Torture Has Consequences
Primary tabs
Finally, a judge who remembers the Constitution. I really hope this works for Ghailani and his defense.
NEW YORK – The first civilian trial for a Guantanamo Bay detainee has been delayed after a judge ruled the government cannot call its most important witness.
The delay was granted while the government appeals Wednesday's ruling by federal Judge Lewis Kaplan.
Kaplan blocked the government from calling the man who authorities said sold explosives to defendant Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani (AH'-mehd KAL'fahn guh-LAHN'-ee). Defense lawyers say investigators only learned about the witness after Ghailani underwent harsh interrogation at a CIA-run camp overseas.
Ghailani is charged with conspiring in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. The attacks killed 224 people, including a dozen Americans.
Fuck you, AP. The word you're looking for is torture. He may or may not be guilty of playing a vital role in those attacks. But torture is always wrong, even when the so-called "good guys" do it. Life is not like TV, and the smoking mushroom of doom or whatever will not be prevented by torturing. And given our government's track record at containing extremism overseas, which is to say it is only making that worse, you'd think more Americans would wake up to the fact that torture accomplishes little but granting a twisted satisfaction to the torturer.
I guess torture will have to be (even) more common right here in America before people wake up to this fact.
- chicago dyke's blog
- Log in or register to post comments
Comments
Intended Consequences
"And given our government's track record at containing extremism overseas, which is to say it is only making that worse…"
Well, IF the government really wanted to contain extremism and was making it worse instead, we'd have a tragic Keystone Kops/Barney Fife kind of thing going on. What I think we actually have here is a deliberate attempt not only NOT to contain extremism, but indeed to make it worse. Those bozos need an enemy to keep the wars and profiteering (and domestic repression) going and to justify it all in the mind of the public, so why not create one or two?
Thanks for the link. And thank you, Judge Kaplan. One hopes the appeals court doesn't fuck it up.