They Came for the Chicken Farmer 




They Came for the Chicken Farmer
This has been our nightmare since the Bush administration began stashing prisoners it did not want to account for in Guantánamo Bay: An ordinary man with a name something like a Taliban bigwig's is swept up in the dragnet and imprisoned without any hope of proving his innocence.

A case of mistaken identity's turning an innocent person into a prisoner-for-life was supposed to be impossible. President Bush told Americans to trust in his judgment after he arrogated the right to arrest anyone, anywhere in the world, and toss people into indefinite detention. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld infamously proclaimed that the men at Guantánamo Bay were "the worst of the worst."

But it has long been evident that this was nonsense, and a lawsuit by The Associated Press has now demonstrated the truth in shameful detail. The suit compelled the release of records from hearings for some of the 760 or so men who have been imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay. (About 490 are still there.) Far too many show no signs of being a threat to American national security. Some, it appears, did nothing at all. And they have no way to get a fair hearing because Gitmo was created outside the law.

  • Senate Panel Blocks Eavesdropping Probe
    The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence voted along party lines yesterday to reject a Democratic proposal to investigate the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program and instead approved establishing, with White House approval, a seven-member panel to "oversee" the effort.

  • Names of the Dead
    The Department of Defense has identified 2,295 American service members who have died since the start of the Iraq war. It confirmed the deaths of the following Americans this week:

    JESSEN, Kevin P., 28, Staff Sgt., Army; Paragould, Ark.; 22nd Chemical Battalion (Technical Escort), 20th Support Command.

    SNYDER, Matthew A., 20, Lance Cpl., Marines; Finksburg, Md.; Combat Service Support Group-1, First Marine Logistics Group, First Marine Expeditionary Force.

  • Now he tells us
    GEORGE BUSH'S MAN IN BAGHDAD, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, was refreshingly candid in an interview he granted this newspaper on Monday. Describing the situation in Iraq, he acknowledged that the United States had opened a "Pandora's box" when it removed Saddam Hussein from power, creating the potential for widespread sectarian violence to lead to a civil war between Sunnis and Shiites.

    Khalilzad's observation would have been obvious to anyone in Iraq in the aftermath of the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite mosque in Samarra. But because the Bush administration's spin machine has been so relentless, it's noteworthy, sadly enough, to hear a top U.S. official bluntly state what is clear to anyone else on the ground in Iraq. Usually such candor from high-ranking administration officials — about Iraq or anything else — comes only after the word "former" appears before their titles.

  • The Planet Can't Wait
    The warnings are coming from frogs and beetles, from melting ice and changing ocean currents, and from scientists and responsible politicians around the world. And yet what is the U.S. government doing about global warming? Nothing. That should shock the conscience of Americans.

    Actually, the Bush administration's policy is worse than doing nothing. It has resisted efforts by other nations to discuss new actions that could reduce emissions of carbon dioxide before the global climate reaches a disastrous tipping point. And it muzzles administration scientists to keep them from warning about the seriousness of the issue. The administration's position is that more research is needed -- and then, as evidence grows that humans are adding to global warming, it calls for still more research.
 

Posted: Wed - March 8, 2006 at 09:26 AM           |

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