A Stitch in Haste

“They’re all terrorists; they’re all enemy combatants.”

–Rear Admiral Harry B. Harris Jr., commander, Guantánamo detention center task force

So much for “innocent until proven guilty.” Because nothing is more important than “defending the American way” (as in “truth, justice and …”?).

And remember the context: These detainees need never get their day in court secret military tribunal. They can be held in Guantánamo for the rest of their lives without even a kangaroo court finding that they are in fact “all terrorists, all enemy combatants.”

And also recall the perverse, Kafkaesque sort of “justice” that the Military Commissions Act will produce. It will be precisely those detainees against whom the government’s case is weakest who will be least likely ever to get a hearing — the government will only actually “prosecute” (if you can call it that) those detainees against whom the government actually has evidence of terrorism. End result: Those more likely to be guilty will be treated more fairly than those more likely to be innocent.

Madness. Sheer madness.

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More:

After two years in which the military sought to manage terrorism suspects at Guantánamo with incentives for good behavior, steady improvements in their living conditions and even dialogue with prison leaders, the authorities here have clamped down decisively in recent months.

Security procedures have been tightened. … Admiral Harris said in an interview … “I don’t think there is such a thing as a medium-security terrorist.”

Jack Nicholson’s got nothing on this lunatic. What are they afraid of — that the detainees will escape and swim back to Saudi Arabia? That they’ll clutter the place up with their mass suicides?

This isn’t justice; this isn’t even “excessive precaution.” It’s masochism — in the name of “defending America.”

Madness. Sheer madness.

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