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Take Down The Flag
Over Guantanamo

Jim Kirwan
3-28-7

The laws of the 'United States' do not apply within the base at Guantanemo, to those that the prison was built to hold-therefore the USA cannot continue to fly the US flag that supposedly stands for the rules of law that have been with this nation since its formal founding. We cannot have the "legal situation" inside Gitmo "both ways"! Either Guantanemo is an American base, and thereby an outpost of American military law, set up under the US Constitution ­ Or Gitmo is a rogue-place, a prison unto itself that might as well fly the flags of Blackwater and the Jolly-Roger of International Piracy, that together actually represent what goes on inside that place.
 
The criminal confinement at Gitmo, exists outside the bounds of all civilized practices and procedures, and has become known world-wide as an institution without rules: a place more suited to the practices and procedures of the Marquee De Sade, than to anything that has ever been routinely paid for by US taxpayers. Recently the Decider's lackeys; divulged what they thought of as a very revealing confession, by someone they say was one of the monsters behind 911. Of course that fraud backfired, big-time! Because anyone under torture for a number of years would of course confess to anything and everything, just to get the torture to stop: Which is why torture has been barred from US law, and practice. The man who designed these practices and procedures is non-other than the current US Attorney General, under fire for lying to Congress, and to the public about his role in the firing of eight US Attorneys.
 
Instead of giving him a lawyer, and bringing him before congress to "testify under oath" ­ let's just strip him of his name and send him to Guantanemo, where he can experience first hand the results of his handy-work. No charges need to be brought, no lawyers will be allowed, and he can just sit there for the rest of his life, being on occasion tortured, sodomized, beaten, starved ­ but hey ­ he designed all that so if it's good enough for other criminals, then it's damn well good enough for Roberto Gonzalez!
 
 
 
 
?This sounds extreme, but I mention it because unless people can envision this outrage, or experience it first-hand, then apparently most cannot really understand the depth of the unfairness, the personal isolation, the extent of the duplicity, or the criminality inherent in treating people as we treat those inside Gitmo. Just as the illustration clarifies, the Department of Justice has been transformed from what it once was to this Vulture-of-Opportunity and to the self-determined upending of anything like justice or fairness. No individual or nation should ever have the power to lock anyone away for the rest of his or her natural life ­ with no appeal, no defenders, and virtually no contact with anyone that is not a guard. It would be kinder to bury that individual alive, at least that way the torture would end. The Defenders-of-the-Decider and his minions from the dark side; have apparently never understood that no person or government has the right to lock anyone away for the rest of their natural lives, without any charges, or without the right to challenge anything about their imprisonment.
 
This Outrage was crafted by Gonzalez and his two-bit leader to simply terrify the world ­ to intimidate any and all that might ever challenge those unilaterally criminal-actions that led to the pre-emptive strikes; the strikes that have metaphorically put everyone of us into our own prisons of the mind. Of course this is not literal ­ but it exists, just as certainly as if we were directly subject to the thugs that wear the uniforms of the US military inside the cages in Guantanemo! That's what led to the title of this article: "Take Down That Flag!"
 
To hold prisoners in this way, and then to put them into a Kangaroo Courtroom situation ­ that is nothing more than a mockery of anything even remotely related to 'Justice,' and that is a compounding factor of the original illegalities, when committed against another human being. The stated reasons for this treatment came from the mouth of a criminal many-times-over, George W. Bush whose entire life has been built upon nothing but lies, and his personal fondness for condemning both people and animals to death.
This "Decider" has nothing-in-common with the world when it comes to understanding or leadership, much less when what is needed is credibility in the eyes of the world-court of public opinion.
 
Gonzalez as first-stooge, in his capacity as The Attorney General of the United States (supposedly the top law-enforcement officer in this land) ­ is guilty of these and many other crimes contained in the USA PATRIOT Acts, One & Two; and moreover he, along with his predecessor J. Edgar Ashcroft, has been responsible for the attitudes and criminal practices beneath the spying on the public; behind the conversion of American citizens into nothing but suspects to be listed and categorized as potential threats to the security of the United States: when in fact the only crime therein, in over 95% of these "cases" was to have a funny name, or to come from a country that "the Decider" has decided is "a threat."
 
 
 
 
?The public has been mesmerized into silence and fear of these unbelievably outrageous criminals, and of what they might still be capable of doing to each one of us ­ hence the silence that has damned us all to pay for these crimes of the Decider's delusional fantasies! The United States was able to prosper, despite the flaws within the nation and its policies, long before we fell victim to this madness that mimics those who would claim the mantle of that "specialness" that now allows any self-appointed criminal to claim the right of Imperial majesty. This is especially true in a world already fraught with pain and poverty on a grand scale that has now been forced back into our own endless wars of aggression and repression: all because we have allowed those who should have been imprisoned long ago to take charge of the institutions of this government. Gonzalez, his staff and advisors, and his boss ought to be Impeached, along with Cheney: and if they are found guilty they should all be punished according to the severity of the crimes they have committed against the Constitution and the people; in whatever's left of this country. Whenever 'Justice' is delayed on this scale, then it is surely DENIED to all of us in perpetuity!
 
After having gone to the Supreme Court twice, who found that the treatment in Guantanemo was unconstitutional; the Congress came up with something called the Military Commissions Act. This 'new' policy apparently condones the same things that the two previously unconstitutional readings contained, so it's going back to the Supreme Court for a third time. To be clear-what the Military Commissions Act does is to condone torture and coercion, and hearsay evidence, along with no right to hear the charges against the individual, prior to trial. The right to an attorney is apparently conditional upon the lawyers signing off on "the rules of the new court," without ever knowing what those "new rules are." In addition prisoners are not permitted to even meet privately with their lawyers, even when a lawyer is allowed to 'represent' a defendant. There are currently 14 people in Guantanemo that will be charged under the MCA, and there are also another 385 prisoners being held without charges, that will never be tried-for anything ­ because Bush says that they are "enemy combatants" so-no one cares!
 
However the most basic criminal aspect to all of this is that the Military Commissions Act strips the accused of the right to Habeus Corpus, (the right to challenge the reasons for arrest or detention) in the first place. That right or writ: goes all the way back in time to 1215 A.D. This 'right' has become universally recognized by the entire community of nations, as has the inhumanity of torture, the inadmissibility of hearsay, along with the right to a fair trail. "Fair Trials" are what is basically impossible to get under the terms and conditions of the new Military Commissions Act. It should also be remembered that Roberto Gonzalez also told the Congress in public testimony that "there is no right of Habeus Corpus in the Constitution" ­ and this came from the so-called Attorney General for the United States! If for no other reason, Gonzalez needs to be unceremoniously fired for that statement-just ask any functioning lawyer in that profession.
 
At the very least we must demand that the flag over Gitmo represents what really goes on in there - if we fail to call them on this travesty of national and international law ­ then we deserve George W. Bush!
 
kirwanstudios@sbcglobal.net


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