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Indefinite detention and torture
Jul. 8th, 2009 03:29 pmMr. Obama's administration has decided that it has the right to imprison people indefinitely even if they've been acquitted of all charges, even by military commission - in other words, to jail the innocent forever, if, in the judgement of the administration they could be dangerous in the future:
Meanwhile, over in the state propaganda front, NPR was caught using the word "torture" to describe the exact same techniques that they refuse to describe as "torture" when Americans and the American government use them. This is their ombudsman explaining why:
Glenn Greenwald was waiting for his turn on NPR to talk about their policy when he heard Ms. Shepard talk about this in advance of him - he'd been led to believe he'd be able to engage her in direct conversation, but that was not the case. Here's his take on both of these topics.
Oh, and Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson is suggesting Gitmo will be kept open past January 2010 after all. Or that another such facility will be used elsewhere, as we've already known.
Please enjoy your institutionalised bipartisan torture, arbitrary arrest, and indefinite detention regime. I don't know what it's going to look like, but it probably won't be very democratic for very long. They rarely are.
Jeh Johnson, the Defense Department's chief lawyer, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that releasing a detainee who has been tried and found not guilty was a policy decision that officials would make based on their estimate of whether the prisoner posed a future threat.Rep. Nadler (D-NY) pegs the trial part:
What bothers me is that they seem to be saying, "Some people we have good enough evidence against, so we'll give them a fair trial. Some people the evidence is not so good, so we'll give them a less fair trial. We'll give them just enough due process to ensure a conviction because we know they're guilty." That's not a fair trial, that's a show trial.Not incidentally, Vice Adm. Bruce MacDonald is arguing for the use of torture-derived confessions and evidence in these military commissions as Congress debates all of this brutal lawlessness.
Meanwhile, over in the state propaganda front, NPR was caught using the word "torture" to describe the exact same techniques that they refuse to describe as "torture" when Americans and the American government use them. This is their ombudsman explaining why:
In that case, these were strictly tactics to torture him, to punish him, versus in the United States, and the way that it’s used, these are tactics used to get information. The Gambian journalist was in jail for his beliefs.If you torture someone for the "right" reasons, it's not torture. So sayeth NPR ombudsman Alicia Shepard.
Glenn Greenwald was waiting for his turn on NPR to talk about their policy when he heard Ms. Shepard talk about this in advance of him - he'd been led to believe he'd be able to engage her in direct conversation, but that was not the case. Here's his take on both of these topics.
Oh, and Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson is suggesting Gitmo will be kept open past January 2010 after all. Or that another such facility will be used elsewhere, as we've already known.
Please enjoy your institutionalised bipartisan torture, arbitrary arrest, and indefinite detention regime. I don't know what it's going to look like, but it probably won't be very democratic for very long. They rarely are.
