Your PR campaign has worked wonders. And I wonder if Hicks and any of his friends will think twice about going to fight againast US forces again.

In Glenn's world hicks is more believable and Iran is more compassionate.

Great work.

tiberius is such a classic Authoritarian Follower that it's almost funny. Almost.

Shame on the New York Times for running this op-ed in this form! The fact that this is an "opinion" piece doesn't make Davis's reference to Hicks's "stipulation" any less deceptive or destructive.

I notice, also, that the Times's front-page story this morning includes a reference, in the sub-head, to our war against "Qaeda."

Finally, a quick point:

Even if we take the military's word about everything happening at Guantanamo, the camp, and the "military commissions" conducted there, are a gross violation of every international legal norm and human rights standard. In other words, there's no need to prove that prisoners like Hicks are being sexually assaulted in order to make the case against Bush, Guantanamo, and official "disappearances." (Of course, these policies are also -- apologies to Glenn here -- immoral.)

I'm only pointing this out because a common response by Bush apologists to editorials like these is to say: "Well, of course he claims he was sexually abused." Whether or not Hicks and others in his position were sexually abused (and are continuing to be sexually abused) isn't the primary question. The primary question is: does the U.S. government have the right to carry out kidnappings? Even if the people whom our military has kidnapped are being held at the Ritz Carlton, their ongoing "detention" is still a violation of every core principle of international law, and every fundamental protection enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.

That being said: no impartial, rational observer could doubt that U.S. interrogators are sexually abusing detainees as a matter of course. After hearing Josh Casteel, a former interrogator who's now a student at the Playwrights' Workshop here in Iowa City, describe the interrogations he personally participated in (interrogators routinely "fucked" the prisoners with rectal thermometers to punish them for their non-responsiveness), I'm persuaded that rape is not an aberration in these military camps, but an intentional and widespread policy.

who is an Army major in the Reserves was called up to active duty a couple of years ago and spent his active duty in Tampa. I didn't hear much from him until he returned. When I asked him what he had been doing, he said that he had been part of a team investigating abuses at Guantanamo. He couldn't get into detail with me, but when I asked him if the press coverage had perhaps sensationalized the amount or degree of abuse that was occurring there, he said, "No, you don't even know the half of it. It's actually far worse than you think."

I don't even know why a chief prosecutor would necessarily know all that much about conditions at Guantanamo. How much do prosecutors usually know about conditions at the local prison? I would have much preferred to hear from the commanding officer at Guantanamo, or better yet, some of the intelligence-gatherers working there.

I can't imagine what the military officers that still have some shred of honor left in them and are involved in this feel about all this. There is only so much "I have to follow orders" rationalization you can digest before your whole system of values just crumbles.

Of course, there are clumps of them -- getting promoted these days no doubt -- that are fully on board with this. The purpose of an army is to win, after all. I just can't imagine having to take a shower with one of them.

Tying it back to the standard operating procedure as evidenced by the Iranian/British case is especially powerful.

Thanks.

I don't know when moral blindness became such a feature of American culture. Some people say it's always been there, but I really don't think that the political leaders of the 40s would have so actively engaged in gulag tactics the way the Bush/Cheney administration has.

Good thing impeachment is "off the table". One wouldn't want to be considered "shrill" by the cocktail-party set.

And I wonder if Hicks and any of his friends will think twice about going to fight againast US forces again.

Just to be sure, why not cut off their limbs, or poke out their eyeballs? That will really set the kind of example you want to create.

Can you believe that, for decades, Germans and Japanese who had fought against the US in WWII were allowed to live normal lives in peace, rather than be shackled in eternal, justice-free prison camps? What was Truman thinking? After all, merely thinking of being an enemy of the United States ought to be punishable not merely by law-free imprisonment and torture, that kind of existence should go on forever.

Habeas corpus is such a 2nd millenium concept after all. Here in the Thrid Millenium, we know that might makes right, people can never be trusted, and Evildoers should be locked away FOREVER.

Tiberius: channeling the spirit of Torquemada since no concept is too outdated for the supporters of authoriatiarnism.

I'm at a point in my life where "equal justice under the law" would really be a kinda nice thing to believe in (my husband has been threatened repeatedly with a defamation lawsuit for maintaining a website that reveals truths that an organization would prefer not be revealed.) Instead, I feel vulnerable and marginalized in my own country, and unable to trust that "good guys" ever win in the end, especially those unable to afford legal representation. The cynicism I feel toward my government really hurts when I have no choice but to rely on a system that has demonstrated in countless appalling ways that it is broken, rigged, hostile to truth-tellers.

Just one example of how a loss of faith in the inherent "goodness" of this country translates into fear and mistrust at the personal level.

To hear him talk about Guantanomo or prison makes me wnat o go there on vacation. How idiotic this WH is to think the public buys any of the propaganda. Perhaps these are people who live for their "photo-op" moment (like the mission-accomplished aircraft carrier)-or maybe they are so riddled with guilt that this moronic eutopian illusion is a coping mechanism in making thier consciences obey. Who knows why people in the military lie to themselves-and keep telling themselves "We are absolutely winning"....These are people with blind trust, who don't question, who still have faith in govt.-because ignorance IS bliss.

I'll take the ability to question, the ability to think for myself, the ability to be accountable for my own actions,the ability to choose NOT to harm another human being....anyday.