I encourage everyone to see these stark, beautiful, sobering pictures from Guantanamo Bay. NPR posted the slideshow from Atlantic:
http://www.theatlantic.com/slideshows/guantanamo/
I do not think that the American people know what perversions of justice are being perpretrated in their name. I do not think they know, for example, of earlier Supreme Court decisions denying due process not only to alleged terrorists of foreign citizenship, but also to American citizens, arrested both abroad and on American soil.
And now, six detainees are being tried with some semblance of due process. Think, for example, of actually BEING ABLE TO SEE the evidence proferred by the prosecution against you! What's more, think of actually being able to cross-examine your prosecution's witnesses! And wow, for once, you'll have access to competent counsel. How amazing. It's been a terribly recent development, this. It was only last year that the Supreme Court ruled in Hamdan that the Geneva Conventions actually applied to our Gitmo detainees! Before, these PEOPLE (criminals or not, they are PEOPLE and therefore have such a thing as HUMAN RIGHTS) literally existed in the black hole of the Bush War Against Terrorism. No rights. No counsel. No impartial trials. Not even the chance to know what charges you've been accused of, no chance to contest the evidence used against you.
Guess what, people. THE BILL OF RIGHTS IS A PRIVILEGE. THE BILL OF RIGHTS IS NOT GUARANTEED. Hey, until the Fourteenth Amendment was passed, they didn't even apply to the States. And even then, the Supreme Court had to explicitly state their applicability in a series of cases. What we think of as our "inalienable rights," what we take for granted as a given--our rights to counsel, our rights against self-incrimination, free speech, habeas corpus, even...all of these lie on no firmer basis than our faith that they do and should exist.
It's enough to say we should all pray to whatever our respective belief systems tell us to pray to.
Picture from: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11381321/
10 comments:
Preach on it, Juvy!
Have I mentioned how glad I am that you are becoming a lawyer? Great post;-)
Agree with you 100% (and it's a very sad development in the land of the free), but I remember that years before, when we Europeans said so on public fora, we were accused for anti-americanism! How things change!
I am very glad that there has been given some insight to what goes on for the american public who till recently was not allowed even a glimpse of what was happening.
Happy V-day to you J!
Oh man, Helg, heck, we'd STILL be accused of anti-Americanism NOW. As soon as the so-called Department of Homeland Security, I've been grumbling. At the time, I was interning on a military facility, so *they* were all gung-ho about it, claiming that 'this was a small sacrifice to catch the bad guys.' If even the Supreme Court was in on it, how could we dissent? I saw smart people justify away their 4th Amendment rights, then their 5th Amendment rights, and the 14th scrambled with it. When people re-elected Bush, ostensibly because they 'didn't want to change horses in the middle of the stream,' how could we protest the things he did because he had a 'mandate from the American people'? UGH!!!
Okies, this could go on for quite some time, but I'll stop now. It IS Valentine's day, and I gotta calm myself.
On the other hand, the counsel for the so-called "American Taliban" is speaking at our school today. He was a member of the military at the time he argued for Mr. Hamdi at the Supreme Court, and was supposedly passed over for promotion because of his diligence and dedication to his client.
I'm working on that perfume-and-romance Valentine's post! This DID use to be a perfume blog, lol...
CORRECTION: the dude talking at our school is talking NEXT week, and he WAS NOT the counsel in Hamdi v Rumsfeld, but was counsel in HAMDAN v Rumsfeld. Hamdan was Osama bin Laden's *driver,* of all things, and it was decided last year. Note that this was the case in which the Supreme Court held that these so-called 'enemy combatants' had rights under the Geneva Convention. Also note that most these dudes are being tried by the military for CONSPIRACY--NOT something recognized as a crime in the law of war.
i need to shut up.
hmm. Now...A.maze? or Gourmandises?
I will eb lloking forward J to what you post after the talk takes place: this is a very interesting issue to drop it.
Perfume? Ah yes, there is perfume to be enjoyed as well. But you bring a lot through the other posts too :-)
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Sweetgirl, how are you? You've been missed.
Hope all is well with you.
Love,
Divina
Juvy dearest, where are you? I hope you're well.
Darling girl, wish I had your email to ask you more personally, but how are you? I've missed you! How are your studies going? Are you happy? Drop me a line sometime sweet one.
Divina
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