| |
Home
Links
Contact Us
Books
Order
Now
Archives
Imperial
Bush
A closer look at the Bush record -- from
the war in Iraq to the war on the environment
2004 Campaign
Will Americans
take the exit ramp off the Bush presidency in November?
Behind
Colin Powell's Legend
Colin Powell's sterling reputation in Washington hides his life-long role
as water-carrier for conservative ideologues.
The
2000 Campaign
Recounting the controversial presidential campaign
Media
Crisis
Is the national media a danger to democracy?
The Clinton Scandals
The story behind President Clinton's impeachment
Nazi Echo
Pinochet & Other Characters
The Dark Side of Rev. Moon
Rev. Sun Myung Moon and American politics
Contra Crack
Contra drug stories uncovered
Lost History
How the American historical record has been tainted by lies and cover-ups
The October Surprise
"X-Files"
The 1980 October Surprise scandal exposed
International
From free trade to the Kosovo crisis
Other Investigative Stories
Editorials
|
|
|
|
Readers React on Tribunal Law
October 20, 2006 |
Editor's Note: Below are
readers' comments about our stories on the Military Commissions Act of
2006:
To the editor,
G'day from Australia,
I've been following with interest the developments regarding the
military
commissions. There's quite a bit of interest here as the Australian
David
Hicks has been locked up in Gitmo for 5 years now without a trial. Have
read
a lot of stuff about the previous commissions deemed illegal (of which
these
new ones are much worse) and how blatantly unfair they are, way before
any
of this. An interview with Hicks's military lawyer here the other month
indicated there were new commissions in the wings, but I never dreamed
it
would have come to this.
I can't believe this has happened. How could this happen? This is a sad
day
not only for America, but for all democracies of the world. No longer is
America a shining light to follow, but a dirty smear to avoid. History
will
remember this as one of the darkest times in its history. Any morality
it
claims to have to the outside world has been buried in the train wreck
of
the Bush Presidency. This goes way beyond any so called "get tough"
policy
against terrorists in other lands. It is state approved torture, and an
attack by the gov on its own citizens and their democratic rights. It is
an
attack on democracy itself. All Bush's words about Freedom are now no
more
than Orwellian Doublespeak.
What's baffling is the national yawn about it all that you can just
about
hear from here. I hope to god that Americans will wake from their
slumber in
Nov.
Peter,
Sydney, Australia.
PS. You can read the transcript or listen to the entire interview with
Hicks's lawyer Major Michael Mori here:
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/transcripts/s1709428.htm
14th August 2006.
--
I have been steaming over this "legislation" for some time, but the
more I read it, the more it seems that the first people qualifying for
Bush's draconian punishment would be himself, his family and many of
his friends. Have they not made sure that considerable sums of money
find their way to the pockets of the Saudi Royal Family and that some
members of that family then send funds to terrorist groups? Bush
seemed quite open to handing control of American port security to a
Dubai company, although the government of that country routed money to
the 9-11 hijackers. This Administration has no problem carting off
detainees to black sites located in countries that may be guilty of
state-sponsored terrorism - provided those countries can also provide
the "debriefing services" we are barred from using ourselves. I am
reminded by a psychologist friend that paranoid totalitarian rulers
are highly prone to what is called "projection;" in other
words, they constantly accuse others of the motives and practices they
themselves are guilty of. I am afraid the GOP will again steal the
election and we will never truly find out just how incestuous the
Terrorist Club really is. pojoaque1 Your article was the
best at explaining things to lay-people, in this case - the dangers of
the MCA.
These are scary times, but we made it past the "Alien and Sedition Act"
before we had a long history of individual rights behind us, and I
believe if we all do our part, we'll beat this too.
~Glenn
--
Thank
you for writing that piece. It really lays it on the line in a way
that none of the other pieces I have seen do it. Clearly, this
Congress and this Administration would have been a bunch of Loyalists
in 1776. They don't get it.
Madison
Avenue propaganda has drown out the fundamental argument at the bottom
of our political discourse: Liberalism = Democracy and Conservatism =
Absolute Monarchy. It always tends that way. And the reason it works
that way is that historically Conservatism = Power and the Powers That
Be are greedy. And after the rhetoric and political posturing is
boiled down to the bare bone, it is obvious from which party is trying
to expand the voter franchise and which party is trying to restrict
voter eligibility. That's a major give away. (That's not to say that
the Democrats aren't often co-opted, nor to say that the Democrats
have always represented the little guy. Obviously, in the early years
of our country, the Southerners were Democrats and Northerners were
Republicans. I wish there were truly a progressive third party.)
Ly in
upstate NY
--
Robert Parry says that October 17, 2006 should be
seen as the reverse of July 4, 1776. I’ve already got one of those;
December 12, 2000, the date Bush v. Gore was issued by the Supreme
Court.
Kevin J. Keefe, Washington, DC
--
To the Editor:
Listen carefully. George W. Bush is a bully. He lives with the
insecurity
and fear of the bully. He knows that fear works, and coercion works
against
those who accept his suggestion that they are victims. A bully can't
fool
all the people all the time, he can fool most of the people most of
the
time, but he can't fool enough of the people enough of the time keep
them
blind and subservient to his pomposity and threats.
The W. stands for Wimp. What do the wimpcons do when they are called
out?
They gather together and make greater threats.
Shame on us for being afraid of the bullies, the Ayatollahs, the
warlords in
North Korea, Iran, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and South America,
and
specially here at home. Fear is the enemy, not the terrorism of
bullies. The
cure is self respect and rejection of any political-religious belief
system
that aids and abets the authority of bullies.
Morton Kurzweil, Margate FL
Back
to Home Page |
