Rotten To The Core
In all the furor over primaries, polls and presidential candidates, I wanted to call your attention to a very important set of hearings going on right now and where you can get more information on it.
Even as the attention of most Americans — and a large part of the rest of the world— is focused on tomorrow's presidential primaries and the countdown to the end of the Bush administration, the administration continues to stubbornly defend the latest in a serious of ignominious decisions and illegal practices today in Guantánamo. I'm at the U.S. naval base this week as a human rights observer at the military commission hearings in the cases against Canadian national Omar Khadr, and Yemeni citizen Salim Ahmed Hamdan. Khadr's hearing begins today; Hamdan's hearing starts Thursday. Over the next few days, I'll be blogging about developments from the proceedings.
First, a little perspective: More than 770 men have been held at Guantánamo; the population is now down to 275. That's progress, of course, but even as the numbers go down, the costs continue to skyrocket. During the military flight to the base this Saturday, I asked a Department of Defense official how many people are now stationed there. He told me approximately 7,000: 2,500 are U.S. service personnel and the rest include what he referred to as third-party nationals — mostly Filipinos and Jamaicans — who provide the labor to keep the facilities going. How is it a wise policy choice to create an infrastructure that requires 7,000 people to imprison 275 men?
Of course, the costs to the United States are much more than financial: more significant are the moral, legal, diplomatic and political consequences of holding hundreds of prisoners in arbitrary and indefinite detention. At the heart of American values is the principle of habeas corpus, which demands due process and fair trials before an independent judiciary. The United States' system of detention and trial at Guantánamo has, for the past six years, betrayed that principle and undermined this country's historical position as an international champion of human rights and civil liberties. Read on...
gitmo is outsourcing its labor too????
look, i want this facility shut down...but fucking christ, is there an arm of our government that doesnt outsource its labor pool?
I sometimes wonder if Bush and Cheney actually had a checklist from Osama bin Laden listing everything he'd like them to do in order set the Muslim world ablaze and prove that what he'd been saying all along about American intentions and actions was true.
Brutally detain and torture Muslims for simply being Muslims: check.
Rain terror down on innocent civilians: check.
Invade and occupy Muslim lands: check.
Seize control of Muslim resources: check.
Check, check, check, check, check...
The Muslim world has not yet gotten over the crusades, folks.
The catastrophic insanity of these lunatic bully boys will haunt us for decades, possibly generations.
well, we can keep gitmo open to receive the entire
bush administration at the end of his term. however, i suggest that
to keep cost down that
1) they are fed in the manor the bush adminstration aids the foodbanks in America
2) they will have to pay for all their services including medical in advance of service
3) they all serve as solitary confinement prisons, no contact with other prisoners and
only one hour out of the cell a day.
4) no phone privileges and all mail is redacted.
Attention all repukes
just like the NAZI's thought they could get away with it by lying......
The Nuremburg trials took place
Bush, Cheney and Rumsafailure ARE NEXt.......
And Who is PAYING for the KEEP at GITMO
us tax payers EXPENSE
GIVE THEM A TRIAL and GET IT OVER WITH
Bravenewfilms has put out another vid showing how much Billo hates homeless vets!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxAPf2x96I0&feature=related
Hopefully this link will work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKslYDgiCXM
and not too mention the 3+ Trillion dollar budget! That's Bush"s budget, but he did save money by cutting popular programs and having the budget online instead of printed. I don't think we can imagine how happy we will be when he is finally gone. As we think back to the fraudulent beginning and the following years that were like a nightmare as Barbara Striesend called it. I get happy just thinking about him no longer being President!! So whenever you feel sad just think that in 11 months were are rid of him for good!!!! Even if by some fluke McCain wins he will never be as bad as George Bush was, our Worst President Ever.
Gitmo always had a reasonably sized defensive contingency. I do not know how large it was, but I suspect it was (at least) 2K-3K. No doubt is was at its peak in the early-mid 60's. As the cold war began to wind down, the number probably dropped. It was, and perhaps still is, an important Intel base. So, the base population does not reflect the ratio of guards, interrogators, prison administrators, to prisoners being held.
Ozguy @ 2:
OZGUY ... Your insight is correct, bush (a friend of the Saud's) has done as much as he could to acomodate Bin Ladin and help excite the whole of the muslim world to Jihad, and yet he goes prancing around clucking like he has done so much to defend this country.
Can you believe there is still around 33% who support this idiot?
Where's that AMERICAN HERO
rumsfailure.......................................
cut n a deal with kellog and the tribune news
A boy who tortured animals grew up to be president, and subsequently enact a foreign policy involving the rape of boys in Abu Ghraib and recording them screaming on video.
"Double Guantánamo!"
Time to elect a president who will bring Team America home.
I'm a Liberal Canadian and I don't want Omar Khadr back in my country nor any member of his family.
There is absolutely nothing Canadian about this boy besides his birth certificate. His father was an Al Queda financier and coasted Osama Bin Laden himself.
I repeat, I am a Liberal Canadian and I do not want Khadr back in my country. His mother and sisters should get deported from Canada since they where housed in Afghanistan while father and sons were training in Bin Laden's play ground.
Omar Khadr, Canada does not want you back and Canada will not help come back. Screw you
Enja @ 8:
I saw that this morning. He's breaking all kinds of spending records.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/11104408/for/cnbc/
Out of Cuba now. We have no right to simply occupy any part of any country for any purpose. Only despots set up camp and occupy another's house.
And for crissake, we must stop outsourcing jobs in the services.
OOOPs, Kid "Terrorist" Innocent
Mon Feb 04, 2008 at 06:04:32 PM PST
"U.S. NAVAL BASE GUANTANAMO, Cuba - A secret document accidentally released by the U.S. military Monday raises questions about whether someone other than Canadian terror suspect Omar Khadr could have thrown a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier during a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan."
http://www.canada.com/...
High comedy struck again at the Pentagon's new and improved Kangeroo Kourt of Keystone Kop Justice as the prosecution accidently fumbled and released to the press, then demanded the return, of evidence that Omar Khadr, the then 15-year-old child soldier captured, tortured and imprisoned by US forces in Afghanstan, was not the only one alive when a grenade was tosssed killing an American soldier. This flies in the face of the many, many flat out declarations by USA authorities that Khadr was the only one alive to have thrown the explosive. Again we see proof that if its wearing a Pentagon uniform and its lips are moving, it must be lying.
Multiple organizations from across the world, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, Human Rights First, and even UNICEF, have demanded that the US release the child soldier.
It is tragically laughable that after six years of the Bush Mafia's War on Terror, and billions upon billions of dollars spent, they have netted two people: Jose Padilla, a man made mentally incompetent by way of torture, who pleaded out to a bogus consiracy charge, and last, but not least, a child.
By now, we should all realize that if you allow abuse, as a matter of principle, it leads to torture. Torture, as a matter of practice, will lead to murder. Murder, as a matter of economy, leads to mass murder. Mass murder, to genocide. You can almost hear it beneath all of the so-called "patriots" maniacally demanding the persecution of this child. Such blood-thirstiness betrays what is in reality a deep, but unspoken and hidden, desire and lust for flat out race war and genocide. Who said Naziism was dead? Its alive and well here in America,as we can see from the many posting of the most rabid and hysterical pro-War on Terror types here: USA! USA! USA! That is precisely the unspoken and fundamnetal motive for our War on Terror, which otherwise, defies all rationality.
LOL! If anyone deserves extermination, its these fake "patriots".
How horribly, cruelly pathetic. America The Beautiful has come down to torturing and persecuting children.
Based on the title I thought this would be about Hillary Clinton.
Brad @ 12:
to late kucinich is gone! thiers none left thats going to bring them home!
WTF?? I expect MUCH better than this from both KOS and C&L
Well, if it was ONLY the prison facility, there might be an actual point here, but the base in Guantanamo doesn't exist solely for holding the detainees. The important (and obviously unasked) question is, "how many troops are assigned to the prison?" One answer: "One thousand troops (mostly naval volunteers and Army National Guard) and 800 civilians detain 450+ GWOT enemy personnel at an annual cost (not including military salaries) of $100 million" - From the June 2006 "Academic Report- Trip to JTF Guantanamo"
As far as "outsourcing," CALM THE F**K DOWN!!! We have been using contract personnel for base functions (cooking, etc.) for at least 50 years - we do it at virtually every base in the U.S. An enlisted person will probably be gone in two years and all the retraining costs to replace a cook just isn't worth it in the long run. It makes much more sense to have someone who can be there longer than a soldier's (or Marine's) tour of duty.
Complain about private armies all day -I'll be right there with you. When it comes to purely support personnel, it makes more sense to hire civilian. Most places offshore hire locals - I think you can understand why that's not feasible in Cuba...
tyree @ 18:
The only one left would be Kucinich's proposed running-mate, Ron Paul.
Torture, Voter Fraud, rigged elections, invasions of sovereign states, the big problem is that America pretends to be one thing but in reality it is another, and it thinks the world doesn't notice. Not only that, Hilary is there to keep it business as usual.
Fil @ 13:
So, Fil, what First Nation do you belong to? Mr. Khadr, the child of immigrants, was born here, and is thereby subject to our nations laws, both to protect him and prosecute him. If he is accused, try him; if guilty, punish him. Cast this boy to the wolves, and you open the door to your family being taken off the street at the behest of a foreign entity, already above it's own laws.
Fil @ 13:
Fil, as a good liberal you need to be more understanding of people who hold opinions different than yours. Don't you know that Mr. Khadr is only trying to save the world from George Bush? Before Bush I am sure he was a gentle, peace loving chap. Probably saved a few orphaned kittens, too.
his old man was a financier for Osam Bin Laden. He brought his sons to train in what you would call it as "Summercamp" but where Al-Queda training camps.
Omar was born Canadian, but he was not raised as a Canadian. He was raised as a Jihadist by his hateful father. Omar killed an American soldier and should answer for his crime.
Omar's mother lives in TO has openly expressed anti-western remarks and in my opinion there is nothing Canadian in that family at all besides the birth certificates of their children.
Deport and boot.
Khadr's family is truly nasty, but that doesn't change the facts that he was a child and was defending himself against a murderous American attack. I cannot understand how that makes him a criminal under any circumstances. Self defense is legal even in a non-war zone. As a liberal Canadian, I think he should be brought back to Canada, but forbidden from contacting his family as a condition for his rehabilitation. Rehabilitation which will be far more difficult after years spent in the hell of Guantanamo.
murderous American attack?
Afghanistan is not Iraq,
2ndly, the elder Khadr was Egyptian born, Bin Laden is a Saudi.
So there is nothing Afghan about Khadr and Bin Laden, they are outsiders in Afghanistan.
The US and allied NATO nations were on a mandated UN mission in Afghanistan........... nothing to do with Iraq, nothing illegal or murderous on NATO's part.
Yes George Bush did mislead the world to got to Iraq... but do not confuse it to be the same as Afghanistan because that is where the Taliban is making a come back since the US dropped their eyes off the real big ball in the Afghanistan/Pakistan border.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: If the entire Bush administration does not end up at Guantanamo next year, the world owes Adolf Hitler and his staff an apology.
Fil @ 26:
Taliban gov't. was in Washington in August 2001 negotiating the building of a pipeline from the Kaspian Basin to the oil terminal in Iraq. Afghanistan was invaded because the negotiations failed. Now the pipeline is being built.
Fil follows the fable. Fil feels the young fella choose to follow the father and should never be forgiven for the fuck ups of the fatah. Furthermore Fil feels Canada is not big enough for him and the young fella forced out of his mind by the fascists.
Clearly Fil is fucked up where the fedora goes and would fearlessly forsake all of our freedoms to burn a witch. Fil forgets that fourteen falls short for criminal intent, forever fearful of what flees under his bed. The foundation of your fear Fil lies fully in the flagrant racism and falsehoods you spew forth.
I think a more interesting statistic might be a comparisom of the ratio of guards to prisoners at American state prisons. If the ratio of guards to prisoners were 10-to-one, the gangs would not be running the prisons. In some state facilities there are ten or fewer guards per shift watching 100 violent gangsters.
Doubt cast on allegations against Omar Khadr
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080204.wGitmo0402/B...
The 7,000 people are contractors. It's all about the money. For the defense contractors to continue to have a reason to get paid, there must be the unending threat, even if from concocted or purely immaginary enemies, like those in Guan
tanamo.Just remember these people accused someone based on the fact that he had a working stove in his kitchen.
@fil
> I’m a Liberal Canadian
Right. You do realize that there hasn't been a trial yet, right? You do realize that documents leaked in the last few days show that even the US Gov doesn't believe it's own allegations are air-tight. Yet you claim, under the guise of the liberal Canadian, that you have the verdict for him and his family. How un-liberal, how un-Canadian. As a Canadian, I can say I would feel better if the Canadian court system was dealing with Omar, but my opinion on that counts as much as yours, which is not much. Yours is just filthy and repugnant, since you would sentence a teenager for the crimes of his family, and vice versa. You're hardly what I'd call liberal or Canadian.
I'm probably going to get wrapped on the knuckles and handed a tin foil hat-However, it shouldn't be ruled out that Gitmo is a test facility for a much larger operation in the future. The foreign laborers are not my concern- its the people running the camp that should be scrutinized and at the very least- stripped of their U.S. citizenship and denied re-entry into America. Of course this will never happen- and nor will Bush face charges, Hillary will continue her felonious campaign fund raising, McCain will pass sanity tests and likely get elected and it will be business as usual. Nothing is going to change unless the people of this country physically take it back- and the powers that be are fully prepared for this contingency. Gitmo is just a training facility to see how soldiers react and how efficient they will be when faced to arrest and detain American citizens, relatives and close friends who may be considered by our administration to be dissidents.
Everyone commenting here and on other sites with an opposing view of the administration will most likely be considered a domestic terrorist.
Its pretty obvious what is happening- and its even more obvious that nothing is being done to stop it. If our country was in fact what it purports itself to be- the entire administration would be jailed and tried for treason and war crimes- but that is NOT happening and probably never will- which speak volumes, despite all the rhetoric and small talk.
If we do not physically take our country back- they will physically take what's left- that's what they are preparing to do- whether or not you wish to see it or bury your head in the sand- it doesn't matter how you perceive it. Its happening anyway and it is identical- albeit slower, to the situation which unfolded in Germany. Nobody took Hitler seriously. They called him reckless, crazy and truly believed he didn't stand a chance- and the dialog from the citizens then is exactly the same in America today. One by one, citizens utilizing their free speech and free peaceful protest will be herded into box cars dazed and confused as to how it could have happened and the remaining people will be grateful just to be alive.
I just want puke.
The Bush US Policy is we torture, rape and kill Innocent people be they man/woman/child.
This Administration and the reputation of the United States of America will be remembered as the next Hitler age. We have no Justice System there for we a Lawless. Crook and Criminals run the US Government. In the coming months the US will have either a Republican President who will stay the same course or a Democrat who will allow John Kerry to be a back room President and Ted Kennedy to top his famous Brothers. If McCain or Obama get in we will see the US have to fight within for Country to rebuild itself. Obama uses his words wisely as he lies about this past. As he rides the celebrity star and Oprah pushes another fake story that will blow up in her face as the last one did. Even the Governor's wife wants in on the easy target of the President who knows nothing. Maybe Governor Arnold can get a job on the Obama cabinet as a favor for his wife's support.
Anyone that paid 10 dollars for the 811 commission report deserves to get their money back. Will we ever get to the bottom of what the hell is going on at Gitmo. Are they just using prisoners as practice dummies.
@brian, his old man has a over decade long track record, research on him. There is no maple syrop flowing in that family`s vains
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