A bloody good start

Our new President has ordered a halt to the (illegal) tribunals at the Guantánamo Bay Beach and Leisure Resort.

Some might call it torture

In fact some do! Now that at least one highly placed American official, Susan Crawford who is the convening authority of the (illegal) military commissions, has admitted that the US HAS tortured at least one of those illegally detained at Gitmo isn't it time for investigations and prosecutions? After all Captain Codpiece has gone on record to say that the "US doesn't torture" which must mean it is a crime, right?

"Evidence? We don't need no stinkin' evidence!"

US Federal Judge Richard Leon, a rock solid conservative judge, has upset the court of Captain Codpiece by ordering the release of five more innocent men, in this case Algerians, from the Guantánamo Bay Beach and Leisure Resort. He demanded that they be released "forthwith" which I assume means sometime after President Obama's inauguration.

If he does nothing else

Following through on this will make Barack Obama's Presidency a success.

Have we no shame?

I think the answer is "no" as Captain Codpiece and his evil minions are working to ensure that seventeen innocent Chinese men will remain behind bars at Gitmo (or elsewhere) for the rest of their lives. Perhaps we can can take steps to ensure that Captain Codpiece, "I'm a Big" Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Conocoleeza Rice, Alberto "Gone-zo" Gonzales and John Woo join them there.

You may find this of interest

British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has quietly asked the Attorney General to investigate MI5 and the CIA for possible criminal wrong doing in the torture of UK resident Binyam Mohamed. Mr. Mohamed was "rendered" to Morocco where his "interrogation" alleged included incisions on his penis amongst other indignities and degradations.

Could this be the end of a beautiful friendship?

It will also be interesting to see if any of the US press pick up the story. In addition to The Guardian the story has been covered here by The Independent, The Times and, rather surprisingly the right wing Daily Mail, although they couldn't bring themselves to use the word "torture" without putting quotes around it.

Friends like these

The British High Court has strongly (and quite rightly) criticising the American government for refusing to disclose evidence related to the alleged torture of Binyam Mohamed. Mr. Mohamed is a British resident who has been (illegally) held at Guantánamo Bay Beach and Leisure Resort for nearly six years. Prior to his incarceration at Gitmo American "intelligence" services has (illegally) "rendered" him to Morocco where Mr. Mohamed's attorneys argue the torture took place; the treatment included (blokes should take a deep breath before reading further) slicing his penis. The Guardian article goes on to say

In a particularly damning passage, Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones said claims by Mohamed's lawyers that the US was refusing to release the papers because "torturers do not readily hand over evidence of their conduct" could not be dismissed and required an answer.

The British government is bravely siding with the Yanks because the American government is essentially threatening to take its ball and go home by withholding intelligence data.

Once again I am reminded that it is not only possible, but often necessary, to be ashamed of the actions of one's government.

Captain Codpiece sorts out his retirement home

Against the odds he decides to keep the Guantánamo Bay Beach and Leisure Club open even in the face of the financial downturn which mucst be crippling next year's bookings.

Today in Schadenfreude

There must be wing nut heads exploding all across America today as a federal judge orders Captain Codpiece and his evil minions to release 17 evil doers completely innocent men from the Guantánamo Bay Beach and Leisure Club. And not just release them either; release them INTO AMERICA where they will be able to wreak their innocence on unsuspecting loyal Americans. The worst of the worst indeed.

I suggest that they be given government housing somewhere in the heart of America; I think Crawford Texas would fit the bill admirably.

I say off to Gitmo with them!!

Do you think that if these exemplary American citizens were brown and/or Muslim that the authorities would be downplaying the threat? And why the curious silence from the right about these obvious terror suspects about the lack of terror charges? All they are holding these upstanding members of the community on are drugs and weapons charges. I think if we send them off to an undisclosed location and put them under some "enhanced interrogation" we will get the truth out of them soon enough.

In case you haven't seen them these members-in-waiting of the master race look like this.

"Whatever you do don't mention the CIA...

...I did it once and I'm still stuck at the Guantánamo Bay Beach and Leisure Club.

But he's an evil doer!!

US Navy Captain Keith J. Allred, the judge overseeing the trail of Osama bin Laden's former driver Salim Ahmed Hamdan in the luxurious courtroom at the palatial Guantánamo Bay Beach and Leisure Resort, has barred the introduction of some of Hamdan's statements into evidence just because he may have been tortured roughed up a bit. Why does Captain Allred hate freedom? One can only assume that the Captain will mysteriously disappear shortly.

Gitmo means never having to say you're sorry (or just bloody wrong)

So far the United States government, in all her magnanimity, has found that 38 of the "evil doers" it had (illegally) held at the Guantánamo Bay Beach and Leisure Resort to be "ex-evil doers". So they get flown somewhere with a few clothes, maybe a Qur'an and no apology, no compensation for the years that they have spent on the lovely Caribbean isle of Cuba.

This is just one expert's opinion - your experience may vary

The rabidly right wing sober and moderate Murdoch owned Faux Street Journal seeks out the patron saint of torture, John Yoo, so that he may explain to us the irreparable damage done to America by the freedom hating members of the Supreme Court of the United States who voted in the majority in Boumediene v. Bush. And who better indeed?

"If we showed you we'd have to kill you!"*

When US Military's Office of Show Trials Military Commissions told the Washington Post that detainees will have the right to see classified information presented to the juries that will be convicting them with "no exceptions" what they really meant that detainees will have no rights to see classified information nor will they necessarily be able to question their torturers interrogators. Justice, American Style.

*Note: we reserve the right to kill you anyway.

Get your fear out!

Great American Newt "I'm an Amphibian Not a Reptile" Gingrich has decided that the US Supreme Court's recent decision in Boumediene v. Bush is the "the most extraordinarily arrogant and destructive decision the Supreme Court has made in its history" and that it could cost us a city. Not New Orleans though; that's already spoken for.

1,000 reasons John McCain shouldn't be President

Number 49: he hates the Magna Carta. His comments on the Supreme Court decision in Boumediene v. Bush say it all as he said that the court had "rendered a decision yesterday that I think is one of the worst decisions in the history of this country". Dred Scott v. Sanford is outraged!

I thought these guys were bought and paid for

Why does the Supreme Court of the US hate freedom so much that they would dare to rule that the guilty evildoers held forever without charge at the luxurious Guantánamo Bay Beach and Leisure Resort have the right to access to civilian courts in order to contest their internment? Apparently these misguided justices believe that the framers of the Constitution intended for evil doers to have rights. I am shocked, appalled and not a little disappointed.

What have we become?

I strongly suggest that you go and read Human Rights Watch's disturbing report on conditions at the Guantánamo Bay Beach and Leisure Resort. Grown men wept. I know I did.

Isn't there a crime here or are we no longer a "nation of laws"?

The Pentagon explicitly urged interrogators at the Guantánamo Bay Beach and Leisure Resort to destroy any and all notes relating to the interrogation and treatment of prisoners in case they were called to testify. I'm sure that the Department of Justice will get right on this.