The Water Carrier Launches a Balloon
Two American soldiers are listed as missing in Iraq and presumed captured by Iraqi insurgents. It is hard to feel anything but dread, given what we know about how prisoners and detainees have been treated by the US at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and the secret, CIA-run "black prisons" in Europe. It looks like pay-back time for those two soldiers. It is fitting that Americans be forced to take a long, hard, and honest look just what our leaders have been doing in our name, and just what the consequences of that behavior will probably be. That just such a long, hard, and honest look should be done by a newspaper that has long supported the regime is, to say the least, startling. It is also very welcome. From the first of a promised series of editorials in the Washington Post.
NEARLY FIVE years into a war between the United States and Islamic extremists, U.S. policies and practices for arresting, holding, interrogating and trying enemy militants are in a state of disarray unprecedented in modern American history. They shame the nation and violate its fundamental values. Consider:
· The U.S. military and CIA are holding hundreds of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, Afghanistan and secret prisons elsewhere under starkly varying rules and conditions....Most detentions are not governed by any specific U.S. law or international treaty, since the Bush administration has refused to apply the Geneva Conventions outside of Iraq.
...A number of U.S. allies consider these practices immoral or illegal, and this has hampered their cooperation with American forces in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
· Guantanamo Bay has become a toxic symbol around the world of U.S. human rights violations, a status magnified by recent suicides. ...the Pentagon is spending millions to build a state-of-the-art penitentiary at the base. The administration seems to have no plan for how and where it will hold long-term detainees, or those convicted of crimes.
· The Bush administration has set aside or evaded the rules for prisoner treatment contained in the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture but has adopted no firm standards of its own.
This political and administrative mess stems directly from Mr. Bush's decision in the weeks after Sept. 11 to take extraordinary measures against terrorism through the assertion of presidential power, rather than through legislation, court action or diplomacy. His intent was to exclude Congress, the courts and other governments from influencing or even monitoring how foreign detainees were treated. ...Mr. Bush's policies have deeply tarnished U.S. prestige abroad, inhibited cooperation with allies and prevented justice for al-Qaeda.
The way to repair the system lies in correcting Mr. Bush's exclusion of Congress, the courts and other governments. New laws and diplomatic protocols are needed to regulate the detention of some terrorist suspects. Courts must be given a role in overseeing those detentions and enforcing existing laws against abusive treatment. Many more terrorists should be put on trial, and those trials that are not conducted under the present justice system should be governed by statutes that ensure fairness.
Finally!
NEARLY FIVE years into a war between the United States and Islamic extremists, U.S. policies and practices for arresting, holding, interrogating and trying enemy militants are in a state of disarray unprecedented in modern American history. They shame the nation and violate its fundamental values. Consider:
· The U.S. military and CIA are holding hundreds of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, Afghanistan and secret prisons elsewhere under starkly varying rules and conditions....Most detentions are not governed by any specific U.S. law or international treaty, since the Bush administration has refused to apply the Geneva Conventions outside of Iraq.
...A number of U.S. allies consider these practices immoral or illegal, and this has hampered their cooperation with American forces in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
· Guantanamo Bay has become a toxic symbol around the world of U.S. human rights violations, a status magnified by recent suicides. ...the Pentagon is spending millions to build a state-of-the-art penitentiary at the base. The administration seems to have no plan for how and where it will hold long-term detainees, or those convicted of crimes.
· The Bush administration has set aside or evaded the rules for prisoner treatment contained in the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture but has adopted no firm standards of its own.
This political and administrative mess stems directly from Mr. Bush's decision in the weeks after Sept. 11 to take extraordinary measures against terrorism through the assertion of presidential power, rather than through legislation, court action or diplomacy. His intent was to exclude Congress, the courts and other governments from influencing or even monitoring how foreign detainees were treated. ...Mr. Bush's policies have deeply tarnished U.S. prestige abroad, inhibited cooperation with allies and prevented justice for al-Qaeda.
The way to repair the system lies in correcting Mr. Bush's exclusion of Congress, the courts and other governments. New laws and diplomatic protocols are needed to regulate the detention of some terrorist suspects. Courts must be given a role in overseeing those detentions and enforcing existing laws against abusive treatment. Many more terrorists should be put on trial, and those trials that are not conducted under the present justice system should be governed by statutes that ensure fairness.
Finally!
posted by Diane at 3:31 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home