For me it's coming down to what we are preserving- or attempting to preserve- I think the bad far outweighs the good here- and I believe that if Obama sidesteps this it will be his downfall.
President Obama will forever be linked to the Bush Torture Coverup and our great victory over the establishment will be torn down.
"It's a trap are you blind?" (Hamish) ~Braveheart
How do you look at the conflict where almost all countrys denys to receive any prisoners from Guantanamo Bay
Our accounts and blogs on MYBO are still active, and still free! How kewl is that!
So, we've elected the man, now what? Well updates from the White House are making tree-hugging liberals think we've died and gone to Heaven (Summerland for my fellow neo-pagans). And each day deepens my Presidential Crush:
1/22/09: Obama's third Executive Order issued on his second day in office will see Guantanamo Bay closing in a year's time and emphasizes detainee constitutional privilege of the writ of habeas corpus and enforces standards of the Geneva Conventions. His fourth Order in the same day forms a task force of high level officials to determine future detainee policy
Wait, it gets better, his next Order, issued on the same day, ensures lawful interrogations--effectively taking care of that torture problem we've been having since 2007. The order creates a task force of high level officials to "study and evaluate whether the interrogation practices and techniques in Army Field Manual 2 22.3, when employed by departments or agencies outside the military, provide an appropriate means of acquiring the intelligence necessary to protect the Nation." Thus examining existing interrogation techniques.
And it gets still better! This same order also deals with CIA "dark" prisons: The CIA shall close as expeditiously as possible any detention facilities that it currently operates and shall not operate any such detention facility in the future."
Three dark blots removed from the conscience of the nation in one day.
But one wonders. In that fifth Order there's this statement: "From this day forward, unless the Attorney General with appropriate consultation provides further guidance, officers, employees, and other agents of the United States Government may, in conducting interrogations, act in reliance upon Army Field Manual 2 22.3, but may not, in conducting interrogations, rely upon any interpretation of the law governing interrogation -- including interpretations of Federal criminal laws, the Convention Against Torture, Common Article 3, Army Field Manual 2 22.3, and its predecessor document, Army Field Manual 34 52 . . . ."
Is this intended to prevent lower rank military personnel from again taking the fall for bad decisions on interrogations? Does this put that onus on higher level officials? Is anyone familiar with military law reading my blog???
Well we've only covered one day, and it gets better. . . so I hope Jimmy Carter doesn't get too jealous while I wallow for several blog entries on how Obama has saved the New World--oh make that Renewed World: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/a_national_day_of_renewal_and_reconciliation/
Until next time Renewed Nation . . . . .
P.S. As promised! Informative links! http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing_room/executive_orders/
Well, it's been ten days since Barack Hussein Obama was elected President of the US of A.
Barack Obama is MY President-elect.
As I walk past the press kiosks I see enlarged magazine covers with My New President-elect smiling. I sillily smile back like a baby.
I have recieved acknowledgements from everyone I know --from the veteran of a war for independance, to the doctoral candidate, to the supermarket cashier. None of them American but all of them hopeful that change in America will also mean change in the world.
Already the transition team has stated that there will be criminal trials for Guantanamo POWs/criminals/ detainees. Other priorities include unblocking research on stem cells, stopping the drilling for oil in some environmentally sensitive areas, and allowing the state of California to tighten vehicle emission regulations.
....And it's only been ten days.
Was it just me, or did John McCain seem dismissive when he called Barack Obama “that one”?
If I had to choose between John McCain and Barack Obama, I would choose THAT one. When it comes to Barack Obama:
Maybe John McCain is right. Barack Obama is the one. That’s the one for me.
Omar Khadr, "Detained" at GITMO since the age of 15 years.
LAWYERS RELEASE GUANTANANO INTERROGATION VIDEO
By CHARMAINE NORONHA | Associated Press Writer 2:21 AM CDT, July 16, 2008
TORONTO (AP) _ Burying his face in his hands, a 16-year-old captured in Afghanistan sobs and calls out "Oh Mommy!" in a hidden-camera video released Tuesday that provides the first look at interrogations inside the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay.Lawyers for Toronto-born Omar Khadr released the tapes in hopes of generating sympathy for the young prisoner and to try to persuade the Canadian government to seek custody before he is prosecuted for war crimes at the U.S. special tribunal in Guantanamo later this year. Story link:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-canada-guantanamo-detainee,0,3771728.story
To America's Leaders
At the prison at Guantánamo Bay, convictions can be based on evidence derived from torture, hearsay and secret evidence. Many of the accused have been held in secret prisons, denied access to lawyers for years and even tortured.
The Guantánamo military commissions are a serious mistake. It's time to shut down Guantánamo Bay, and move proceedings to a civilian court of law or a traditional military court operating in accordance with the Uniform Code of Military Justice where constitutional guarantees apply. We must also end indefinite detention without charge. Detainees who are not charged or convicted must be sent to countries where they will not be tortured or abused.
ACLU -- Close Guantanamo Bay: Petition and Fact Sheet:
https://secure.aclu.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=close_guantanamo&s_s=kwb_gitmo&JServSessionIdr009=bo9n10m4f1.app26a
http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/safefree/closegitmo/gitmo_factsheet.pdf
What the trainers did not say, and may not have known, was that their chart had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them false, from American prisoners.
The recycled chart is the latest and most vivid evidence of the way Communist interrogation methods that the United States long described as torture became the basis for interrogations both by the military at the base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and by the Central Intelligence Agency.
In what critics describe as a remarkable case of historical amnesia, officials who drew on the SERE program appear to have been unaware that it had been created as a result of concern about false confessions by American prisoners.
I think this is probably the same manual they used when I was going through Naval aircrew survival training in 1977.
I remember being told to never get caught in a lie because your interrogators will make your life miserable. On the other hand, it was okay to give misleading information up to the point where they conclude that you are an idiot.
That's always worked for ME.
But as we prepare to celebrate 232 years of freedom, the last thing thing in the world I need to know is that my government has been imitating the bad guys all these years.
Late Tuesday evening, I sent the following e-mail to a number of friends who are still undecided, McCain supporters or whose preference is unknown to me:
"Look, even Adolf Eichmann got a trial" - Sen. John McCain, Meet the Press, 19 June 2005
Well, in just the last couple of years, Sen. McCain has reversed his position (or "flip-flopped" as the Republicans like to say) on abortion, Bush's tax cuts, the estate tax, gay marriage, campaign finance reform, ethanol, social security privatization, the Law of the Sea convention, immigration, offshore drilling, taxing oil companies' windfall profits, engaging Syria and Hamas in diplomatic talks, warrantless wiretapping, and, most famously, the issue of torture.
And that doesn't include the little things like all of his contradictory statements on Iraq (but try to find a politician outside of Sen. Byrd without those), normalizing relations with Cuba, his dealings with the religious right (used to vocally oppose them, now embraces them, well, their checks & their votes anyway), flying the confederate flag over govt. buildings, involving the NRA in Republican policy-building, storing spent nuclear fuel at Yucca mountain (not a "little" thing but he has no real alternative) and withdrawing his support for the Lieberman/Warner legislation, which is supposed to be aimed at combatting global warming. Whew!
Add one more issue to the list; one that trumps all of the others combined.
Author: Lee Ann Holman
James Yee went from being a decorated U.S. Army soldier serving in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to being accused of espionage, spying and aiding the facility's detainees.
He spoke to students about his experiences Thursday night at the UT Law School Auditorium.
When returning to the U.S. for vacation after serving 10 months as chaplain, Yee was arrested in secret and accused of having classified documents in his backpack. While being transferred to prison Yee was subject to sensory deprivation, a torture tactic. He was held in solitary confinement for 76 days without being charged.
He was exonerated and honorably discharged after deciding to quit the army.
Yee converted to Islam shortly after graduating from West Point. He said it was a way to solidify his monotheistic faith in one God. Yee was hand-picked to serve as a Muslim minister to facility detainees.
While ministering detainees, Yee said he advised commanders on proper religious practices. He made suggestions on treatment of the detainees and spoke out against soldiers violating prisoners' human rights. Yee said that though he never participated in interrogation tactics, he counseled prisoners on their treatment.
Yee said he witnessed the desecration of the Quran. Prisoners also spoke of sexual harassment by female interferometers and being put in a pentagram while being forced to renounce Allah.
This treatment will not win the hearts and minds of the Muslim world, he said.
"People in the military have a gross lack of misunderstanding of the Muslim culture, which is counterproductive," Yee said.
Kristine Huskey, a clinical law professor, has been representing Guantanamo detainees since 2002. She said she believes any new presidential administration will shut down Guantanamo Bay, because it is not helping the U.S. fight terrorism and is breeding more people who hate America.
It is a nasty trap that has closed around the United States of America. This proud country once set out on such a promising path. Now every move the country makes seem to drive them further away from the world and into a dangerous isolation. Americans, with their passionate beliefs in the unalienable rights of humanity, was the last and best defense against a dark and frightening future. But the expectations we all had on this world leader were perhaps too much. The war in Iraq is tragic proof that the United States may not be able to fulfill our hopes and dreams after all.
The rhetoric of American politicians and do-gooders in the past few years has practically reeked with hypocrisy, and it’s hard to feel anything but nauseous when the discrepancies are so undeniable. There are of course discrepancies in most countries to a certain extent, and no country fully lives up to the pledge made in the Declaration of Human Rights, not even Sweden. But America wasn't supposed to be just like any other country. That's why it hurts so much when America not only fails to live up to expectations, but actually don't even seem to care. I realize this may sound strange considering that the country just went to war for allegedly humanitarian reasons, in order to save the poor and suffering people of Iraq. To do this America invested billions of dollars, and a still untold number of soldiers’ lives to remove an unquestionably cruel and vicious leader. So why am I not happy? Because the invasion of Iraq showed with painful clarity just how little Americans truly understand of all the fancy words they use.
