Guantanamo Jury Decision Blow to President Bush
"GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - The Yemeni man convicted at the first Guantanamo war crimes trial will be eligible for release in less than five months after receiving a light sentence from a jury made up of U.S. military officers.
The victory for Salim Hamdan, a former driver for Osama bin Laden, was a rebuke to military prosecutors who portrayed him as a hardened al-Qaida warrior and sought a sentence of 30 years to life in prison."
Rightly or wrongly, "Guantanamo Bay" has become synonymous with prisoner abuse and humiliation. The Bush Administration backs ill treatment and even torture (see http://loveshade.org/blog/2008/03/waterboarding_president_bush_f.html) of people who are legally innocent. This decision, that Hamdan got a 5 1/2 sentence after already serving over five years, must be a blow to the administration.
We can hope, as the American Political climate is headed for major changes, that the illusive and sometimes illusionary concept called "justice" can move beyond revenge and torturing the legally innocent. We hope.
See the article by Mike Melia, Associated Press writer, at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/guantanamo_bin_laden_s_driver
Comments
Why do politics keep getting into crime anyway? Abusing innocent people is a crime. That shouldn't be a Republican issue or a Democratic issue. It should be an American issue.
Posted by: Gina | August 11, 2008 01:27 AM
If you stop the government from torturing innocent people, they'll just look for something else to do. Like invade other countries? Of course that would be better.
Posted by: Doug the Rug | August 11, 2008 11:58 AM
Thanks Gina and Doug! Torture is wrong for anyone!
Posted by: Lorien Loveshade | August 12, 2008 03:07 AM
Can't I get that as a Halloween Costume? Always like to plan ahead.
Posted by: Frankly My Dear I Don't Give a Damn | August 12, 2008 10:58 PM
Everything that makes sense is a blow to George W. Bush.
Posted by: Gorgeous George Jr. | August 13, 2008 04:26 PM
Torture is not wrong for everyone! Terrorists should be tortured and tortured and tortured until they tell the truth. Then they should be executed. Let them burn! Show no mercy. If we make them talk, we can save innocent lives. Don't put the lives of terrorists above innocent people!
Posted by: Carl | August 14, 2008 06:19 PM
Carl, your argument has more holes than Swiss cheese.
First, torture doesn't work. Some people won't talk no matter how much you torture them. Others will talk and answer questions they don't know the answer to just to get the torture to stop. The reliability of information from torture is very low.
Second, you're talking about torturing people who might be innocent. You might as well say let's just punish everyone who's arrested without going to trial. Would you like that to happen to you?
Third, if America tortures its foreign prisoners, then other nations will torture Americans just because they're Americans. Do you want to be tortured by a nation that hates Americans?
Posted by: Bertha | August 16, 2008 06:27 PM
Just about every nation hates Americans. They have more money, they think they're better than everybody else, they screw their poor and middle class, and they wear funny shoes.
Posted by: Rev. Bootie | August 18, 2008 07:48 PM
Not everybody hates Americans. Just Americans.
And who designed that gown anyway? You'd never see anything like that at the Oscars.
Posted by: Francesca | August 19, 2008 11:52 AM
Hey, where did they get my wedding dress?
Posted by: Serbin Serta | August 21, 2008 07:00 PM
Bertha is right. Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. If more Christians would actually read their Bible instead of getting off on torture, maybe they'd actually act like Christians.
Posted by: Allen Sandman | August 25, 2008 05:41 AM
Poster Allen, don't expect most American Christians to act like Christians. They like to claim they're persecuted in America, which is crap. Let them go around publicly saying they're a Nazi, a witch, a pedophile, and then they'll see what persecution is. Better yet, let them go to a country where Christianity is illegal. Maybe they'd learn something.
Posted by: George of the Gorge | September 7, 2008 03:52 AM