“Justice ought to be fair.” —George W. Bush, speaking at the White House Economic Conference, Washington, D.C., Dec. 15, 2004
But only for certain people. Did you think Guantanamo Bay was bad? Or the stupid and horrible things done at Abu Ghraib? Then imagine what happened here:
That’s right, folks, your president has yet again spit upon all our country stands for. (All bolding is mine.)
According to the Washington Post, the prisons are referred to as “black sites” in classified U.S. documents and virtually nothing is known about who the detainees are, how they are interrogated or about decisions on how long they will be held.
About 30 major terrorism suspects have been held at black sites while more than 70 other detainees, considered less important, were delivered to foreign intelligence services under a process known as “rendition,” the paper said, citing U.S. and foreign intelligence sources.
The top 30 al Qaeda prisoners are isolated from the outside world, have no recognized legal rights and no one outside the CIA is allowed to talk with or see them, the sources told the newspaper.
The paper, citing several former and current intelligence and other U.S. government officials, said the CIA used such detention centers abroad because in the United States it is illegal to hold prisoners in such isolation.
But it doesn’t matter what he does outside the U.S.? Does anyone buy that? Put yourself in any random world leader’s shoes. What would you think of a president who circumvented his own laws like that?
Here’s something the president probably never heard of. It’s an amendment to the United States Constitution.
Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
And in case you’re silly enough to think well, that only applies to citizens (hello, citizens of Middle Eastern descent have been singled out, what keeps you safe? Will you hide behind the color of your skin?) Anyway, how about this? It’s from a mostly-forgotten piece of tripe called the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
So? Do we believe that or not?
And just a little more That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it…
It’s time, people. The man is an embarrassment to thinking people everywhere, and worse, he is a danger to humanity.