US 'may hold cleared detainees'

[The Sushi Bandit]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3487958.stm

Pentagon officials have confirmed that Guantanamo detainees may still be kept in detention, even if they are found not guilty by a military tribunal.

[bushisanidiot]

1. Sounds Like Kidnapping.

found not guilty of anything and being held beyond their will sure sounds like kidnapping to me. Guess they can't be released because they know too much.

[Bridget Burke]

2. If they weren't anti-American before they were "detained"

they surely are now.

[leQ]

3. i especially like the line about the war on terrorism being over

like, helLO??? are people _that stupid?

[The Stranger]

4. This is criminal. It rivals the worst of totalitarianism -- Stalinism,

the Soviet Gulag, North Korea, the Khemer Rouge. You name it.

It also shows what the tribunals mean. If they are cleared by the tribunal and still held, then the tribunal was meaningless in the first place.

[Mandate My Ass]

5. US: The good news is you've been found innocent....

The bad news: It doesn't matter. For your trouble we'll have them send an extra PB&J to your cage.:grr:

[tom_paine]

8. Agreed. How long until these "rules" are expanded to everyone?

My guess: somewhere in the later reign of Emperor Jeb

Perhaps during the reign of Emperor Ah-nold (or Emperor I'm-a-Bushevik-but-my-name-ain't-Bush-so-stop-saying-we're-a-hereditary-Empire)

Maybe as late as, but no later than the reign of Hunky Latino Emperor George P. Caligula (son of Emperor Jeb)...

[benfranklin1776]

11. A distinct possibility for this is how tyranny swallows democracy.

In slow incremental steps. This is why the case the Supreme Court decides later in the year regarding the powers of the President to unilaterally order detentions of citizens, absent legal authority and with no civilian judicial review, is so critical for the precedent it could set. A strong opinion repudiating this practice is what is sorely needed Invariably in such nations in which this power is vested in the chief executive, such as Cuba, North Korea, China, Saudi Arabia et al people who are political opponents of the regime end up being labelled enemies of the state and held incommunicado and indefinitely or worse. We most assuredly should not embrace "their way of doing things" to be sure.

We do not wish to become a nation of the disappeared in which people are held without charge or trial and on the whim of one individual. I thought that archaic, despotic notion had been repudiated with the advent of the writ of habeas corpus but obviously there are some in this administration who would like to set the clock back to the medieval era as this startling statement shows. Even at Nuremberg we did not continue to detain those who were acquitted. If they are acquitted of involvement in terrorism against the United States, then there is absolutely no basis to hold them as there is no basis to conclude they are a continuing threat to us.

[Mandate My Ass]

12. I'm not hopeful about the USSC doing the right thing

Rehnquist has said publicly that while the laws may not remain silent during times of war, they would speak with a different voice. Then there was this news earlier this week.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/8028759.htm

Court declines S. Florida Sept. 11 case

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to decline hearing the virtually secret Sept. 11-related case of a South Florida immigrant has broad implications for basic legal rights.

By NOAH BIERMAN

Miami Herald


The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear the case of a South Florida man whose legal status is being kept in near complete secrecy as part of the government's war on terrorism.

Civil libertarians have been watching the case closely. But even those with the keenest interest have absorbed the case in only dribs and drabs because most facts have been shielded from public view. The case would have remained anonymous if not for an accident from a clerk and the curiosity of a reporter.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

6. This is truly beyond the pale...

When I first heard this story reported the other night my jaw hit the floor.

I have always been terribly upset by the "detentions" at GITMO, but this news just about sent me over the edge.

I have never been more ashamed of my country.

[Deere_John]

7. To-Do List

1. Create a concentration camp immune to oversight by anyone.

2. Set up kangaroo courts with procedures that virtually guarantee a guilty verdict.

3. Announce that the verdicts of the kangaroo courts will be ignored anyway.

4. Order Zyklon B gas from Halliburton.....

[tom_paine]

9. Now, now...you know the Rules of Good Marketing

When attempting to revive a previously discredited "product" (Orwellian Totalitarianism) NEVER bring up anything which brings up unpleasant thoughts of the Old, Discredited Product.

Having said that, if the Busheviks did decide to go that way, they would have to give it a Market-Tested, Psychometrically Calibrated name.

May I suggest Freedom Gas?

NOTE TO lurking OHS thugs and assorted Busheviks: if any of Uncle Karl's Boys are reading this, feel free to steal my idea for your cyanide gas for Gitmo

By the by, welcome to DU, Deere_John!

:toast: :toast:

[TankLV]

10. OK - now tell us AGAIN why these criminals controlling our government

are NOT like Hitler?!

Hitler had a moustache.

Hitler actually served honerably in a war.

This is a different country.

It's raining now, was sunny then.

I didn't have a dog then - hell, I wasn't even born yet.

Sooooo many ways this is NOT like Hitler!

[silverpatronus]

13. jesus h. christ...

WHERE IS THE PUBLIC OUTCRY?!