University Wire July 07, 2004
Do terrorist threats justify sacrifice of American values?
By Veronica Rollin, The Daily Aztec
SOURCE: San Diego State U.
Recently, the Supreme Court of the United States heard what are probably two of the most important cases of our time. The nine justices presiding over Rasool v. Bush and Al Odah v. Bush decided whether the terrorist threat justifies abandoning everything America stands for.
The cases concern the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, challenging the government's right to detain prisoners captured in Afghanistan indefinitely without charges, lawyers or the ability for the "defendants" to prove their innocence.
According to ABC anchorman Peter Jennings' "20/20" special report on Guantanamo Bay, some pretty disturbing things have been going on behind the barbed wire on the beach. Detainees, brought to the prison in military troop planes, endure the entire 20-hour flight blindfolded and tied down.
Once in Guantanamo Bay, they are taken from cell to interrogation bound in what is called a "three-piece suit" -- shackles and chains designed to keep them from looking up -- or bound on stretchers to keep them from looking down. During questioning they are chained to the floor and the interrogations are not videotaped -- to avoid "legal problems."
Detainees have no idea where they are. Nor do they have any rights. By George W. Bush and the State Departments decree, inmates at Guantanamo Bay are denied many of the rights outlined in the Geneva Convention. They are not considered prisoners of war but "enemy combatants," a title Bush may christen anyone with on a whim, including people captured within the United States. The detainees do not have a right to habeas corpus, which means they cannot defend themselves against the charges nominally filed against them. Nominally, because the government has formally charged only three inmates, and not a single date has been set for any of the military tribunals "enemy combatants" are supposed to get.
Because they are not protected by the Geneva Conventions, the U.S. government is pretty much free to do with them as they please, a liberty they take full advantage of. Prisoners are interrogated for nearly a day straight, are subjected to sleep deprivation methods, attack dogs and "short shackling" -- chaining a prisoner so that he's forced to sit without a chair, and if he can no longer keep himself up, he finds himself on the floor with chains biting into his skin. When the International Red Cross came to check up on things, they reported the detainees showed a "serious deterioration" in their mental state, bringing up the possibility of false confessions from innocent people.
Is all this officially sanctioned? Well, Gen. Alberto Gonzalez is the one who talked Bush into waiving Convention protections for the "enemy combatants" so the Bush administration couldn't be tried as war criminals under U.S. or international law. According to www.globalsecurity.org, Justice Department lawyers knew the detainment in Guantanamo Bay was better than detainment in the United States because Guantanamo has "the legal equivalent of outer space."
If prisoner abuse were really the fault of only some rogue military personnel, it would be sick but not disastrous. The blessing from the White House is what makes this tropical storm a full-blown hurricane because it makes it almost impossible for America to lead the free world anymore. We can't lead because we can't be trusted. We can't be trusted to follow international law, stick to the treaties we sign or obey our own rules.
We have become a rogue state, the rule of law only applies when it suits our interests. We ignore the rules of war until our soldiers are the victims. We forsake our own laws against cruel and unusual punishment, our own promises of fair trials and representation. We don't even know if all these people are guilty of anything or just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
On June 28 in Al Odah v. Bush, the Supreme Court ruled that detainees could not be held indefinitely without access to federal courts. Hopefully, this signals the end to the wrongful detainment of hundreds of people. Hopefully, this leads to a more sincere understanding of international opinion. If the actions of the United States in Guantanamo Bay are any indication, however, this is only wishful thinking.
© Copyright 2004, The Daily Aztec via U-Wire
