9/11: 24/7
The run-up to the five year anniversary of 9/11 conveniently falls in the midst of an election campaign, so it comes as no surprise that that the Emperor and his party are milking the occasion for all that it's worth. From speeches comparing critics of the Iraq War to Neville Chamberlain to a network broadcast of a "docudrama" (a little fact, a lot of fiction) with the imprimatur of the right, the current regime is hoping to distract the electorate from the disasterous policies of the last five years. The latest evidence of this strategy was the President's cheerful admission yesterday that all we've heard about secret CIA prisons is true. Now he wants Congress to write the rules for military tribunes so he can start trying the evil-doers who did the dastardly deed. From today's NY Times:
In calling for public war-crime trials at Guantánamo Bay, President Bush is calculating that with a critical election just nine weeks away, neither angry Democrats nor nervous Republicans will dare deny him the power to detain, interrogate and try suspects his way.
For years now, Guantánamo has been a political liability, regarded primarily as a way station for outcasts. By transforming Guantánamo instead into the new home of 14 Qaeda leaders who rank among the most notorious terror suspects, Mr. Bush is challenging Congress to restore to him the authority to put the United States’ worst enemies on trial on terms he has defined.
... Mr. Bush had more than one agenda at work when he announced on Wednesday that the country should “wait no longer’’ to bring to trial those seized by the C.I.A. and accused of planning the Sept. 11 attacks.
He is trying to rebuff a Supreme Court that visibly angered him in June when it ruled that his procedures for interrogation and trials violated both the Constitution and the Geneva Conventions.
And he is trying to divert voters from the morass of Iraq and to revive the emotionally potent question of what powers the president should be able to use to defend the country. [Emphasis added]
What the President wants, as usual, is a blank check from Congress, one that will satisfy part of the US Supreme Court's holding in Hamdan which had noted the lack of any Congressional input. Ironically, the President is putting the Republicans in Congress in a tough spot. Most have been trying to distance themselves from the White House because the electorate has made it quite clear that the country is sick of the morass in Iraq, is sick of rising fuel prices, is sick of working harder for less real income, all of which they link to the current regime.
Maybe this time the President has overplayed his hand. Just maybe.
If we're lucky.
In calling for public war-crime trials at Guantánamo Bay, President Bush is calculating that with a critical election just nine weeks away, neither angry Democrats nor nervous Republicans will dare deny him the power to detain, interrogate and try suspects his way.
For years now, Guantánamo has been a political liability, regarded primarily as a way station for outcasts. By transforming Guantánamo instead into the new home of 14 Qaeda leaders who rank among the most notorious terror suspects, Mr. Bush is challenging Congress to restore to him the authority to put the United States’ worst enemies on trial on terms he has defined.
... Mr. Bush had more than one agenda at work when he announced on Wednesday that the country should “wait no longer’’ to bring to trial those seized by the C.I.A. and accused of planning the Sept. 11 attacks.
He is trying to rebuff a Supreme Court that visibly angered him in June when it ruled that his procedures for interrogation and trials violated both the Constitution and the Geneva Conventions.
And he is trying to divert voters from the morass of Iraq and to revive the emotionally potent question of what powers the president should be able to use to defend the country. [Emphasis added]
What the President wants, as usual, is a blank check from Congress, one that will satisfy part of the US Supreme Court's holding in Hamdan which had noted the lack of any Congressional input. Ironically, the President is putting the Republicans in Congress in a tough spot. Most have been trying to distance themselves from the White House because the electorate has made it quite clear that the country is sick of the morass in Iraq, is sick of rising fuel prices, is sick of working harder for less real income, all of which they link to the current regime.
Maybe this time the President has overplayed his hand. Just maybe.
If we're lucky.
posted by Diane at 3:58 AM
1 Comments:
So now Bush says we should "wait no longer" to try those involved in the September 11 attacks, five years later.
And who, pray tell, has prevented them from being tried in the last five years? Who had the responsibility of bringing them to trial? Who chose not to do so? Who preferred to keep them hidden away in secret prisons, the very existence of which the President and everyone in his administration denied?
NOW he wants to put them on trial? NOW it's so vitally necessary? So vitally necessary that all the rules of fair trials that have been a part of the nation from the beginning have to be jettisoned?
Give me a break.
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