Deeper Down the Rabbit Hole

Apparently it is not enough for George W. Bush to have the authority to declare any person to be an “enemy combatant”, employ “rough interrogation techniques” of his own definition, and deny habeas corpus (the right to challenge the evidence and the accuser) to said “enemy combatant”, now the accused must not be allowed to discuss their detention even with their own attorney.

According to a story in the Washington Post , ” The Bush administration has told a federal judge that terrorism suspects held in secret CIA prisons should not be allowed to reveal details of the "alternative interrogation methods" that their captors used to get them to talk. The government says in new court filings that those interrogation methods are now among the nation's most sensitive national security secrets and that their release -- even to the detainees' own attorneys -- "could reasonably be expected to cause extremely grave damage."

Citing government filings that would make Lewis Carroll proud, the WaPo story cites an affidavit from CIA Information Review Officer, Marilyn A. Dorn:

” Because (Majid) Khan (one of the 14 detainees who were recently transferred from one of the CIA “black sites” to Guantanamo) "was detained by CIA in this program, he may have come into possession of information, including locations of detention, conditions of detention, and alternative interrogation techniques that is classified at the TOP SECRET//SCI level,"

Gee, do you think so? Now it is reasonable (?) to believe that the detained may not know where they were but how could it be even remotely reasonable to expect they would not know the condition of the facility or the very techniques that were used on them? I think Dick’s had too many tokes on that hookah.

At some point the Bush regime will fall; hopefully as the result of overdue congressional hearings or, at the very least, at the ballot box in 2008. When it does, I hope that the United States will return to the rule of law and that George W and his appointees will be held to account – after they are afforded every basic human right that they will have denied to thousands of randomly selected detainees, of course.

Peace,
Chad (The Left) Shue