"We Can't Have Acquittals"

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29 Apr 2008 01:37 pm

Some say that criticisms of the torture, abuse, and injustice at Guantanamo Bay are founded in partisanship or wussiness or ignorance or ant-Americanism. None of this is true. Many of us who are now the sharpest critics of what has been done there were on board with the war on terror at the start, and Bush's leadership of it, until the facts simply couldn't be ignored any longer. Among those people is Air Force Colonel Morris Davis who was once the Pentagon's former chief prosecutor for terrorism cases. Will the Insta-right now accuse him of being a lefty-terror-lover? But what he witnessed was the work of a propaganda state, with no concern for basic conceptions of fairness or justice:

Davis told Navy Capt. Keith J. Allred, who presided over the hearing, that top Pentagon officials, including Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, made it clear to him that bringing charges against some of the most notorious detainees before elections this year could have "strategic political value."

Davis said he wanted to wait until the cases -- and the military commissions system -- had a more solid legal footing. Davis also said that Defense Department General Counsel William J. Haynes II, who announced his retirement in February, once bristled at the suggestion that some defendants could be acquitted, an outcome that Davis said would give the process added legitimacy.

"He said, 'We can't have acquittals,' " Davis said under questioning from Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brian Mizer, the military counsel who represents Hamdan. " 'We've been holding these guys for years. How can we explain acquittals? We have to have convictions.' "

In a very simple phrase, you can see all the bad faith, stupidity and impeachable violations of core American values at the very top of this rotten administration. They have forfeited any trust in their handling of these matters; indeed have shown how vital it is that they are swept out of office and replaced with something utterly different. Something, you know, American.

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