In a setback for the Bush administration, U.S. District Judge James Robertson found that detainees at the Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may be prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions and therefore entitled to the protections of international and military law — which the government has declined to grant them.
"We vigorously disagree (with the judgment). . . . The judge has put terrorism on the same legal footing as legitimate methods of waging war," said Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo. "The Constitution entrusts to the president the responsibility to safeguard the nation's security. The Department of Justice will continue to defend the president's ability and authority under the Constitution to fulfill that duty."
What this guy is saying implies a lot -- that the terrorists are not abiding by the rules of war so we don't have to either.
That's dangerous. Reasoning like that means that because thieves are breaking the law the police can break the law to catch them. This has been an ongoing battle in law enforcement for a long time, and lead to much abuse by law enforcement and many reforms to protect the innocent.
I've mentioned this before. My next door neighbor is from Jordon. He looks middle eastern and has a relatively generic middle eastern name. He also works at the same place I work. I know him well. He's not a terrorist. What if his name get confused with a legitimate terrorist? What if in that confusion about his name he's arrested, carted away, and denied council and contact with others? Under the Patriot Act he can be held indefinitely and his wife and family do not have to be told where he is held, why he is held, or even IF he is being held, all in the name of protecting the US from terrorists. He could disappear without a trace forever.
What if he's innocent? What if they got the wrong guy?
That's dangerous. Reasoning like that means that because thieves are breaking the law the police can break the law to catch them. Exactly, but that "the-end-justifies-the-means" syndrome. That's how they've been able to say the worst parts of the Patriot Act are OK.
Yep…and that becomes the black-hole death syndrome (ok…I made up the name) where we are saying that the US is justified in being as horrible as the guys we are trying to stop. As they get more horrific so do we in the name of getting them.
That doesn’t seem very moral, as we say we are doing this for moral reasons.
How long before Americans start kidnapping non-Americans and beheading them on TV?
Don’t think it’s possible? Think about the dead guy on ice in the Iraqi prison. It’s proven we (Americans) can fall down that black hole as quick as anyone, though the hole is very deep and we haven’t gotten close to the bottom yet…the bottom being what? Horrific death to all?
Oh but that Iraqi prison abuse stuff was a product of the biased, liberal press. We, the people, should have never been told about that because, because it cost people’s lives in Iraq - outrageous
