Guantanamo

In today’s news I read that a soon to be released Pentagon report claims that 74 of the 534 prisoners released from Guantanamo "have returned to terrorism or militant activity."  The notorious U.S. Military prisoner of war camp still holds 240 inmates.

I am patriotic, and unlike Cheney and Bill Clinton, I have served in the armed forces of my country. During the Vietnam War I was in the army, and after doing my duty, I received a medal and an honorable discharge.

Especially after having been in the military I am aware of how vital it is that we constantly question the military’s honesty and integrity. Reputable journalists should be jumping on this, asking “What exactly does it mean to say that someone has returned to terrorism or military activity?”

But of course honest investigative journalism is a rapidly dying profession. This trend has not been caused by the actions of some right wing fanatics, it is the genuine advance whereby one gets one’s news free from the internet rather than buying a newspaper. So there just aren’t many competent, reputable journalists left. And its getting to be less all the time.

If on my blog I openly say that Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney are complete raving lunatics, and then I help organize some type of political activity to get others to realize this sad truth, am I guilty of Engaging in Militant Activity?

I do not doubt that some of the people who were held at Guantanamo were really bad guys who have now returned to their old ways of hating America and democracy. Maybe even most of them. People who after being released are trying to do something about their ideas. Maybe some were even radicalized by the experience of being held and tortured for years in an American Military Jail.

But the military, the CIA, or any other part of the U.S. Government cannot be trusted to deliver unbiased news or information. The Gulf Of Tonkin Incident never happened. Remember? The entire premise of the Vietnam War was falsified and then covered up.

There is a genuine legacy that George Bush II left with all these people kept in U.S. Military jails located in Cuba and other even less savory places. Unless America is prepared to just put all these people into gas chambers, or stand them up against a wall and shoot them, this whole issue has to be dealt with sooner or later. And now is the time to do it.

The reason they were kept off the shores of America was because of some intellectually weak, morally stunted, and perverted concept that American law, the American Constitution, and the Geneva Accords on torture did not apply to employees of the American Government or contractors working for the government as long as the activities took place off the shores of the 50 states.

These ideas and concepts are of course completely absurd. They go against everything that America was found on. They were promulgated by the right wing ideologues Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rove, Limbaugh, and other fanatics like them. Lots of these people were well educated, and this just goes to show that simple “book learning” is only a very small element of true education.

Back to Guantanamo: This jail in Cuba must be closed down completely. In fact the entire base needs to be returned to the Cubans, along with a most genuine and sincere apology.

It should be made clear to all that American civil rights laws, and the provisions and full protections of the U.S. Constitution do indeed apply to employees of the U.S. Government and all of its contractors, no matter where they are located or how evil some of these prisoners of the Twin Towers War might be. America must return to the moral high road.

If the citizens of the democracy of America decide to continue holding these men in jail even though they have never been convicted of anything, well, countries can do things like that. But these men should be held in a facility located somewhere in the Continental United States where the press, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and others can have full access to verify that everything is on the up-and-up. Not in some U.S. Government Gulag located in Communist Cuba for heavens sake!

California Governor Schwarzenegger wants to sell off San Quentin. Maybe the U.S. Government can buy it. Northern California, right next to all these well educated people who believe in the Bill Of Rights and the U.S. Constitution, might be just the right place to keep these guys.

This openness and daylight should go a ways to ending the torture and making sure that America lives up to its ideals.
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