Indefinite detention, torture and testimony obtained from torture, spying on attorney-client conversations, solitary confinement for months and years, no habeas corpus, military tribunals that suspend normal rules of due process, all these are now part of the brave new world that we live in as a result of the war on terror. Ah, for the days of the Cold War when the US used such charges to bludgeon the Soviet bloc nations as part of the propaganda blitz to show the world how evil they were and how superior the US system of justice was.
Stephen Colbert looks at what is going on with regards to the trials of people at Guantanamo.
The Colbert Report
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In this next clip, Colbert interviews professor of law at Georgetown University and former Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal who was part of the team that won the 2006 case Hamdan v. Rumsfeld in which the US Supreme Court ruled that the military commissions set up by the Bush administration at Guantanamo to try detainees were unconstitutional.
The Colbert Report
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(These clips were aired on February 27, 2013. To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report outside the US, please see this earlier post.)
Great Colbert clips.
I kind of miss the Soviet Union. They kept us honest for a while. Back in the 50’s and 60’s I think politicians really cared about making America an awesome place for regular folks so we could be all in your face to the Soviets. It was epic: Huge government infrastructure programs, and tax policies that encouraged businesses to invest in research and employment that was supposed to prop up consumer demand and make us better off every year.
Back in 2nd grade in the 70’s we all had to write an essay called “What America Means to Me”. They fed us the answers, and they were good and mostly true answers; our legal protections under the 4th and 5th amendments, and our general freedom to choose our path in life without much interference. It wasn’t always rosy back then. We had terrorist bomb threat drills back then, and there really were bomb threats. We were winding down in ‘Nam, the “Candy Man” serial killer was active in Houston, but we still honored what was good and true. Schools today are run like prisons.
No, they didn’t… But at least we could tell the difference, and had to make at least some effort to pretend. All this stuff is nothing new, it’s been going on for decades -- the only difference is that now it’s more openly acknowledged.