Gitmo Kangaroo Courts–Guilt 100% Guaranteed!

posted by Bill Arnett @ 2:42 PM Permalink

The final nail is being driven directly into the heart of Justice, a commodity becoming ever more scarce in America. It is, of course, happening at Gitmo, America's first true gulag where a prisoner is brought to a hearing without counsel, unable to examine witnesses against them, having evidence obtained by torture ruled admissible, and with the hearings conducted in great secrecy it is a certainty that these alleged terrorists are going to be found guilty.

There is an excellent article opining about this at Truthout.org that describes fully these sham trials:

The military tribunals, scheduled to begin tomorrow, will take place behind closed doors and away from the scrutiny of the media. Hundreds of previous hearings held to determine the formal status of the prisoners have been open to reporters. None of the suspects will be able to have a lawyer present.…The Pentagon has said that the so-called Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT) are being held in secret to prevent the possible leaking of classified information. But legal campaigners said the decision had been taken to prevent the revelation of information embarrassing to the Bush administration.…"They're not going to let anybody close," said Clive Stafford Smith, of the UK-based group Reprieve, which represents several dozen Guantanamo prisoners, though none of the 14. "They are trying to stop anyone saying anything about the way they have been abused or which countries they were abused in."…The 14 men - three Pakistanis, two Yemenis, two Saudis, two Malaysians, a Palestinian, a Libyan, a Somali, an Indonesian and a Tanzanian - were transferred to Guantanamo Bay last September from secret US "black site" facilities around the world. At the time of their transfer, Mr Bush claimed: " These are dangerous men, with unparalleled knowledge about terrorist networks and their plans of new attacks. The security of our nation and the lives of our citizens depend on our ability to learn what these terrorists know."…Mr Dixon [a lawyer with the New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights] said that Mr Bush had admitted the 14 men had been subjected to " enhanced interrogation" techniques which he said was a euphemism for torture. He added that under the CSRT rules the government could use information obtained under torture. He added: "You don't know what is true until you have given them a fair trial."

Ancient precepts of justice, cast away. Right to counsel, gone. Right to see, hear, and confront witnesses, vanished. Right to examine evidence and test its accuracy, tossed away. Right to public trial with a jury of peers, given the boot. Inadmissibly of evidence obtained by illegal means such as torture, reversed. Death sentences based on these factors, quite likely.

This may be the moment of crowning glory for the Neocons running the country. Their shining example of how to treat alleged terrorists.

It is the death knell of American Justice, now an oxymoron of the worst kind, and one that endangers every American soldier and American tourists traveling through other countries as well, for now any country is free to follow the American example:

Arrest 'em, try them in secret, torture confessions from them, then summarily execute them or just "disappear" them into confinement forever. No appeal.

After all, it's the American Way.

Labels: Courts, GOP, GWOT