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May 15, 2008

gitmo: stick a fork in it

Prisoners20tortured20at20gitmo1

Something in the unsavory history of al-Qahtani's interrogation (featuring sexual humiliation, attack dogs, stress positions, and sleep deprivation) must have proved too much for Crawford, which may reveal that Crawford has some filament of legal integrity or simply that she knows when to cut her losses. Either way, it's important that for every course correction at Gitmo from the Supreme Court, there have been many more from within the Pentagon. If the same people who joined the military in the hopes of fighting terrorism have had enough of the government's jury-rigged apparatus of Guantanamo justice, it's probably time to stick a fork in the whole thing.

Since the inception of the commissions, the brakes have almost always been applied when some member of the military has balked, even when going along would have been the far easier course. These refusals—some silent, some very public—have combined to stall the tribunals. The clearest sign that the military system is working is that the military itself has refused to let it go forward.

more from Slate here.

Posted by Morgan Meis at 10:15 AM | Permalink

Comments

Assuming we can't hold the architects of these policies accountable, the best thing it's opponents can do is effectively prosecute members of the Bureaucracy who facilitated their implementation and operation. While holding their minions accountable for the actions of leadership may not strike anyone as particularly just, it's precisely this fear of the legality of 'orders' that has thrown such a bucket of sand in the gears of the Bureaucracy as the Bush team has sought to circumvent law and precedent. From a practical standpoint, consequences for those who obey unlawful orders provide an important bulwark against totalitarianism in an age when many of those with power and wealth are too indifferent, self-serving, or fearful to oppose the strong on principle.

Keep an eye on the Bloch investigation.

Posted by: jb | May 15, 2008 12:22:52 PM

its, not it's.

Posted by: jb | May 15, 2008 12:26:02 PM

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