It's time to close down "secret" jails

Yesterday various news services reported that the "The U.N. Human Rights Committee on Friday told Washington it should immediately shut all "secret detention" facilities and give the International Committee of the Red Cross access to anybody held in armed conflict." See FULL STORY HERE.

Again I come back to due process, the rule of law, and our image around the world. We are supposed to be an example of how the rule of law works. Instead, we are running the new Gulags. We are seen around the world as violators of human rights, instead of a moral beacon. All in five years....it is so sad.

I continue to be shocked at how little air time this story got. Here the United Nations calls on OUR COUNTRY to stop secretly seizing people and holding them in jails hidden around the world without due process, or even Red Cross access. Nobody cares.

Election time approaches. These issues need to be asked to everyone running for office:
1. Do you support running hidden jails for people seized and held without warrants?
2. Do you support warrantless wiretaps?
3. Do you support using torture on prisoners?
4. Do you support prosecuting people who leak information on illegal government activities?
5. Do you support holding prisoners forever without ever filing charges against them?
6. Do you support an all powerful presidency?
7. Do you agree that the United States should be an example of the rule of law and due process for all?

Crackdown on leaks to the press?

Reuters and Yahoo are reporting that

"The Bush administration is preparing a crackdown on intelligence leaks to the media and will try to pursue prosecutions in some recent cases, the chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee on Tuesday. Michigan Republican Rep. Peter Hoekstra also suggested some unauthorized leaks could have been deliberate attempts to help al Qaeda.

"More frequently than what we would like, we find out that the intelligence community has been penetrated, not necessarily by al Qaeda, but by other nations or organizations," he said. "I don't have any evidence. But from my perspective, when you have information that is leaked that is clearly helpful to our enemy, you cannot discount that possibility," he added.

My first reaction is that Hoekstra himself is an al Queda operative, sent to convince the world of how stupid Americans must be to elect a moron like him.

On further reflection, I think he is right. I think whoever leaked CIA Agent Valerie Plame's identity should be prosecuted, even if it is Cheney and Bush.

As my friend Napolean D. would say: Idiot!

Bush polcies have caused "irreparable damage' to United States reputation

Rear Admiral Donald Guter was the Judge Advocate General of the Navy at the time the military tribunal policies were written. Admiral Guter argued against these Bush policies from within the administration at the time they were being implemented. Asked whether the decision gave him an "I told you so moment", he responded:

"I think the damage that's been to our reputation, the damage thats been done to at least our standing with respect to the rule of law and arguing for respect for our military prisoners and others, I think that has been so diminished by what has happened and whats been done that its hard to feel any kind of gloating over the decision."

"I think we've suffered probably irreparable harm in the international community for my lifetime, and for my kids lifetime, but I think that this [the Hamden decision] might be a chance to start fresh."

Hear the entire interview HERE.