The Gitmo Farce- by Scott Horton

[L. Coyote]

The Gitmo Farce- Scott Horton
March 16, 2008 - http://harpers.org/archive/2008/03/hbc-90002648

The Guantánamo Commissions are being whipped ahead by the Bush Administration, but as things progress does anyone mistake this process for justice? Certainly not the participants. The military lawyers who serve as prosecutors, defense counsel and judges have denounced the entire charade in terms as explicit as could be imagined.

The most passionate denunciations have come from the prosecutors. The chief prosecutor, Colonel Morris Davis, quit and has delivered a series of public statements—the most powerful of them carried in the Washington Post and then in the Nation–in which he recounts his own discussions with the mastermind behind the commissions process, William J. Haynes II, the former general counsel to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and now a corporate counsel at Chevron Inc. In these discussions, Haynes makes clear that he desires the commissions to be a political show trial worthy of Andrei Vyshinsky, and that his principal objective in arranging the process is to furnish red meat to fuel a Rovian campaign agenda as the Republican Party attempts to hold the White House in 2008. And, as if there were any room for ambiguity, he goes on to insist that there can be “no acquittals.” A model of justice of which all Americans can be proud.

Lest there be any mistaking the importance of Haynes’s utterances, he then proceeded to install himself as the man with ultimate command authority over the military commissions process. ...

[TomInTib]

1. And, oh, so recommended. nt

[enough]

2. k&r

[L. Coyote]

3. visibility kick

[L. Coyote]

4. "

[L. Coyote]

5. "

[redqueen]

6. It is so sad to think of the nonsense this country is disracted by...

while this goes on in the shadows.

[L. Coyote]

8. It is so sad to think of the nonsense DU is disracted by...

while the really important news gets ignored here too.

[Supersedeas]

7. but is anyone in Cable news listening...Leslie Blitzer can't wait for the 527 Rev Wright ads