U.S. imprisons 14,000 without charges
Yet another embarassing story about how we are losing moral authority around the world because of our tactics which deny due process of law to thousands.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke out this week about how we are losing our moral authority. "The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism." Powell said in a letter to the Senate Committee that is writing new law on handling U.S. detainees, after the Supreme Court struck down King George's unilateral detainee policies.
To prove the point, look at this new article from the Associated Press:
September 17, 2006, By PATRICK QUINN:
"BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - In the few short years since the first shackled Afghan shuffled off to Guantanamo, the U.S. military has created a global network of overseas prisons, its islands of high security keeping 14,000 detainees beyond the reach of established law.
Disclosures of torture and long-term arbitrary detentions have won rebuke from leading voices including the U.N. secretary-general and the U.S. Supreme Court. But the bitterest words come from inside the system, the size of several major U.S. penitentiaries.
"It was hard to believe I'd get out," Baghdad shopkeeper Amjad Qassim al-Aliyawi told The Associated Press after his release - without charge - last month. "I lived with the Americans for one year and eight months as if I was living in hell."
Captured on battlefields, pulled from beds at midnight, grabbed off streets as suspected insurgents, tens of thousands now have passed through U.S. detention, the vast majority in Iraq....
As with others, Karim's confinement may simply have strengthened support for the anti-U.S. resistance. "I will hate Americans for the rest of my life," he said."
See THIS LINK for the full story.
ASK your Senate and Congressional candidates how they stand on this issue. This is truly our number one 'security issue'. If we come to be seen in the world as ruthless thugs who kidnap people and hold them without charges or trials, we will assuredly create more new terrorists than we can ever handle. We will never kidnap and terrify people into security. Our safety and security depends on protecting our constitutional rights and values, and respecting the rule of law.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke out this week about how we are losing our moral authority. "The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism." Powell said in a letter to the Senate Committee that is writing new law on handling U.S. detainees, after the Supreme Court struck down King George's unilateral detainee policies.
To prove the point, look at this new article from the Associated Press:
September 17, 2006, By PATRICK QUINN:
"BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - In the few short years since the first shackled Afghan shuffled off to Guantanamo, the U.S. military has created a global network of overseas prisons, its islands of high security keeping 14,000 detainees beyond the reach of established law.
Disclosures of torture and long-term arbitrary detentions have won rebuke from leading voices including the U.N. secretary-general and the U.S. Supreme Court. But the bitterest words come from inside the system, the size of several major U.S. penitentiaries.
"It was hard to believe I'd get out," Baghdad shopkeeper Amjad Qassim al-Aliyawi told The Associated Press after his release - without charge - last month. "I lived with the Americans for one year and eight months as if I was living in hell."
Captured on battlefields, pulled from beds at midnight, grabbed off streets as suspected insurgents, tens of thousands now have passed through U.S. detention, the vast majority in Iraq....
As with others, Karim's confinement may simply have strengthened support for the anti-U.S. resistance. "I will hate Americans for the rest of my life," he said."
See THIS LINK for the full story.
ASK your Senate and Congressional candidates how they stand on this issue. This is truly our number one 'security issue'. If we come to be seen in the world as ruthless thugs who kidnap people and hold them without charges or trials, we will assuredly create more new terrorists than we can ever handle. We will never kidnap and terrify people into security. Our safety and security depends on protecting our constitutional rights and values, and respecting the rule of law.
posted by Mike Grayson @ 11:02 AM
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