editor
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 Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 3:51 pm Post subject: Guantánamo Gamblers |
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Guantánamo Gamblers:
Inside the Wire
Hardcover
By Erik Saar and Viveca Novak
| Quote: | Before I left the blocks, I had another conversation with Mustapha. This orange-suited Syrian, sitting in a tiny jail cell, and I, an American soldier in combat boots, camouflage, and sunglasses, had talked a great deal by now about our respective faiths. Over time, I came to understand Mustapha's journey to radical Islam, from the streets of Damascus to the hills of Afghanistan and finally to an interrogation booth in a godforsaken carved-out corner of Cuba.
He'd been living a life of gambling and pursuing women in Syria. His family, he said, never prayed, fasted, or attended mosque. One day, a missionary knocked on his door. He asked Mustapha why he and his family didn't go to mosque, and explained that Islam teaches that God is to be feared and that one day he would face judgment. According to Mustapha, he was literally scared into believing; he didn't want to face God at the end of a life not lived according to the tenets of Islam. He became a follower of these missionaries and before long, according to him, he headed to Afghanistan to help them. Mustapha's newfound belief developed into a fanatical devotion. He fervently believed that true Muslims must practice violent jihad against the infidels, who included any non-Muslims. At the top of the list were Jews and Americans. (From Chapter Six at pgs. 136-137) |
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editor
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Joined: 09 Nov 2003
Posts: 2940
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| Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 10:15 am Post subject: |
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The Punishment of Virtue
Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban
Hardcover
By former NPR reporter Sarah Chayes
| Quote: | Most important, for nearly all the Afghans I interviewed at the time, was (Hamid) Karzai's emphasis on negotiation. "He was telling the Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar, to hand over power peacefully and not to destroy the country," the (small-time opium) dealer told me. "From that we came to know he was a good person. By negotiations and by the help of the tribal elders and their councils, he came to Kandahar. With the people's consent, that's how he came. He did not enter Kandahar by force."
During the days of pandemonium that immediately followed the Taliban flight, with the shoot-out over the cars by the almond merchants' warehouses, and the tug-of-war for the injured at the hospital, and looting all over town - humanitarian offices turned inside out, cars stolen, papers strewn, furniture carried off - Karzai's soldiers were praised for their comportment. They acted like public servants, people said, assisting the frightened population, refraining from pillage and theft. They seemed to represent the new Afghanistan the population so fervently desired.
America's other group of proxies, by contrast, Gul Agha Shirzai and his gun slinging acolytes, embodied precisely the kind of violent chaos Afghans dreaded.
Shirzai was also from a Kandahar family. His father had a reputation across the province as a champion dogfighter. He poured much of his energy into this passion, breeding the barrel-chested fighting dogs local nomads keep, organizing matches, tallying bets. In a country where a man is known by his lineage, by the deeds of his forebears, these were not auspicious roots for Gul Agha Shirzai.
When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, Shirzai's dog-fighting father also joined the resistance, calling up tribal followers and marshaling them into a rebel force. But according to the word spread by many in Kandahar, the Soviets lured him secretly to their side, and he served as a spy for the occupiers while pretending to fight against them.
Such betrayals and counterbetrayals were a feature of that bitter war... (From Chapter 8, A Choice of Allies 1980-2001, at pgs. 66-67) |
A compelling enough tale but based almost entirely on hearsay:
Arab News
US to Allow Hearsay, Coerced Testimony in Guantanamo Trials
By Barbara Ferguson
Jan. 20/07
| Quote: | The Pentagon unveiled new guidelines for trials of “war on terror” detainees that will allow hearsay and coerced information to be introduced as evidence if a judge considers it credible. The rule handbook, presented to Congress on Thursday, will apply to the special tribunals at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba set up to try the “enemy combatants” being held at the site. Defense attorneys will be able to see summaries of classified evidence against their clients, but the rules forbid the lawyers from revealing potentially favorable classified evidence until US government officials have a chance to review it. If a suspect is found guilty he could be executed by orders of the US president, though it would be up to the secretary of defense to determine how to carry that out. The goal “has been to design a system that meets our responsibility under (the Geneva Conventions) and that provides a fair trial,” said Brig. Gen. Thomas Hemmingway, the Pentagon’s legal adviser to the process.
The Pentagon’s completion of the hefty 238-page manual outlining procedures for terror trials has revived debate in Congress on the treatment of military detainees. Democrats said they were concerned that the manual — based on a law passed last year in the then Republican-run Congress — tramples on basic legal rights that should be afforded to military prisoners. This, they say, puts US troops at risk of mistreatment if captured.
Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said he is working alongside Democratic Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin on a bill addressing flaws in the manual “that are impediments to the effective and credible prosecution of suspected terrorists.” But the Bush administration and GOP members say the tough standards are needed to ensure dangerous terrorists are convicted. “While ensuring the fair and full prosecution of terrorists, the military commissions manual preserves the ability of our war fighters to operate effectively on the battlefield,” said Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee.
Under the law, the president can convene military commissions to prosecute terror suspects so long as he follows certain guidelines, such as granting defendants legal counsel and access to evidence used against them. The law also for the first time provided specific definitions of abusive treatment of prisoners, prohibiting some of the worst abuses like mutilation and rape but granting the president leeway to decide which specific interrogation techniques are permissible. The new regulations lack some protections used in civilian and military courtrooms, such as the prohibition on using coerced or hearsay evidence. At a Pentagon briefing, Dan Dell’Orto, deputy to the Defense Department’s top counsel, said the new rules will “afford all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized people.” On hearing this, Rep. Ike Skelton, a Democrat and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said he planned to scrutinize the manual to ensure that it does not “run afoul” of the US Constitution. “I have not yet seen evidence that the process by which these rules were built or their substance addresses all the questions left open by the legislation,” Skelton said.
Officials think that with the evidence they have now, they could eventually charge 60 to 80 detainees, said Brig. Gen. Hemmingway. The Defense Department is currently planning trials for at least 10 detainees. There are almost 400 people suspected of ties to Al-Qaeda and the Taleban being held at the military’s prison in Guantanamo Bay. About 380 others have been released since the facility was opened five years ago. — With input from agencies |
Link to this entry
http://pokerpulse.com/news/viewtopic.php?p=2699#2699
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editor
Site Admin
Joined: 09 Nov 2003
Posts: 2940
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| Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 9:31 am Post subject: |
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Harper's
Magazine Subscription
Undoing Bush
How to repair eight years of sabotage, bungling, and neglect
June, 2007
| Quote: | ... For a short parlor game, challenge your friends to name a constitutional right that Bush has not sought to undermine. After the right to bear arms and the guarantee against the quartering of soldiers, the game will be over. Those who prefer a longer game can reverse the exercise, but be prepared for an extended and dispiriting evening.
... The Fifth Amendment right to due process, meanwhile, has fallen victim to assertions that "enemy combatants" can be held indefinitely without trial, that suspicious organizations can have their assets frozen without notice or hearings, and that military tribunals can sentence defendants to death on the basis of hearsay and coerced testimony. For the administration, secrecy trumps all legal process; it has claimed that lawsuits challenging unconstitutional renditions to torture and warrantless wiretapping cannot even be adjudicated because the government's allegedly unconstitutional conduct is itself a secret, even when the facts in question have already been emblazoned across the pages of the country's newspapers.
... The first and most important step toward restoration of constitutional principle, then, will be the next election. If the public does not demand fidelity to our founding principles, our representatives will not do so on their own.
The remaining steps are straightforward. The next administration could start by proclaiming - loudly - that in wartime, as in peacetime, the American system of government includes tree branches, and the president's first job is to take care that the law is faithfully executed. Second, Guantanamo must be shut down and the prisoners there brought within our borders. When Defense Secretary Robert Graves suggested just that, the administration's lawyers objected that they would lose their argument that because the detainees are held offshore, they are unprotected by the Constitution. But the argument that Guantanamo is a "law-free zone" is precisely why that island has become a world symbol for U.S. arrogance and lawlessness - a "reverse Statue of Liberty," as some have called it. ((From 1. The Constitution by David Cole, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, at pgs. 44-45) |
For all this, we're no safer:
Link to this entry
http://pokerpulse.com/news/viewtopic.php?p=2856#2856
Last edited by editor on Sun Jun 07, 2009 2:08 pm; edited 6 times in total |
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