George Bush does not want to be rescued.
The president has been told countless times, by a secretary of state, by members of Congress, by heads of friendly governments — and by the American public — that the Guantánamo Bay detention camp has profoundly damaged this nation’s credibility as a champion of justice and human rights. But Mr. Bush ignored those voices — and now it seems he has done the same to his new defense secretary, Robert Gates, the man Mr. Bush brought in to clean up Donald Rumsfeld’s mess.
Thom Shanker and David Sanger reported in Friday’s Times that in his first weeks on the job, Mr. Gates told Mr. Bush that the world would never consider trials at Guantánamo to be legitimate. He said that the camp should be shut, and that inmates who should stand trial should be brought to the United States and taken to real military courts.
Mr. Bush rejected that sound advice, heeding instead the chief enablers of his worst instincts, Vice President Dick Cheney and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Their opposition was no surprise. The Guantánamo operation was central to Mr. Cheney’s drive to expand the powers of the presidency at the expense of Congress and the courts, and Mr. Gonzales was one of the chief architects of the policies underpinning the detainee system. Mr. Bush and his inner circle are clearly afraid that if Guantánamo detainees are tried under the actual rule of law, many of the cases will collapse because they are based on illegal detention, torture and abuse — or that American officials could someday be held criminally liable for their mistreatment of detainees.
It was distressing to see that the president has retreated so far into his alternative reality that he would not listen to Mr. Gates — even when he was backed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who, like her predecessor, Colin Powell, had urged Mr. Bush to close Guantánamo. It seems clear that when he brought in Mr. Gates, Mr. Bush didn’t want to fix Mr. Rumsfeld’s disaster; he just wanted everyone to stop talking about it.
If Mr. Bush would not listen to reason from inside his cabinet, he might at least listen to what Americans are telling him about the damage to this country’s credibility, and its cost. When Khalid Shaikh Mohammed — for all appearances a truly evil and dangerous man — confessed to a long list of heinous crimes, including planning the 9/11 attacks, many Americans reacted with skepticism and even derision. The confession became the butt of editorial cartoons, like one that showed the prisoner confessing to betting on the Cincinnati Reds, and fodder for the late-night comedians.
What stood out the most from the transcript of Mr. Mohammed’s hearing at Guantánamo Bay was how the military detention and court system has been debased for terrorist suspects. The hearing was a combatant status review tribunal — a process that is supposed to determine whether a prisoner is an illegal enemy combatant and thus not entitled in Mr. Bush’s world to rudimentary legal rights. But the tribunals are kangaroo courts, admitting evidence that was coerced or obtained through abuse or outright torture. They are intended to confirm a decision that was already made, and to feed detainees into the military commissions created by Congress last year.
The omissions from the record of Mr. Mohammed’s hearing were chilling. The United States government deleted his claims to have been tortured during years of illegal detention at camps run by the Central Intelligence Agency. Government officials who are opposed to the administration’s lawless policy on prisoners have said in numerous news reports that Mr. Mohammed was indeed tortured, including through waterboarding, which simulates drowning and violates every civilized standard of behavior toward a prisoner, even one as awful as this one. And he is hardly the only prisoner who has made claims of abuse and torture. Some were released after it was proved that they never had any connection at all to terrorism.
Still, the Bush administration says no prisoner should be allowed to take torture claims to court, including the innocents who were tortured and released. The administration’s argument is that how prisoners are treated is a state secret and cannot be discussed openly. If that sounds nonsensical, it is. It’s also not the real reason behind the administration’s denying these prisoners the most basic rights of due process.
The Bush administration has so badly subverted American norms of justice in handling these cases that they would not stand up to scrutiny in a real court of law. It is a clear case of justice denied.
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
It’s a clear case of high crimes and misdemeanors, and screams for impeachment. The United States is being run by thugs and criminals, and they should begin to be treated as such.
There are no expletives sufficient to describe what these folk have done to destroy the image of the United States in the eyes of the world.
As an American citizen, I can only bow my head in shame.
So how do we as citizens continue to signal this misbehaving government that it cannot conduct business as usual anymore. Suggestions anyone?
The establishment and continuing operation of the Guantanamo Bay prison earns a Triple-A (AAA)
rating in my book:
I am Appalled, Angry, and Ashamed. This administration, in just this one instance among many, has violated the letter and spirit of our constitution, the UN charter to which our government is a charter subscriber, and the Sermon on the Mount.
Impeach Bush and Cheney!
Chuck Cliff, lift your damned head up and don’t let these psychotics shame you. Start working to get rid of them and their cronies. Write letters, make phone calls, sign petitions, give money if you’ve got it. DOn’t let your congressmen hear your silence.
Poet, same deal. Be loud, be rude, pull no punches, take names.
If our government won’t do the job now on these criminals, I predict blood in the streets of America within a generation. It’s up to us to push the Pelosis and the Murthas into impeachment proceedings, and to scare the bejesus out of the Inhofes and the Boehners, to kick them in the ass, to make them listen and act.
God, I am so fed up with this crap!
This NYT editorial, while appearing to lecture Bush-Cheney from a higher moral position, is actually extremely cynical & can’t be taken at face value. The truth is that the NYT is not seriously opposed to torture by the US govt, nor to Guantanamo, & nor to Bush-Cheney.
If the Times was serious about what it says here, it would be calling for Bush’s head. It would not use weak phrases like “It was distressing to see that…” It would not be urging Bush to please close Gitmo and stop the torture; it would be telling the public in no uncertain terms that Bush-Cheney are criminals who must be removed from office.
The moral outrage of the above editorial is very limited — it doesn’t compare what the Times itself mounted in joining the Bill Clinton-Lewinsky witch hunt of 9 years ago. This unimpressive degree of moral outrage will be gone by tomorrow, & we may not be seeing it again for months.
The world has known about Gitmo & US govt torture for 3 years now. Yet the MSM has mounted very little drive against it. Rather, it’s just something somebody mentions every now and then, with modest & limited discomfort. Most of the time, official opinion makers have no real problem with it.
The Times is feigning a bit of outrage today, only because it has to posture in this way occasionally to maintain its public credibility. The other 99% of the time, the NYT is running articles by Tom Friedman, Michael Gordon, etc, all serving to whip up hostility against Iran, against Muslims in general, and trying to maintain support for the “War on Terror,” which is supported by the MSM & by both parties.
If you support a lie like the War on Terror, as the Times does, you can’t be seriously opposed to torture, or to Bush.
Hear Hear, ricg - it’s time to pick up our heads and kick some ass as if our lives depend on it!
RichM - good point. The New York Times knows which side it’s buttered on and who buys its paper. They are part of the Israel Lobby who occasionally throw out a bone in order to seem fair.
I used to wonder how Germany could have slipped into the grips of the Nazis during the 30s, so easily, law by law, one “political” prisoner at a time, starting with Dachau, and ending with Auschwitz and then the death marches. I actually believed that Germany was an exceptional case, that there was “something” in the collective psyche of that country, maybe a history of militarism, late unification into nationhood and and unusually high level of “national identity” rhetoric, an advanced scientific community concerned with race and human eugenics, etc.
Now I see that there was nothing exceptional about the German experience, because under Bush, this government is embracing the same kind of right wing fanatacism: national “exceptionalism,” militarism as an expression of national “strength,” imperial hubris, willing partnering with business and corporations, silencing of dissent, dehumanization of the “enemy.” And it gets away with it through a carefully managed campaign of fear and hatred of a subhuman “other” who could be hiding in our midst and bent on our destruction. So torture and dehumanization is justified.
Sure it’s not exactly the same, given the more sophisticated technologies that now give the state almost total control over its citizenry without the overt violence and bullying. But it’s close enough.
imamyself good and excellent points — um, we can keep writing comments and supporting alternate news sources like this one, we can write to the Times with carrots for more editorials and MORE anger against the terrorism of BushCo.
Your comments helped me realize the feebleness of the Times — “distressingly” yeah, you are so right — so keep on writing these type of comments cos even tho I agree with you, I didn’t quite realize I did until I read your comment. So that’s worth A LOT.
Onward secular or Christian soldiers, whoever believes in democracy, human rights and human progress!! Go team!!
What editorial board of any paper has called for the impeachment of the Neocon administration?
Congress is at much at fault as the President and Vice-President because they are so late in starting the impeachment proceedings against these two men. They have had all of this evidence for months and they “fiddle while Rome burns”. It is time for the American citizens to demand legal performance from this body and to ignore Speaker Pelosi’s directive that impeachment is not being considered. She may need to be replaced by a representative who represents the November mandate from the American people. It is important to contact Congress and tell them what we want. . . . .
We are so sick of the lies and bloodshed.what is going to take for apathy to end….Rove,chaney to the hague.
bush and family to baghdad with an outbound ticket only…
forgot gonzales….wolfy and buchanan
We need to make this happen quickly…don!t you think so?
If we do NOT impeach these folks, then what exactly will the USA ever stand for again? We will have failed. No returning toa ny former status. We MUST impeach.
Want to see this spineless Congress CHANGE their attitudes and put needed Impeachment back “On the Table”?
Asking won’t do it. Get 100,000 or more of us fed-up voters to switch to the Green Party, and overnight they will get that WE are serious about 1- ending this useless war, and 2- impeaching and punishing those whose crimes are beyond the pale.
See http://Switch2Green.org for for details of this tactic. It makes sense. It is a “loophole” that exists that might permit democracy to work. The Dems’ Central Committee who have all progressives caught between a rock and a hard place think that support for them is guaranteed, and no one can twist their arms.
Registering for a party which is asking for impeachment and opposing the war is like getting to VOTE on this Congress RIGHT NOW, way before 2008! Let’s put them on notice with a People’s “No Confidence Vote” with our Registrations! Neat.
We need to do EVERYTHING possible and use every tool at our disposal to get to Impeachment. The success of impeachment in the Senate does not matter so much. It is enough to START the process to put this Administration ON NOTICE that their heyday is over!! Put them on the defensive, shorten their leash, suckerpuch their arrogance.
First, sadly, we have to put this Congress on notice.
WE MUST IMPEACH!! How can we look anyone again in the eye and explain that ruthless thugs hijacked our nation in broad daylight through voting fraud, then proceded to dismantle all the gains from the New Deal, shred our rights and Constitution, pack the Courts, and we ignored it all, preferring to discuss the next elections and “important legislation” as though nothing had really happened????
US REPORT CARD
————–
Credibility F
Integrity F
Responsibilty F
Denial A
Justice F
Self-Respect F
Democracy F
IMPEACHMENT NOW for the SAFETY AND SECURITY Oof the WORLD!
well said alank
The Bush Administration MUST be impeached. If Bush, Cheney, and Gonzales are not impeached, the republic is lost. Their lawbreaking behavior will become the standard, the Constitution will become a joke, and the bar will be dropped so low that “rule of law” will be nothing more than a cruel joke, along with “land of the free” and “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” which are already almost empty slogans.
This is the crucial fork in the road. If we don’t take the fork that leads to impeachment, the American experiment is doomed. There will be no return to the high principles upon which this country was founded if we do not take the necessary action now. If the Republicans could insist that Clinton be impeached to uphold the rule of law, then Bush must be impeached to uphold the rule of law.
Clinton was impeached for lying to a grand jury. That ticked me off at the time, but ok, perjury is a serious crime and should not be tolerated. Clinton should not have lied. I can accept that and live with that as long as it is applied in an even-handed manner to all officials.
How much more serious are Bush’s lies? How much more serious is Bush’s warrantless domestic spying? How much more serious is the erosion of civil liberties under Bush? The politicization of the justice department? That’s what jacked us up about Nixon, the abuses of power, the politicization of administrative functions. Why is Congress tolerating this from Bush?
If they are not ousted, it’s over for America. Why do Republicans hate America so much? Why are Republicans trying the damnedest to destroy America? Greed? Lust for power? Whatever it is, it can’t be tolerated.
Impeaching Bush, Cheney, and Gonzales will have an immediate positive effect on America’s image and trustworthiness in the world. The path to saving the republic is impeachment. Why hesitate? What possible reason could there be to shrink from this important duty. Pelosi and Reid are expendable, too. They’d better get the idea fast or they’ll be out so fast their heads will spin. Everyone should write to Pelosi and Reid and make them understand in no uncertain terms that
WE’RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE!”
I just switched to the Green Party.
Me too!
RichM: Bravo. You just hit the nail on the head. I am much more impressed with what you said than with the Time thing.
It’s time to throw the money changers out of the temple. Flood the offices of your senators, congressman, and speaker of the house with one word over and over again: IMPEACH !!!!!!!!
This admin. cannot allow those prisoners to be tried. Such trials would bring out the truth of its (the admin.’s) involvement in 911. IMPEACH, Then HANG ‘EM !!!!!