Aung San Suu Kyi wins a seat in the Burmese parliament. Is Myanmar’s military junta more liberal than the U.S. government? After all, it’s impossible to imagine a political prisoner here being elected to Congress.
A New Day in Amerimmar
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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Excellent Ted.
So true.
Back when I was in school, my foolish teacher told us about the Star Chamber, but only in order to condemn it. Fortunately, we know better now.
The proceedings were necessarily secret to protect the security of the state. Likewise, the prisoners had no access to the evidence against them, nor the ability to defend themselves. Clearly, this is how justice must be administered post-911. And anyone who disagrees belongs in a Star Chamber proceeding for supporting terrorism.
Or so I heard Jack L. Goldsmith saying on the Daily Show this week. He said that all the prisoners have had due process and fair trials, and deserve everything they get. Anything less, and they’d be setting off WMDs in American cities. We can be certain that they are guilty because they screamed honest confessions of their guilt while under ‘enhanced interrogation’. Admittedly, it was often the case that none of the ‘enhanced interrogators’ spoke the native language of the prisoners, but these ‘enhanced interrogators’ are trained professionals, and they can tell a confession when they hear one, disirregardless of the language in which it is screamed. None of the trained professionals would ever suspect an innocent, so everyone suspected is a fortiori guilty as suspected.
During all this, the President has been under the strict control of the judiciary, which carefully considered everything the executive was doing, and asked, ‘Shouldn’t you be doing more to stop these terrorists?’
And typical Americans are sure the Star Chamber laws do NOT apply to them, since they are not terrorists, but just want to be safe, so they strongly support the actions our three branches of government have authorised, actions that have clearly kept the terrorists at bay, since we haven’t seen any WMDs going off in any American cities since these polices have been implemented.
(And I’m depressed.)
It really is a neat long-game solution the Right pulled. They put the correct spin on the message over many years and the sheeple handed over all their rights a little bit at a time. In order to feel safe. Ben Franklin was right about the whole safety and liberty thing.
I was just listening to that ultra-left-wing Commie network NPR interviewing the author of The Hunt for KSM.
The author explained how hard the US agents had to work to track down KSM, and that, while all the evidence against him is classified Top Secret, every decent American (including the Commies at NPR) must agree that he’s guilty (and the Commies at NPR, as required, agreed that KSM was guilty and the agents who tracked him down and subjected him to ‘enhanced interrogation’ were great, unrecognised heroes).
My problem is based on personal observation and knowledge: Gulf Arabs NEVER listen to or respect Pakistanis. But, of course, the Top Secret evidence shows that, while the Gulf Arabs had been taught by their governments to love the US, KSM brainwashed them and forced them to ride the airplanes involved in 911. Of course, the Gulf Arabs really had nothing to do with 911: KSM forced the planes into their targets entirely by mind control.
And this has been irrefutably proved, but, of course, that irrefutable proof is classified Top Secret, so no decent Americans would ever want to see it, lest by seeing it they endanger the US.
And the fact that NPR accepts all this unconditionally is one more nail in the coffin of my hope for a return to even a limited compliance with the US Constitution.
NPR Check: Tracking rightwing, pro-government and corporate bias on NPR News
http://nprcheck.blogspot.it/
Just wonder, Ted, if she happened to pass through Quantico, Virginia on her way to Guantánamo (or Fort Leavenworth, as the case may be) ?…
Henri