been evolutionary, but we are at a point in time where we have to say, 'How do you deal with them in the long term?"'
A Pentagon spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke of the Air Force, had no information on the reported plan.
The Post said the outcome of a review under way would also affect those expected to be captured in the course of future counterterrorism operations.
One proposal would transfer large numbers of Afghan, Saudi and Yemeni detainees from the U.S. military's Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention center into new U.S.-built prisons in their home countries, it said.
The prisons would be operated by those countries, but the State Department, where this idea originated, would ask them to abide by recognized human rights standards and would monitor compliance, a senior administration official was quoted as saying.
posted by Ed Kent at 1:02 PM
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