Letters to the Editor

Letters posted here are associated with the following article:
Five detainees ordered released "forthwith" after seven years at Guantanamo If the U.S. Congress had its way, these men would continue to be imprisoned despite there being no evidence of their guilt.
The letters thread is now closed.
  • The meaning of "forthwith" under the current administration

    On Tuesday, October 7, Judge Ricardo Urbina ordered the 17 Uighur detainees to be released by Friday, October 10.

    They're still in Gitmo.

    Their next appeal (Kiyemba v. Bush, Circuit docket 08-5424) is scheduled for 9:30 AM, Monday, November 24.

  • Al-Marri v. Pucciarelli (Supreme Court docket 08-368)

    As opposed to the Gitmo cases, where the Bush Administration is trying to move them OUT of district court, in the Al-Marri case the Bush Administration is trying to get the case moved back INTO district court for a habeas review.

    The Supremes may decide this coming Tuesday, November 25, whether to review (grant cert. to) the Al-Marri case, or whether to kick it back downstairs as requested by the Bush Administration.

    Where's the consistency, one may wonder?

    Ah, well, the consistent theme is very simple: kick it upstairs, then kick it downstairs, and keep on kicking, never letting the case rest.

    "Delay! Delay! Delay!"

  • Glenn vs. RichD

    "...The Bush Administration is certainly to be greatly faulted for its failure to develop a process for separating genuine threats from innocent victims at Gitmo and elsewhere. But are we sure the Court was able to view everything it needed to know these five do not pose a threat? The Wall Street Journal reported that some prisoners released from Gitmo have subsequently been found attempting terrorist acts or fighting against in Iraq. While the WSJ is too extreme in wanting to keep everyone imprisoned, is Greenwald being too easy in wanting more released?..."

    RichD, therein lies the dilemma. Throw everyone in confinement during the first throes of a paroxysm of paranoia, and you risk not only staining your nation's tenets but stoking the very fires of terrorism you claim your actions are preventing. What to do? Keep them all in and continue to wreck the very foundation that has made us what we are while fanning the anger and need for retribution from their friends, relatives and countrymen? People who otherwise, apart from the previously committed terrorists and radical Islamists, would hold no brief with us? Or do what appears to be the reasonable thing and adjudicate these questions as fairly and openly as our security would allow to determine whether we've got the mother of all terrorist roundups or, in the main, have swept up a bunch of schlubs caught up, like dolphins in a tuna cache, in a net cast in reactive panic?

  • From "The Last Waltz"

    http://youtube.com?v=BLjNjSpZxzg

    They say ev'ry man needs protection
    They say that ev'ry man must fall
    Yet I swear I see my reflection
    Somewhere so high above this wall

    I see my light come shinin'
    From the west unto the east
    Any day now, any day now
    I shall be released

  • Mukasey

    WASHINGTON – Attorney General Michael Mukasey collapsed during a speech Thursday night and lost consciousness, a Justice Department official said.

    The 67-year-old Mukasey was rushed to George Washington University Hospital, where his condition was not immediately known.

    Mukasey was delivering a speech to the Federalist Society...

    link at sig

  • Updates!

    Let's all go barmy!

    We'll join the Army.

    See the world we never saw.

    And if we're feeling down,

    We'll wander into town.

    And if the population,

    Should greet us with indignation.

    We'll chop 'em to bits!

    Because we like our hanburger,

    Raw!

    Bertold Brecht- Kurt Weill "The Army Song" from Threepenny Opera

    I don't know if it sounds better in the original German.

    I know things look much better now that I got some new glasses.

  • Mukasey

    Just a few dozen more such sublimely ironic collapses and God will sufficiently prove his existence to me. C'mon, G-d, I know you can do it.

  • Attorney General Michael Mukasey collapses - stroke feared

    Tonight, while addressing the Federalist Society, Attorney General Mukasey collapsed on stage. Audience members said while officials/paramedics "continued to work on him" they "prayed for his recovery" as it appeared he had suffered a stroke.

    Politico and Politics Home are reporting on developments.

  • It appears...

    bahhummingbug was prescient.

    My hope is this ruling will, once again, at least put mush-mouth Mukasey in a very difficult position.
    -bahhummingbug
  • WTF?

    Just a few dozen more such sublimely ironic collapses and God will sufficiently prove his existence to me.

    You can't be serious.

  • Oh!, ethics_professor

    Would you mind doing me a favor?

    Since I won't be able to update the Wog Blog while I'm away frolicking in the Sun and Suds with You-Know-Who, I was wondering if you might find it in your heart to keep a daily list of ToDs and email it to me when I get back?

    Then, I can do a Big Super Duper Lollapalooza Special Edition and give those folks the recognition they deserve?

    Pretty please?

  • Mackie Mooser!

    You might like this:

    http://threepennyopera.org

  • Charges?

    Great news . . . but is there any chance that anyone will ever face any sort of sanction or punishment over these horrendous detentions and what amounts to torture of these people?

    By the way- I have actually seen popular shows on prisons in America that highlight solitary confinement or "super-max" detentions and they openly said in one of them how brights lights are left on 24/7. I took this to be a common practice now in American prisons. They also openly talked about the long term damage done to the inmates and their minds in these solitary units (that don't have even so much as a pretense at "reform" or rehabilitation any longer.)

    I don't consider myself to be a "bleeding heart" but these shows that celebrate punishment of criminals in our society- that seem to take joy in their torment- are sickening.

    If leaving the lights on 24/7 in a cell isn't "cruel and unusual punishment" what is?

  • A True Blight Upon Our Once Great Republic

    To call George W. Bush a war criminal is to demean war criminals whose actions have caused far less pain and suffering.

  • Don't worry ethics

    It wouldn't really make me believe in god.

  • @Chris Dowd

    36. The Committee remains concerned about the extremely harsh regime imposed on detainees in “supermaximum prisons”. The Committee is concerned about the prolonged isolation periods detainees are subjected to, the effect such treatment has on their mental health, and that its purpose may be retribution, in which case it would constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (art. 16).

    The State party should review the regime imposed on detainees in “supermaximum prisons”, in particular the practice of prolonged isolation.

    (emphasis in original)

    From:

    COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE

    Thirty-sixth session

    1-19 May 2006

    CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES

    UNDER ARTICLE 19 OF THE CONVENTION

    Conclusions and recommendations of the Committee against Torture

    UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

    http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/898586b1dc7b4043c1256a450044f331/e2d4f5b2dccc0a4cc12571ee00290ce0/$FILE/G0643225.pdf

    They don't consider the case of adding lights and noise to the detention.

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