That man on the right's name is Binyam Mohamed. He was beaten nearly to death, abused, and tortured for years by the United States government in Guantanamo, and in countries like Morocco where he was "extraordinarily renditioned" specifically to be tortured. He's utterly innocent of any crime, and had no information whatsoever to pass on that would help in the "war on terror." He's been released back to Britain, but will never be the same.
First off, if you think his treatment is justified in any way whatsoever -- please go see a mental health professional. I'm not being melodramatic, I'm dead serious. Go get help, before you become a danger unto others or yourself.
Secondly, Binyam's case is exposing the current administrations limitations on taking responsibility for these crimes. The Obama administration has invoked the much-maligned "State Secrets" defense when pressed about the flagrantly illegal and immortal treatment of this man.
After the State's Secrets privilege was invoked by administration lawyers, this is what Anthony D. Romero of the ACLU had to say:
“This is not change,” he said in a statement. “This is definitely more of the same. Candidate Obama ran on a platform that would reform the abuse of state secrets, but President Obama’s Justice Department has disappointingly reneged on that important civil liberties issue. If this is a harbinger of things to come, it will be a long and arduous road to give us back an America we can be proud of again.”
Remember, the machine is still the machine. If we want things to change we can't pretend that everything's gonna be ok now that this charismatic man is in office.
If this pissed you off, get a hold of your senators and representatives and The White House and yell... loudly.
Bp
No comments:
Post a Comment