Thursday, June 29, 2006
Justice Thomas on the Guantanamo case:( AP) Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a strongly worded dissent from Thursday's ruling and took the unusual step of reading part of it from the bench — something he had never done before in his 15 years. He said the court's decision would "sorely hamper the president's ability to confront and defeat a new and deadly enemy."
The court's willingness, Thomas wrote in the dissent, "to second-guess the determination of the political branches that these conspirators must be brought to justice is both unprecedented and dangerous." Thomas is saying that the court should step aside and let a political body determine how somebody is "brought to justice". Set aside the notion of a fair trial, which is something Thomas doesn't seem to care much about. (How does adhering to the Geneva Convention and the UCMJ diminish the ability to defeat the enemy?) He is doing what many Republicans in Congress are doing. Working to undermine the authority of the branch he is a part of - and furthering the expansion of power by the executive.
posted by Quiddity at 6/29/2006 12:58:00 PM
8 comments
Judge Clarabelle:
He's got a nose that's magic!
What trips Thomas up is the silly "bring to justice" phrase. When Bush says "bring to justice" he means no such thing. Before 9/11, "bring to justice" meant arrest, book, charge with a crime, trial, sentence, punishment. In Bush-speak, "bring to justice" means kill or detain without a trial.
Long Dong Silver rides again.
Long Dong Silver rides again.
How does adhering to the Geneva Convention and the UCMJ diminish the ability to defeat the enemy?
When you apply Geneva privileges to those who do not qualify for them. One of the purposes of the Geneva conventions is to force combantants into uniform. Under the Geneva conventions, combatants wear uniforms because they know that if they are captured out of uniform fighting, they will be immediately executed on the spot, but if they are captured in uniform, they will sit out the war safely in POW camps and will be released in due time.
Because Bush has refused to adhere to the unwritten assumption behind the Geneva conventions -- that ununiformed combatants shall be immediately executed -- he has placed the Iraqi civilian population in peril by allowing terrorists to hid within the general civilian population with complete impunity -- to the tune of thousands and thousands of civilian casualties.
There should not be 500 detainees at Gitmo. There should be 500 skeletons in the bottoms of ditches in Iraq and Afghanistan. Only then would we be adhering to the spirit of the Geneva conventions.
G W ... Healthy
Some problems with the long-winded "anonymous":
(1) The first section of common Article III applies to the vast majority of Gitmo detainees. They are persons who were unarmed or not participating in hostilities at time of detention. Among these, no distinction is made in the convesntion between lawful combatants, unlawful combatants, or noncombatants. All are entitled to trial before "a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples" before they can be subject to sentence or execution.
(2) Uniniformed combatants and those in their company without arms may qualify as POWs if their country is attacked and they carry arms openly. If the war persists long enough for these combatants to organize themselves into a unifornmed ensemble and they fail to do so, they may lose this status, but a good number of Gitmo detainees would appear to qualify. This means they must be billeted in the same comfort as their captors, afforded with canteens, issued a stipend, and allowed to help prepare their own meals, among other things.
(3) It's pretty absurd to think that uniniformed combatants in Iraq are choosing not to wear uniforms because of failure of the U.S. to treat those captured out of uniform harshly enough at places like Abu Ghraib or Gitmo. Their risk of death is already high. Circumstances just don't exist for making the wearing of uniforms practical, but even if it were, the U.S. has committed so many violations of international law, I find it hard to imagine any Iraqi thinks that uniformed insurgents will really be treated as POWs.
(4) The obvious bloodlust suggests to me possible demonic possession. See a good shrink or exorcist.
There should not be 500 detainees at Gitmo. There should be 500 skeletons in the bottoms of ditches in Iraq and Afghanistan.
LOL!
Do you have any evidence that the 500 were actually captured on a battlefield, as opposed to kidnapped for reward money?
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