Ten things you absolutely need to know
about the torture & tribunal
"compromise" |
by Madeline Zane, Unknown News
Sept. 25, 2006
1. It's not a compromise at all. It's everything the White House
originally asked for, hidden by vague language and the facade of
concessions that never actually happened.
2. Under the 'compromise' bill, the military is supposed to stop
torturing
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people ... but the CIA can still do whatever it wants. Oh, and
also they also get legal immunity.
3. While the "compromise" no longer suggests specific changes to the
Geneva conventions, it gives George W. absolute authority to
interpret the Geneva conventions. Repeat: It give GEORGE W. BUSH absolute
authority to interpret the Geneva conventions. Which means that we
are, in fact, throwing out the Geneva conventions entirely ... while the
mainstream hucksters get to say that we are not.
4. This bill also retroactively legalizes any interrogation techniques
that violated the Geneva conventions going back to 1997.
5. Moving on to the new fake "tribunal" system, the bill strips
prisoners of their basic right to challenge their detention, or "habeas
corpus." Not only has this been a basic tenet of all legal systems for
hundreds of years, the Supreme Court ruled long ago that Guantanamo
detainees specifically have habeas corpus rights that the Congress is
now trying to take away.
6. Defendants in the fake "tribunal" system would not know if the
evidence against them was produced by torture and would not be able to
cross-examine their accusers.
7. So the only sense in which this bill is a "compromise" is between
those who think that we can imprison people forever with no real
trials, and those who also want us to torture those prisoners in the
meantime.
8. Human rights groups that originally praised the deal are
reversing themselves now that they've actually read the bill, and not just
listened to the lies being told about it at press conferences.
9. The torture rules are being decided at the same time as the new
fake "tribunal" system, and now a new attempt to legalize unlimited
surveillance. Not only does this overwhelm well-informed people with
the sheer magnitude of evil, but it limits and muddies the media
coverage that any one of these issues would receive separately.
10. The entire nightmarish mess is being debated in the Senate next
week. Call your Senators NOW and demand that they stop our country
from sliding into this moral abyss. (But be polite. Ask them if they
could please stop our country from sliding into this moral abyss, if
it's not too much trouble.)
© by the author.
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The only sense in which this bill is a "compromise" is between those who think that we can imprison people forever with no real trials, and those who also want us to torture those prisoners in the meantime.
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