Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

While the citizens of Middle East countries struggle to rid themselves of tyrants and dictators, and regain their rights and human dignity, we seem headed in the opposite direction. After two years of refusing to let military tribunals prosecute Guantanamo prisoners, you’ve now reversed yourself. I realize Congress has blocked your efforts so far, made it impossible to hold legitimate civilian trials or transfer prisoners to the U.S., but Mr. President, nobody said this job would be easy, especially with a bunch of hysterical hate- and fear-mongering fanatics poisoning the public mind. Your cave-in on this issue, however, makes me wonder if you were ever truly committed to justice and the rule of law. No matter how you spin it, your Executive Order on Guantanamo prisoners institutionalizes indefinite detention without trial. To wit: “review their status within a year and every three years after that to determine whether they remain a threat, should be scheduled for a military trial or should be released.” This is not justice, this is preventive detention straight out of the Mubarak/Qaddafi/Hussein playbook. And military tribunals? Without the rights and protections and due process of a civilian court, they are a mockery of justice, a relic of the lawless Bush era made permanent. Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib are moral evils, an indelible stain on America. But there’s another Guantanamo right here at home. Quantico, Virginia. The Marine brig. Pfc. Bradley Manning. Jailed under extreme conditions, solitary confinement and “prevention of injury” watch for more than 7 months without justification, without a trial, without even a pretrial hearing, trying to break him to make him implicate Julian Assange so the Injustice Department can shut down WikiLeaks. And last week the pressure was increased on Manning; your Marine Nazi guards now strip him of his clothes each night, force him to sleep in a cold cell naked and stand naked at attention for morning inspection. Our “security forces” are no less capable of brutality and savagery than any other suppressive regime. We have become our own worst enemy, Mr. President. Human compassion and justice disappears right before our eyes, our rights are taken away one by one and we do nothing. I fear for our future. Perhaps a few years hence we’ll look to the Middle East as the exemplar of democracy, having given all our own rights and freedoms away for the illusion of “security.” God help us one and all.