Freedom
Rider: Torture
by BAR Editor and Senior Columnist Margaret Kimberley
"I have been
forced to run in leg shackles that regularly ripped the skin off my ankles.
Many other detainees experienced the same." - Guantanamo detainee David
Hicks.
"I was
responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z." - Khalid
Sheikh Mohammedâs Guantanamo confession.
Guantanamo is awash in confessions these days. Walid
Mohammad bin Attash
claims to have blown up the USS Cole. Khalid Sheik Mohammed confessed to
planning 9/11, the bombing of U.S. embassies in Africa, and night clubs in
Bali. He also confessed to killing of Daniel Pearl and perhaps Anna Nicole
Smith, too.
An Australian prisoner, David Hicks, has confessed to
terrorist activity. He spent 5 years at Guantanamo and recently pleaded guilty
to providing material support for terrorism, which wasn't even against U.S. law
until October 2006. The only way for him to return home was to confess. He also
had to sign an agreement denying his previous
statements that he had been tortured. He had to promise not to sue the U.S.
government, make any money from telling the story of his ordeal, or talk to the
media for at least one year.
"These
military tribunals have doomed our country."
These confessions are not taken seriously by any
intelligent people in this country and they are certainly not taken seriously
by anyone outside of it. Even the namby pamby Congressional actions on Iraq are
sending the Bushites into a frenzy of show trials to justify waging endless war
on the rest of humanity. The confessions will surely be repeated when the
bombing of Iran begins.
Not only are these military tribunals a travesty and a great
injustice to the people involved, but they have doomed our country. The
hatred that spawned the 9/11 attacks has only grown with time. Now all
Americans have bulls eyes on their heads because of the evil people who run
this government.
There have been many brave efforts to stop this evil doing,
but so far it has come to naught. U.S. courts have dismissed lawsuits, Congress
enabled the administration by approving the kangaroo court system. Truth
tellers like Democratic Senator Richard Durbin are sent to the wood shed by
their own party for rightly comparing Guantanamo to a Nazi prison.
David Hicks is a white Australian who converted to Islam and
lived in Afghanistan in 2001. He has been held for five years and was denied
the most basic constitutional rights that he would have enjoyed in Australia or
the United States. His family made his case a cause celebre in his
country and forced his Bush-loving prime minister, John Howard, to negotiate
for his release.
"None of
the Democratic front runners has said anything about closing Gitmo."
Howard is facing a tough election in November, so he doesn't
want Hicks mucking things up by telling his harrowing tales. Get him out but
don't let him talk until a more opportune time. So the man who was called
terror enemy number one and originally threatened with a 20 year sentence will
now be allowed to serve nine months in his native Australia.
Even if America survives until November 2008 and manages to
get the Republicans out of the White House, none of the Democratic front
runners has said anything about closing Gitmo and using the court system that
successfully tried terror suspects before Bush came to office. Barack Obama
thinks military courts are better.
"I've heard, for example, the argument that it should be
military courts, and not federal judges, who should make decisions on these
detainees. I actually agree
with that. The problem is that the structure of the military proceedings
has been poorly thought through."
Senator Smarty Pants also predicted that terror suspects
would have counsel and be able to present evidence on their behalf.
"He (Khalid Mohammed) will have counsel, he will
be able to present evidence, and he will be able to rebut the Government's
case. The feeling is that he is guilty of a war crime and to do otherwise might
violate some of our agreements under the Geneva Conventions. I think that is
good, that we are going to provide him with some procedure and process."
It is news to me that guilt of war crimes is determined by a
Senator's feelings. No one at Gitmo checked with the superstar media darling
before they kept Khalid Sheikh Mohammed from calling
witnesses or having attorneys present. Hillary Clinton, in her typical fear
of saying anything of substance, has said nothing about the process.
"Rove and Bush have the nerve to joke about breaking the
law and the press make fools of themselves in order to stay in their good
graces."
There will be no respite from the destruction of the
Constitution and the dismissal of International Law followed by the rest of the
world. We are in great danger from our own government and that danger will not
lessen after the inauguration of a new president in January of 2009.
While Washington burns, reporters have
fun with Karl Rove at the annual Correspondents Association dinner. Rove
and Bush have the nerve to joke about breaking the law and the press make fools
of themselves in order to stay in their good graces. If we had real
journalists, this annual embarrassment would be cancelled for lack of
participants. But we don't have real journalists, so they continue to whore for
a living while somewhere revenge is being plotted against every American. When
the strike comes most people won't even know why and David Hicks won't be able
to tell us.
Margaret Kimberley's
Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York
City, and can be reached via e-Mail at
Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.Com. Ms. Kimberley' maintains an
edifying and frequently updated blog at freedomrider.blogspot.com. More of her
work is also available at her Black Agenda Report archive
page.
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