The cherry on top

[solarbird]

Military commissions can sentence people to death. Military regs were quietly updated in 2006 to allow executions at Gitmo, to avoid actual judicial review:

David Sheldon, an attorney and former member of the Navy's legal corps, said an execution chamber at Guantanamo would be largely beyond the reach of U.S. courts.

"I think that's the administration's idea, to try to use Guantanamo as a base to not be under the umbrella of the federal district courts," he said. "If one is detained in North Carolina or South Carolina in a Navy brig, one could conceivably file a petition of habeas corpus and because of where they're located, invoke the jurisdiction of a federal court."

Okay! So! We've got an administration that can kidnap anyone (including you) anywhere (including where you are), haul them off anywhere (such as Gitmo), hold them without charge, torture them (however they want, until they decide you're proven guilty, apparently), "try" them in military tribunals subject to severe political pressure, and execute them, far away from any hope of appeal.

When I say we're about to hit the bottom of this pit, I mean, we are about to hit the bottom of this pit. It's deep, and it's dark, and it's very, very, very cold.

Comments

[brombear.livejournal.com]

One of the things that bothers me is that so far, every attempt to rein in the CIA has failed...and they're the ones who are "in charge" of this mess. Of course...I also think that they should go ahead and change their official title to either "KGB", or to "SS"...

[wrog]

ummm... the bottom is a long way down; I don't believe we're anywhere near it.

[solarbird]

I tend to speak in terms of theory, rather than practicality, and you're absolutely right; in practical terms, we're still pretty far away from a bottom. And I tend to value the theory - the operational rules set - too much over the realised actuality. It is a weakness of mine, and I acknowledge it.

But in terms of the power/political theory? Things are pretty fucking bad.