Credit is due!
By Thoreau
Obama has suspended the military trials at Guantanamo for 120 days while the mess is sorted out. As Greenwald cautions, there’s no guarantee that the fix offered 120 days from now will be a good one. However, Greenwald also notes that the suspension of these kangaroo court proceedings halts an ongoing war crime: The prosecution of Mohammed Jawad.
In December, 2003, when he was (at most) 18 years old, Jawad — according to Guantanamo prison logs — attempted to kill himself. In 2004, he was subjected to the so-called “frequent flier” program, where, in a two-week period alone, he was moved to a new cell 112 times — an average of every 3 hours, in order to ensure he was sleep deprived and disoriented. Over the six years at Guantanamo, Jawad was repeatedly subjected to extreme cold, bright lights, and various stress positions. He was often kept in solitary confinement or in “linguistic confinement,” isolated from anyone who spoke his only language (Pashto). As recently as May of 2008, while Jawad was at Guantanamo, he was beaten so badly by guards that, weeks later, he still had extreme bruises on his arms, knees, shoulders, forehead and ribs.
* * * * *
Despite all of that, the Bush administration — monstrous war criminals to the end — just last week demanded in Jawad’s habeas corpus proceeding that his military commission be allowed to proceed as scheduled and that his habeas petition be dismissed. The U.S. was about to proceed with a military commission of a tormented and destroyed human being — a teenager when his ordeal began and now nothing resembling a healthy, functioning adult — before a completely rigged tribunal and try him, ironically enough, for “war crimes.” It was that repulsive travesty which Obama’s order yesterday stopped, at least temporarily.
Any step towards the release of Mohammed Jawad is a good thing. Mr. Jawad deserves full restitution* for the crimes committed against him, and the people responsible for those crimes should be imprisoned. Mr. President, please continue down the path towards justice for this broken man who has been victimized in acts that are nothing short of war crimes. The people responsible for these acts of torture must be punished to the fullest extent of the law. That goes from the leaders who authorized it to the mid-level people who obeyed and relayed the orders to the thugs who (in Communist-run Cuba, appropriately enough) “just followed orders” and performed the beatings.
For more details on the Jawad case, Greenwald links to this document. There will be many more such cases coming out into the open, but this one alone is enough reason to put a lot of people in prison for a long time.
Finally, the best way to get a good result in 120 days is to provide positive feedback for positive actions and negative feedback for negative actions (yes, even if it pisses off Blue commenters). The ACLU has a petition to thank Obama for suspending the show trials. (Goddamn, isn’t it a sad day when Americans have to be grateful for the end of show trials? I can remember when “no show trials” was more of a default rather than a momentous step forward. Back then we walked to school through 10 feet of snow–uphill both ways! Good times, man. Good times.)
*Given the current federal budget deficit, and my libertarian inclinations, I would rather see him compensated from the pockets of the people responsible for torture, rather than from tax dollars. So in addition to criminal prosecutions, let’s get some civil suits going for restitution. Hell, I’d chip in for Mr. Jawad’s legal bills.
Comment by BubbaDave —
January 21, 2009 @ 9:59 pm
I continue to have high hopes that I will win our little wager, and this is definitely a small step in that direction. So far so good, Mr. President– but you need to keep going farther and doing more good.
Comment by dhex —
January 21, 2009 @ 10:19 pm
“So in addition to criminal prosecutions, let’s get some civil suits going for restitution.”
who could they sue, at least in u.s. court?
Comment by Thoreau —
January 21, 2009 @ 10:21 pm
-Bush
-Cheney
-Rumsfeld
-Yoo
-Numerous CIA and military interrogators
Comment by Billigflüge —
January 22, 2009 @ 6:49 am
Hello and good day,
I hope that Obama makes the place of horror in some way inaccessible!
Also I pray that he finds a way to the prisoners humane kind accommodate.
Bush has left deep wounds, which have once again be closed!
Comment by joe from Lowell —
January 22, 2009 @ 10:51 am
The wingnuts keep threatening me, asking if I’d like someone like Jawad to move to my city.
I’d be more afraid of those “guards” getting hired by the police department.
That’s what these military torturers are going to do when their terms end – they’re going to get jobs as police officers and federal agents. But hey, no way they’d raid the wrong house.
Yet another reason not to abandon our principles – for our own safety.
Comment by joe from Lowell —
January 22, 2009 @ 10:58 am
Nobody’s going to pissed off by negative feedback for negative actions, thoreau.
It’s the negative feedback for the negative actions that only exist in your head that was irritating.
I can remember when “no show trials†was more of a default rather than a momentous step forward. I can remember when the idea of the government getting a warrant from a secret court was a bad thing, as opposed to something I ferverntly hoped the government would start doing.
Comment by Barry —
January 22, 2009 @ 11:19 am
Petition signed!
Let’s hope that it’s the first of many, and that the thank-you’s outweigh the why did you’s!
Comment by Picador —
January 22, 2009 @ 12:41 pm
This is the sentiment I’ve been unable to shake since Tuesday: Bush has lowered the standards for Presidential conduct so far that any President who acts with any more integrity than Nixon circa Watergate will be lauded as some kind of messianic reformer champion of law and justice. So, you know, good on Obama for the Guantanamo business (I mean that sincerely), but he has yet to demonstrate the same commitment to the rule of law that we saw in the worst of the 20th century’s Presidents.
I am beginning to suspect that he may yet outshine Nixon, and possibly even Taft, in the days to come. The audacity of hope!
Comment by joe from Lowell —
January 22, 2009 @ 2:31 pm
The Bush has brought this country so low makes Obama’s affirmation of basic norms of decency MORE significant, not less.
Comment by Jon H —
January 22, 2009 @ 6:31 pm
“Given the current federal budget deficit, and my libertarian inclinations, I would rather see him compensated from the pockets of the people responsible for torture, rather than from tax dollars. ”
I think this is one that should rightly come from taxes. AND from civil suits against the specific perps. America voted for it, so we ought to pay up, deficit or no.
Comment by Joshua Holmes —
January 22, 2009 @ 9:19 pm
I didn’t vote for shit, pal.
Comment by Jon H —
January 22, 2009 @ 10:35 pm
“I didn’t vote for shit, pal.”
Tough. That’s how it works in the US.
Comment by Joshua Holmes —
January 23, 2009 @ 7:36 am
I don’t think you want to use that line of argument very long if you want “change”.
Comment by joe from Lowell —
January 23, 2009 @ 11:07 am
“I didn’t vote for shit, pal.â€
So I guess you recycled your rebate checks, then.
Same-same.