S H U T G I T M O D O W N N O W !!!!!
Bill Press nails what every single Democrat, Republican, and American who has the slightest concept of basic human rights and our constitution should be saying
The shameful conditions, the inhumane treatment of prisoners, and the lack of due process have all combined to make Guantanamo Bay a black mark on the soul of America.
For President Bush, there's only one way out: Transfer the rest to American prisons and try them in American courts. And then: Shut Gitmo down!
AMEN.
The wave is getting bigger and it's moving forward just as it should have done years ago. More and more people are talking about Gitmo with the Hamdan decision coming down and many of them are mincing no words.......
See who is joining up with us this weekend in newspaper columns around the nation.....in calling for GITMO TO BE SHUT DOWN.........
With the Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld supreme court decision, Congress is now required to come up with the framework of laws to bring the Gitmo detainees treatment into alignment with the Geneva Conventions. Given that in the past few years there has really been no hope of bringing these changes about with the Republican rubber stamp congress simply letting the Bush Regime stomp all over human rights with their full and complete blessings, there hasn't been much of a mainstream outcry to shut down Guantanamo and bring the detainees to trial. It simply did not seem like something that would even make any progress with two of the branches of government colluding to create one super-executive branch in which Bush, Cheney, Addington, Yoo, and other neoconmen wrote all policy without the slightest regard for the constitution or the rule of law.
It appears that, with the Hamdan decision, the winds of change are blowing harder than ever when it comes to Shutting Down Guantanamo. In a matter of just two days, Friday and today, there have been 3 columns, either very widely distributed through syndication, or on the op-ed page of the Washington Post.... all calling for Gitmo to be shut down and Hamdan to be enforced.
Shut down the gulag at Gitmo
Bill Press
Boy it musta felt good to write this one.....
After years of watching President George W. Bush play king, there's no greater satisfaction than seeing him smacked down. And, make no mistake about it, the Supreme Court's decision against his phony military commissions at Guantanamo Bay was a royal smack-down.
How wrong has the Bush Regime been? How in violation of the law have they been?
Bush insisted that, as commander-in-chief, he had full executive powers to conduct the war on terror however he wanted, with no further congressional authority and no court order. The Supreme Court said he's wrong.
Bush insisted that individuals detained in the war on terror have no rights under American law. The Supreme Court said he's wrong.
Bush insisted that, as long as we call them "enemy combatants," instead of prisoners of war, the United States is not bound by provisions of the Geneva Conventions banning torture or inhumane treatment of prisoners. The Supreme Court said he's wrong.
Bush insisted we could round up suspects and hold them for years, without a trial, without counsel, without charges being filed against them. And the Supreme Court said he's wrong. Dead wrong.
Given that with this ruling the Supreme Court seems to havey said that aljmost all of Bush's unchecked unitary executive powers from wiretapping to torture and on down the list have been
ruled wrong. But "wrong" doesnt simply mean wrong in this case.
It means unconstitutional and illegal.. Bush took an oath of office to uphold and defend the constitution and promptly upon removing his hand from the bible took it upon himself to ignore and violate the constitution and his entire oath of office to the letter. I put forth that by this ruling, the Supreme Court has shown beyond any doubt that George W. Bush has violated the law, violated the constitution, violated his oath of office, and therefore should and must be impeached.
The Court's 5-3 ruling in Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld is a total repudiation of George Bush's imperial presidency. "Congress has not issued the executive a blank check," wrote Justice Stephen Breyer. Added Justice John Paul Stevens: "The executive is bound to comply with the Rule of Law."
The president must obey the law? What a novel concept for Bush and Cheney.
Boy you aint jokin on that one, Bill.
By extension, of course, the court's decision goes far beyond military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay. It also applies to maintaining a secret network of CIA torture prisons, collecting bank and phone records of millions of ordinary Americans, signing statements asserting which parts of new laws he will or will not obey, all part of Bush's post-9/11 power grab.
Does anyone disagree with this interpretation of the court's ruling? Does this ruling really reach that far?
Back to the issue at hand......
SHUTTING GITMO DOWN
The more critical question is: What to do about Guantanamo Bay itself? [...]
President Bush still insists that all those held at Gitmo are "dangerous killers, captured on the battlefield." Not true. According to Human Rights Watch, over half of the 660 Gitmo inmates had no connection to al-Qaida. [...] Five years later, only 10 have been charged with crimes.
The shameful conditions, the inhumane treatment of prisoners, and the lack of due process have all combined to make Guantanamo Bay a black mark on the soul of America.
For President Bush, there's only one way out: Transfer the rest to American prisons and try them in American courts. And then: Shut Gitmo down!
This is the key point that we must not lose sight of. The goal is not merely to "Shut Gitmo Down". Bush was right in saying that the courts did not rule that Gitmo should be shut down. He is also, in true form, dodging what they did rule which is something far far greater than merely shutting down Gitmo. Bush would love nothing more than to simply shut it down, which I think was his plan already, to ship them to Bagram or some other secret torture prison overseas. The court has put a blockade in that possible plan in that they now must be afforded the protections of the Geneva Conventions such as a fair trial with their counsel present and humane treatment. That is what Bush has yet to acknowledge.....the fact that they have just slammed his entire unitary executive philosophy right back down the sewage pipe from which it crawled.
The Bill Press column was not alone this weekend. Both David Broder and David Ignatius also provided their own takes on what the Hamdan decision means.
Ignatius, of course, doesnt move in too harshly on the Bush Regime.... in fact he presents it as an opportunity for Bush to shine by improving our international relations via Hamdan. But he is bringing attention to the matter nonetheless even while trying to give Bush a pass on being ruled a criminal.
A Way Out of Guantanamo Bay by David Ignatius.....
Close Guantanamo? After the bruising global debates of the past four years, the Bush administration finally seems to agree with its sharpest critics that Gitmo is more pain than gain. At the same time, there's growing international recognition that the problems America has struggled with at the prison -- how to detain, interrogate and try suspected terrorists -- are real ones.
The Hamdan decision has opened a path toward the kind of global consensus about anti-terrorism policies that the Sept. 11 commission envisioned. This is a rare moment to begin fixing something that has gone dangerously wrong. After Hamdan , Bush has a chance to take a decisive step back toward an international rule of law -- and to solve America's biggest image problem at the same time.
Yes, we have a chance to start back in that direction but we all full well know that it won't be the Bush Regime leading that charge. If it is to happen as the Supreme Court has demanded, it will be Congress who begins that shift back from the criminal way that they have enabled the Bush Regime to conduct their affairs. Bush wants nothing more than to have the regular circle jerk with Congress where they simply find a way to give him all that he wants while still remaining "legal". That is where he better be wrong.....Congress better step up to the plate and stand by the oaths of office that they took. The nation is turning against Gitmo and against Bush's unchecked power and they would be wise to listen to the people in this election year. Ignatius has a bit of it right.....but he's dead wrong on what Bush will be willing to do. 6 years tells us that quite clearly.
David Broder's take on it , while not as crucifying as Press' column, was quite a good one that cast exactly the right light on what the court ruled and what it means. Bush is a criminal and has been conducting his presidency outside the rule of law.....by breaking the law and violating the constitution.....
Finally, a move toward rule of law in terror war by DAVID S. BRODER
Once again, the chief executive had to be reminded that he is not above the law. No more than the security threats Nixon invented in order to justify his rogue police state operations will the war on terror relieve the president of the burden imposed by the Constitution to "faithfully execute the laws." He can't just make them up to suit his convenience.
For anyone who was worried that the United States was in danger of losing its precious freedoms as it mobilized to combat the threat of Islamic terrorism, the Stevens opinion was the best possible Independence Day gift. The Supreme Court that helped install Bush in the presidency when it cut off the recounting of Florida votes sent him a clear message that he must operate in ways that Congress and the Constitution permit.
My...."helped install Bush"? Don't read that too much in the Houston Chronicle, I'm sure.
Now, the court has plainly said to Congress and the administration, "You have to bring these proceedings under the law. We're not telling you what the law should be, but you have to have some rules that are written into statutes -- and conform to the standards the Constitution sets."
Considering the oath of office of every Congressional Rep along with the President swears them to uphold and protect the Constitution..... isn't it simply amazing that they have to be told that? I mean can this even be for real? It's the very foundation of their job description. WTF.
Other byproducts have been the lengthy detentions of suspects in Guantanamo and other overseas locations, without formal charges or recourse to lawyers, and interrogation tactics bordering on torture.
There is no reason for Democrats in Congress to fear the coming debate. They need not feel embarrassed about affirming the rightness of Stevens' decision and finding ways to legislate the needed rules for handling these detainees. Far from being defensive, Democrats could challenge the Republican majority to take the opportunity to examine all that Bush is doing -- or not doing -- to counter al-Qaida and the other threats to national security.
Congress is coming late to this task, but it is not too late to make our laws and our practices conform to the Constitution.
And to remind this president that the law applies to him, too.
Three columns in two days, all spotlighting the Bush Regime defeat in the Supreme Court making their detainee policies (along with many other policies) illegal, unconstitutional, and disallowed. I don't think I've ever seen anything like that in 6 freakin years. Let's hope the attention keeps on getting poured on Bush's crimes and hope that as people wake up and becom emore aware that they will join with us in calling for Congress to do their job to protect the human rights of these detainees.
It is time for Congress to pass legislation forcing the Bush Regime to adhere to the Supreme Court ruling and give these detainees their day in court or release them if there are no charges to bring. THAT is what this is all about. Anything less is UnAmerican.
Also if you have not yet done so, please read these diaries by those leading this movement at DailyKos against Torture and Gitmo, Avila & Buhdydharma:
Guantanamo: Shut it down. Give it back. by Avila
Mr. Bush, It's Time To Close Guantánamo by Avila
We Are The Future. We Are The Present, Too. by Avila
Shock, Awe and Closing Down Guantanamo: Updated with Bumpersticker Graphic by Avila
Breakdown by Avila
Oath Betrayed by Avila
Shut Gitmo Down! ......NOW!!! by Buhdydharma
What Torture Means To Me by Buhdydharma