Habeas Corpus?

Lost Amid the Rising Tide of Detainees in Iraq
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
The influx of prisoners has overwhelmed the Iraqi
authorities, and detention centers operate virtually
unchecked.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/25/international/middleeast/25search.html?th&emc=th

...........................................................................

I daily receive a Google Alert on U.S. Prisoners. It is generally pretty grim reading, as the U.S. has replaced France (Devil's Island of notorious fame:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil's_Island

as the most brutal developed nation in its treatment of prisoners -- and worse in its practice of imprisoning persons accused of terrorism with absolutely no proof that said prisoners are in fact terrorists.

The apologists for such criminal activity (in my professional view as a philosopher of law familiar both with the rule of law and the difficult history over centuries to protect individuals from tyrannical abuses) are either ignorant and totally unaware of our hard-won legal heritage -- the U.S. Constitution, the Rule of Law, the evolution of human rights standards -- or else are, themselves, war criminals as guilty as any we have experienced in our grim human history. The numbers do not make a difference here. It is the intent to violate essential standards long in the making to protect persons from abuses precisely by such an elementary rule as habeas corpus:

http://www.lectlaw.com/def/h001.htm

I cannot believe that anyone informed enough to read this comment is not aware of the reports that alleged terrorists are too often rather persons picked up for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Anyone who happened to be in Afghanistan before or during our attack on it or with any connections therewith can be accused of being a terrorist. The same is true of any with ties to Iraq. The Chalabi phenomenon -- lies promulgated for self-interest by an individual indicted by Jordan for stealing hundreds of millions of dollars and who provided in abundance the false information to justify the Bush and Co. attack on Iraq -- is an abomination to Americans, but has been most recently wined and dined by the central honchos in Bush's administration:

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0315,fahim,43217,1.html

I cannot believe that we Americans are now secreting prisoners in brutal and too frequently hidden jails -- all too many who are most likely totally innocent.

This is a mad scene in which legal good and evil have been reversed. May our national torturers and their supporters achieve their just deserts -- in this world or the next.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort
to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
--
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AcademicFreedom

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PrivacyRights

http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/

http://www.bloggernews.net/blognews.asp