Dear Mr. President


Two Days: The Prisons, The Torture, The Trials
January 18, 2009, 8:22 pm
Filed under: Afghanistan, Bush, capital punishment, children, Constitution, crime, ethics, Iraq, justice, news, peace, politics, prisoners, Taliban, terror, torture, United Nations, war | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Dear Mr. President,
     It was under your watch that, for the first time in history, America openly tortured prisoners of war.  Yes.  That’s what we did.  It was torture.  We tortured.  No matter how often you say “We do not torture,” we have tortured.  
     From the very beginning of our “war on terror” we have done this.  We have incarcerated hundreds of people, calling them enemy combatants.  We have imprisoned them at Guantanamo.  We have imprisoned them at Abu Ghraib.  We have allowed them to be “exported” – “outsourced”, so to speak, to countries that are even less squeamish about torture than we are. 
     We have imprisoned hundreds of people  without the possibility of a writ of habeas corpus.   We have denied these people access to legal representation.  We have held them without charge, many of them for years and years.  We have imprisoned and tortured youngsters aged 14, including one lad who now, after 6 years, should soon be finally released. 
     You are saying that we cannot release those prisoners still left in Guantánamo because a) no one will take them and b) they may upon release turn against our country (as who could blame them?). 
    Mr. President, we can’t keep people in prison because they might commit crimes upon being released.  We don’t get to do that.  We only get to keep people in prison if they are found guilty of having committed crimes.  Only if there is evidence of their having committed crimes are we allowed to punish them.  If people are accused of having committed crimes, then they must be brought to trial and the evidence of their guilt must be shown.  This is what is called justice.  this is what is known as “innocent until proven guilty”, a great Anglo-Saxon tenent.
     You have broken with this idea of justice.  You have set yourself beyond the law.  Even in those cases in which there have been trials, such as the case of Saddam Husssein, there has been no justice.  His trial was a farce; his hanging was a lynching.  And what has happened to those other members of his government who have just sort of disappeared?  How is Tarak Aziz doing, for example?
     And what is happening to the thousands of other prisoners in our prisons in Afghanistan and Iraq?  Are they “enjoying due process”?  What about those in the prisons of the “fledgling democracies” themselves?
     Mr. President, you have made a mockery of the law.  You have condoned illegal imprisonment and torture.  You have demolished our Constitution.
     You have made cruel punishment usual.  You have denied a writ of habeas corpus.   In America we live by the law, but you have set yourself beyond the law.
    You have, in fact, made yourself an outlaw, deserving of arrest and trial and, the evidence being pretty evident, punishment.   It is my hope that, once your “reign” is over, you will be brought to justice.
 
     Sincerely, VNV
Leave a comment


torture trial
October 30, 2008, 9:04 pm
Filed under: Bush, crime, ethics, justice, news, politics, prisoners, torture, U.S.A. | Tags: , , , ,
Dear Mr. President,
     Although the election is foremost in just about everyone’s mind right now, I just saw an interesting article about the trial and conviction of Charles Taylor Jr. (“Chuckie”) for torture.
     Here’s the explaination from Human Rights Watch:  “The US federal extraterritorial torture statute, 18 USC § 2340A, makes it a crime for US citizens or anyone present in the United States, regardless of whether they are a US citizen, to commit torture abroad, or to attempt or conspire to commit torture abroad. The law applies regardless of the nationality of the victim. Penalties can be a fine and/or imprisonment of up to 20 years, or if the victim dies as a result of the torture, imprisonment for a term of years, life imprisonment, or death. Life imprisonment is the maximum penalty sought in the prosecution of Chuckie Taylor for torture.”
     That being the case, when is Donald Rumsfeld going to be indicted and tried?  When, for that matter, are you?
 
Sincerely, VNV
Leave a comment