Oh, Please
There are some days I wonder why I even bother to get out of bed, and today is starting out to be one of them. What set me off is this editorial in today's NY Times. With a title like "Untried, Unjustly," I anticipated something about the illegal detention of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people by the US. Not so. The editorialist was taking aim at the legal system of other countries.
The State Department reports that thousands of prisoners in India are detained awaiting trials for longer periods than they would receive if convicted. In India, Bangladesh, the Dominican Republic, Nigeria and dozens of other nations, the majority of people in prison have not yet been tried. Even in France and Italy, long pretrial detention is a serious problem.
The practice is abusive in many ways. Many of those held will eventually turn out to be innocent. Also, the crime victim's right to justice is violated. [Emphasis added]
Pot, meet kettle.
The US is "detaining" people in the US, in Iraq, in Guantanamo Bay, and in "black sites" in other countries after extraordinary rendition without formal charges, without access to lawyers, and without inspection of their condition by the International Red Cross. Many of these people have been held in these conditions since 2001, nearly five years. The US would not even cooperate with a United Nations' agency concerned with the 'possible' violation of the prisoners' human rights in such a detention, and only recently released the names of those being held in Guantanamo after ordered to do so by the courts in this country.
Yes, we have a fine legal system for the protection of the rights of those who are detained before trial, but that system apparently doesn't apply to these people, at least according to the Attorney General and the Secretary of Defense.
A small part of me thinks that the editorial was intended as a satiric riff, a Swiftian take-down of the current regime, but, to be frank, I see no evidence in that editorial of such an intent.
I think I'll go back to bed and try to mentally design a device for the removal of the redwood tree firmly embedded in this nation's eye.
The State Department reports that thousands of prisoners in India are detained awaiting trials for longer periods than they would receive if convicted. In India, Bangladesh, the Dominican Republic, Nigeria and dozens of other nations, the majority of people in prison have not yet been tried. Even in France and Italy, long pretrial detention is a serious problem.
The practice is abusive in many ways. Many of those held will eventually turn out to be innocent. Also, the crime victim's right to justice is violated. [Emphasis added]
Pot, meet kettle.
The US is "detaining" people in the US, in Iraq, in Guantanamo Bay, and in "black sites" in other countries after extraordinary rendition without formal charges, without access to lawyers, and without inspection of their condition by the International Red Cross. Many of these people have been held in these conditions since 2001, nearly five years. The US would not even cooperate with a United Nations' agency concerned with the 'possible' violation of the prisoners' human rights in such a detention, and only recently released the names of those being held in Guantanamo after ordered to do so by the courts in this country.
Yes, we have a fine legal system for the protection of the rights of those who are detained before trial, but that system apparently doesn't apply to these people, at least according to the Attorney General and the Secretary of Defense.
A small part of me thinks that the editorial was intended as a satiric riff, a Swiftian take-down of the current regime, but, to be frank, I see no evidence in that editorial of such an intent.
I think I'll go back to bed and try to mentally design a device for the removal of the redwood tree firmly embedded in this nation's eye.
posted by Diane at 5:23 AM
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