[Ppnews] Silence of the Lamb-like Lawyers - Relocating Guantánamo

[Political Prisoner News]

http://www.counterpunch.org/

December 22, 2009


Silence of the Lamb-like Lawyers


Relocating Guantánamo

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

Obama’s dwindling band of true believers has 
taken heart that their man has finally delivered 
on one of his many promises--the closing of the 
Guantanamo prison. But the prison is not being 
closed. It is being moved to Illinois, if the Republicans permit.

In truth, Obama has handed his supporters another 
defeat. Closing Guantanamo meant ceasing to hold 
people in violation of our legal principles of 
habeas corpus and due process and ceasing to 
torture them in violation of US and international laws.

All Obama would be doing would be moving 100 
people, against whom the US government is unable 
to bring a case, from the prison in Guantanamo to 
a prison in Thomson, Illinois.

Are the residents of Thomson despondent that the 
US government has chosen their town as the site 
on which to continue its blatant violation of US 
legal principles? No, the residents are happy. It means jobs.

The hapless prisoners had a better chance of 
obtaining release from Guantanamo. Now the 
prisoners are up against two US senators, a US 
representative, a mayor, and a state governor who 
have a vested interest in the prisoners’ 
permanent detention in order to protect the new 
prison jobs in the hamlet devastated by unemployment.

Neither the public nor the media have ever shown 
any interest in how the detainees came to be 
incarcerated. Most of the detainees were 
unprotected people who were captured by Afghan 
war lords and sold to the Americans as 
“terrorists” in order to collect a proffered 
bounty. It was enough for the public and the 
media that the Defense Secretary at the time, 
Donald Rumsfeld, declared the Guantanamo 
detainees to be the “780 most dangerous people on earth.”

The vast majority have been released after years 
of abuse. The 100 who are slated to be removed to 
Illinois have apparently been so badly abused 
that the US government is afraid to release them 
because of the testimony the prisoners could give 
to human rights organizations and foreign media about their mistreatment.

Our British allies are showing more moral 
conscience than Americans are able to muster. 
Former PM Tony Blair, who provided cover for 
President Bush’s illegal invasion of Iraq, is 
being damned for his crimes by UK officialdom 
testifying before the Chilcot Inquiry.

The London Times on December 14 summed up the 
case against Blair in a headline: “Intoxicated by 
Power, Blair Tricked Us Into War.” Two days later 
the British First Post declared: “War Crime Case 
Against Tony Blair Now Rock-solid.” In an 
unguarded moment Blair let it slip that he 
favored a conspiracy for war regardless of the 
validity of the excuse [weapons of mass 
destruction] used to justify the invasion.

The movement to bring Blair to trial as a war 
criminal is gathering steam. Writing in the First 
Post Neil Clark reported: “There is widespread 
contempt for a man [Blair] who has made millions 
[his reward from the Bush regime] while Iraqis 
die in their hundreds of thousands due to the 
havoc unleashed by the illegal invasion, and who, 
with breathtaking arrogance, seems to regard 
himself as above the rules of international law.” 
Clark notes that the West’s practice of shipping 
Serbian and African leaders off to the War Crimes 
Tribunal, while exempting itself, is wearing thin.

In the US, of course, there is no such attempt to 
hold to account Bush, Cheney, Condi Rice, 
Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and the large number of war 
criminals that comprised the Bush Regime. Indeed, 
Obama, whom Republicans love to hate, has gone 
out of his way to protect the Bush cohort from being held accountable.

Here in Great Moral America we only hold 
accountable celebrities and politicians for their 
sexual indiscretions. Tiger Woods is paying a 
bigger price for his girlfriends than Bush or 
Cheney will ever pay for the deaths and ruined 
lives of millions of people. The consulting 
company, Accenture Plc, which based its marketing 
program on Tiger Woods, has removed Woods from 
its Web site. Gillette announced that the company 
is dropping Woods from its print and broadcast 
ads. AT&T says it is re-evaluating the company’s relationship with Woods.

Apparently, Americans regard sexual infidelity as 
far more serious than invading countries on the 
basis of false charges and deception, invasions 
that have caused the deaths and displacement of 
millions of innocent people. Remember, the House 
impeached President Clinton not for his war 
crimes in Serbia, but for lying about his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Americans are more upset by Tiger Woods’ sexual 
affairs than they are by the Bush and Obama 
administrations’ destruction of US civil liberty. 
Americans don’t seem to mind that “their” 
government for the last 8 years has resorted to 
the detention practices of 1,000 years 
ago--simply grab a person and throw him into a 
dungeon forever without bringing charges and obtaining a conviction.

According to polls, Americans support torture, a 
violation of both US and international law, and 
Americans don’t mind that their government 
violates the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance 
Act and spies on them without obtaining warrants 
from a court. Apparently, the brave citizens of 
the “sole remaining superpower” are so afraid of 
terrorists that they are content to give up 
liberty for safety, an impossible feat.

With stunning insouciance, Americans have given 
up the rule of law that protected their liberty. 
The silence of law schools and bar associations 
indicates that the age of liberty has passed. In 
short, the American people support tyranny. And that’s where they are headed.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the 
Treasury in the Reagan administration. He is 
coauthor of 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0307396061/counterpunchmaga>The 
Tyranny of Good Intentions. His new book, How the 
Economy was Lost, will be published next month by 
AK Press / CounterPunch. He can be reached at: 
<mailto:PaulCraigRoberts at yahoo.com>PaulCraigRoberts at yahoo.com




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