[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('emailking', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'I')f an immigrant has no right to challenge his detention, that meanshe/she can be picked up on any pretext and thrown in the clink. Tell me what part of "has no rights" this contradicts.

[emailking]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '
')
If you don't have due process you don't have the most basic protection. Any other right, like property rights, pale in comparison. Twit.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('emailking', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '
')
If you don't have due process you don't have the most basic protection. Any other right, like property rights, pale in comparison. Twit.

[Shadizar]

Unfortunately they are only accused terrorists. The problem with this legislation imo is that the only people who are accused, tried and convicted are people who are judged in the executive branch.

There is no oversight of it. The executive branch may be doing its best to protect the populace. However, that is not their primary purpose. Their primary purpose is to protect and defend the Constitution.

If there are problems with the FISA and the regulations for interrogation, then they should seek the approval of the Congress (which they apparently have done for torture).

There is a reason for checks and balances. The executive needs to learn that (and I think they have given the election results).

-Shadizar

[emailking]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', '
')
I love a good hair splitting session with a moral dwarf. Makes me feel all warm inside.

[Schadenfreude]

Rigged Trials at Gitmo

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('The Nation', 'S')ecret evidence. Denial of habeas corpus. Evidence obtained by waterboarding. Indefinite detention. The litany of complaints about the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay is long, disturbing and by now familiar.

[Schadenfreude]

The Great Guantanamo Puppet Theater

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Harper's', '.')..But as foreign media were regularly observing, there was something extremely fishy about these “military” commissions. In fact one of the major insights critics offered up was that they were not really “military” at all. They had the appearance of being “military,” because the courtroom scene on which all the cameras focused were filled with men and women in uniform. But as the Hicks case showed, the military actors were all like so many marionettes. Behind the scenes, the puppet masters were pulling the strings. And the puppet masters were suspiciously partisan political figures. Two were points of focus. The first is Susan J. Crawford, who served as convening authority. In the military justice system the convening authority is a uniformed military commander whose command responsibility covers the territory or subject matter of the legal proceedings. He is the “convening authority” because the military justice process is seen as an extension of his command authority. Under the doctrine of Yamashita, military commanders have a specific responsibility to implement the laws of armed conflict, and they may in fact bear liability if they fail in this duty.

But unlike her predecessor, Major General John D. Altenburg, Susan J. Crawford is a convening authority who has never worn a uniform nor held a military command. She is a civilian. Indeed, her principal qualification for the position appears to be her political proximity to Vice President Cheney, and specifically to his legal policy guru, David Addington. In fact at an event held last year to mark Crawford’s retirement as a military appeals judge, she went out of her way to note the presence of and thank just one person, her friend David Addington.

Given this tight relationship, it then emerges as no surprise that Crawford and her office are so receptive to the concerns of Vice President Cheney’s office and so prepared to allow another Addington crony, Jim Haynes, to dictate the terms of the proceedings...

[Schadenfreude]

Rigged Gitmo Trials Prove 9/11 Official Story Wrong


$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Paul Joseph Watson', 'F')our prosecutors In the Guantanamo Bay case assert that the trials are rigged and that convictions are already assured despite the fact that there is scant evidence to link Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his cohorts with 9/11, proving that the official story is a fable and the real perpetrators are being protected.

As we previously highlighted, after half a dozen years of waterboarding, genital zapping, sleep deprivation and brainwashing, the Pentagon has finally found six patsies who will readily welcome their 72 virgins and take the fall for 9/11, providing debunkers with ample ammunition to dismiss questions about the gaping holes in the official story of the terror attacks and allowing the government to close the book.

Included amongst them is alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who also admitted to a raft of other terror attacks and plots, some of which he could not possibly have been involved with because they occurred after his capture or related to targets that did not even exist until after his incarceration.

As reported by The Nation this week, Col. Morris Davis, former chief prosecutor for Guantanamo's military commissions, was told directly by Pentagon general counsel William Haynes, that the final verdicts in the trials had already been decided before they had even begun.

"Wait a minute, we can't have acquittals. If we've been holding these guys for so long, how can we explain letting them get off? We can't have acquittals, we've got to have convictions," Haynes told Davis.

In addition, Harper's Magazine reports that, "Three more former

Guantanamo prosecutors -- Major Robert Preston, Captain John Carr and Captain Carrie Wolf -- "asked to be relieved of duties after saying they were concerned that the process was rigged. One said he had been assured he didn’t need to worry about building a proper case; convictions were assured".

Preston wrote in an e mail to his supervisors "that there was thin evidence against the accused."

A defense attorney for the suspects, Clive Stafford Smith, said the prosecutors informed him that "they were told by the chief prosecutor at the time that they didn't need evidence to get convictions."

If there is scant evidence against the alleged mastermind of 9/11, as four top prosecutors assert, and yet the government has already decided to rig Mohammed's trial to secure a conviction, then that means the government is knowingly protecting the real 9/11 masterminds and allowing patsies to take the fall for the attacks.

Despite the fact that it only took three months to charge him with the 1998 embassy bombings, there has been no formal indictment of bin Laden over six years after 9/11 and the FBI's wanted poster makes no reference of Bin Laden's involvement in 9/11.

When asked by reporters why no reference was made, FBI agent Rex Tomb was forced to admit that "the FBI has no hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11."

The assertion of four top prosecutors and a defense attorney - that the Guantanamo trials are rigged and convictions are already assured despite little evidence against the accused - proves that the suspects are mere patsies, that the perpetrators of 9/11 remain free, and that the government's only motivation is to sweep questions under the rug by conducting a show trial which is an insult to the very notion of justice.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Schadenfreude', 't')here has been no formal indictment of bin Laden over six years after 9/11 and the FBI's wanted poster makes no reference of Bin Laden's involvement in 9/11.

[jasonraymondson]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Schadenfreude', 't')here has been no formal indictment of bin Laden over six years after 9/11 and the FBI's wanted poster makes no reference of Bin Laden's involvement in 9/11.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jasonraymondson', 'H')abeas Corpus

[Schadenfreude]

I think the point of these articles is the upcoming "trials" of these prisoners will be all show.

Some people tune into a trial because they want to find out what happened. The Nation and Harper's seem to be warning their readership that they won't be able to tune in to find out the skinny on the plot behind 911 because the outcome of the trials has already been determined in advance.

And even though these trials are technically under the purview of the military, these magazines are reporting on the civilians who apparently are directing the entire charade. These are civilians with direct links back to Cheney.

So the point is that Cheney wants the American Public to swallow some line of prefabricated horseshit.

Open wide!

Swallow this. I know it tastes terrible but it's for your own good.

Say, "Thank you , Mr. Cheney".


"Thank you, Mr. Cheney!"

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Schadenfreude', ' ')even though these trials are technically under the purview of the military, these magazines are reporting on the civilians who apparently are directing the entire charade.

[Schadenfreude]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Schadenfreude', ' ')even though these trials are technically under the purview of the military, these magazines are reporting on the civilians who apparently are directing the entire charade.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Schadenfreude', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '
')
In the United States, the military has always been under civilian control.

The US Constitution set it up that way.

[Plantagenet]

The military tribunal system was set up by Congress in 2006.

The United States Military Commissions Act of 2006, Pub. L. No. 109-366, 120 Stat. 2600 (Oct. 17, 2006), enacting Chapter 47A of title 10 of the United States Code (as well as amending section 2241 of title 28), is an Act of Congress (Senate Bill 3930[1]) signed into law on October 17, 2006....The Act's stated purpose is "To authorize trial by military commission for violations of the law of war, and for other purposes."[3]

Personally, I hope the trials move swiftly and they convict the people who planned and carried out the 9/11 attacks on the numerous terrorism and war crimes charges, and then execute them as soon as is feasible after their appeals are exhausted.

[Schadenfreude]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'O')ne of the best ways to understand how the US government works, and who has authority for various functions of government, then try reading the US Constitution.... it mandates that the entire US military is under civilian control....

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Schadenfreude', 'i')t is very untypical for there to be great civilian control and involvment in a military court.

[Schadenfreude]

I'm not saying anything more than what the articles themselves are saying. I'm not saying anything more than what the disgusted Chief Prosecuting Officer has said.

What an obtuse, block-headed moron you are! Read the fucking articles and send a obtuse, block-headed email to the officers who have resigned in disgust of this particular military courts process. Argue with them, not me. They're the ones making news!

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Schadenfreude', 'I')'m not saying anything more than what the articles themselves are saying.