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Good grief. In just five years, the Bushites have gone from mere zealotry to loopiness… and now to inhumanity.
Since 2002, they have held some 460 Iraqi, Afghan, and other men in an autocratic, illegal netherworld galled Gitmo – a hell hole of a prison on a military base in Cuba. Even though it’s clear that many of these men (and maybe most) are not guilty of terrorist plotting, the Bushites have asserted an imperious presidential right to hold and even torture the prisoners indefinitely, ruthlessly operating Gitmo as an executive dungeon that they claim is not accountable to congress, the courts, or We The People.
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Secret military tribunals sit in judgment of the prisoners, who are essentially held incommunicado and denied any process to prove their innocence. Deprived of all hope, dozens of these detainees have been resorting to suicide attempts – and three are now dead.
The world sees Gitmo and these suicides as a stark admission that the US has abandoned its historic role as a moral beacon for the protection of human rights. That’s bad. But worse, the Bushites have openly mocked the dead. The honcho of Gitmo, Rear Admiral Harry Harris, immediately branded the three suicides “an act of asymmetrical warfare against us.” Excuse me, Admiral, but I think it’s your humanity that’s gone asymmetrical on you.
Next came Colleen Graffy, an assistant secretary of state. In a slap at the Isalamic men who had just taken their own lives, she breezily declared that their suicides were nothing but “a good PR move,” to advance the terrorist cause.
This is Jim Hightower saying… Believe it or not, this lady is the assistant secretary for public diplomacy, a new office created by Bush to try to improve America’s world image – especially in Islamic countries. Yet, Bush has made no move to reprimand Graffy, much less fire her. What kind of diplomatic message does that send to the Islamic world?
Sources:
“State Department Disavows Statement On Suicides,” New York Times, June 13, 2006.
“Three Prisoners Commit Suicide at Gitmo,” New York Times, June 11, 2006.
“The Deaths at Gitmo,” New York Times, June 12, 2006.