Thursday, July 03, 2008

"White House says ruling could free detainees in US"


Washington D.C.--Is the Bush administration threatening to release individuals they seized illegally in other countries within the territorial United States? Granted, nothing 's illegal when you're a Republican in the White House, but wouldn't INS have to arrest someone in the executive branch if they did this? Nobody has yet, though there have been close-calls for Bush administration personnel handed-down from the bench in the EU.

Additionally, this recent statement on the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling that Guantanamo internees have legal rights under our laws undermines the GOP's ability to have a coherent immigration platform...OK, there wasn't much chance of this ever, but what the hell? No, these suspects--and that's all that many of them are--aren't necessarily going to be released into the streets of America unless it's expedited by the executive branch. It can't happen otherwise, so this must be a threat that they're going to do it.

How can the Democrats save face when they predictably acquiesce and allow it, especially in an election year? Oh yes, there will be hearings, but we know that won't go anywhere, anytime soon. Will the Democratic majority in Congress actually draw the line and exert some checks on an administration that has run amok for far too long? The public had enough long ago, and we're not about to forget anytime soon--certainly not this November. We're going to remember who enabled this administration and stood by and did nothing, allowing tragic precedents to have been established. The effects on public opinion are going to be long-term for the GOP and her allies within the Democratic Party. 2006 was only the beginning.

The White House making such obviously desperate statements expresses a very pure kind of irrationality that can only be described as breathtaking. It hasn't been the first time for this administration and their party, and it's not likely to be the last. It's going to be found to be indisputable that many of these terror-suspects currently being held were illegally seized in other countries under the flimsiest of pretenses, without a shred of solid evidence, something that is established as fact in the cases of several dozen Guantanamo internees released already.

Eventually, the civil suits are going to come, with ringing demands for war crimes charges in the backdrop. This will continue for years-to-come, a gift that's going to keep on giving it to American taxpayers, while appropriately dogging those who initiated a wave of politically opportunistic criminality in the wake of September 11th, 2001, easily eclipsing the atrocities of those attacks in short order. When will justice be served? It might have to come from state attorney generals, and there is a movement in that direction. Get the lead out, folks, and have a happy and safe 4th. I know I will.

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