Mystic Politics

The Obama Guantanamo Bay Myth

Glenn Greenwald: New vindictive restrictions on detainees highlights the falsity of Obama defenders regarding closing Guantanamo Bay (GITMO).

Do you think GITMO will ever go away, or will it just be replaced?

Ron Paul proposes bill to repeal indefinite detention provision

“This is precisely the kind of egregious distortion of justice that Americans have always ridiculed in so many dictatorships overseas,” Paul said on the House floor. “A great man named Solzhenitsyn became the hero of so many of us when he exposed the Soviet Union’s extensive gulag system. Is this really the kind of United States we want to create in the name of fighting terrorism?”

Are Ron Paul Supporters Bigots? Maybe Not, Says Sirota

‘The other camp tends to acknowledge those ugly truths about Paul, but then points out that the Texas congressman has been one of the only politicians 1) fighting surveillance, indefinite detention and due-process-free assassination policies almost exclusively aimed at minorities; 2) opposing wars that often seem motivated by rank Islamophobia; and 3) railing against the bigotry of a drug war that disproportionately targets people of color. Summarizing this part of Paul’s record, the Atlantic Monthly’s Conor Friedersdorf has written: “When it comes to America’s most racist or racially fraught policies” affecting the world today, “Paul is arguably on the right side of all of them (while) his opponents are often on the wrong side.”’

When Power is Unaccountable: Why the NDAA is Unconstitutional

‘One popular myth surrounding this law (which has been marketed well by the White House and the mainstream media) is that it does not pertain to U.S. persons (citizens and resident aliens). While the law does not explicitly target U.S. persons, it neither excludes nor protects them. Section 1022 of the law covers U.S. persons. The section allows for open-ended executive judgment with regard to the handling of U.S. persons. In other words, the detention of U.S persons is optional, rather than a requirement as it is for non-U.S. persons. Jonathan Turley, legal scholar and professor at George Washington University, explains that “the provision merely states that nothing in the provisions could be construed to alter Americans’ legal rights. Since the Senate clearly views citizens are not just subject to indefinite detention but even execution without a trial, the change offers nothing but rhetoric to hide the harsh reality.”’

Live from Guantánamo: It’s Illegal and Continued Existence http://mys.tc/1mx war prison detention

Live from Guantánamo: It’s Illegal and Continued Existence

‘It is difficult to acknowledge, however, that there is little hope for those still here. Although 89 of the 171 remaining men have been approved for transfer — unanimously by the relevant military, law enforcement and intelligence agencies — no one has left Guantánamo alive in more than a year. Congress has used its spending power to pass legislation restricting the transfer of detainees regardless of their status. President Obama has shown little leadership or courage, and effectively surrendered plans to close Guantánamo to his political opponents. And the Supreme Court remains locked away in its Ivory Tower, seemingly aloof to the tragedy which continues to unfold at Guantánamo. Guantánamo has simply become part of the American landscape. We as a nation, as a people, have normalized and accepted the existence of a prison that Amnesty International once aptly called “the gulag of our times.”’

Wikileaks & Torture: The inhumane conditions of Bradley Manning’s detention http://mys.tc/1m7

Wikileaks & Torture: The inhumane conditions of Bradley Manning’s detention

‘Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old U.S. Army Private accused of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, has never been convicted of that crime, nor of any other crime. Despite that, he has been detained at the U.S. Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia for five months — and for two months before that in a military jail in Kuwait — under conditions that constitute cruel and inhumane treatment and, by the standards of many nations, even torture. Interviews with several people directly familiar with the conditions of Manning’s detention, ultimately including a Quantico brig official (Lt. Brian Villiard) who confirmed much of what they conveyed, establishes that the accused leaker is subjected to detention conditions likely to create long-term psychological injuries.’

The Indefinite Detention of American Citizens and Other Assaults on Civil Liberties: The Road to the NDAA http://mys.tc/1kq

The Indefinite Detention of American Citizens and Other Assaults on Civil Liberties: The Road to the NDAA

“More than two weeks after the bill’s passage, President Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law last Saturday in the late afternoon. His decision to sign the bill at a moment unconducive to press attention was probably intentional; the NDAA has been the object of increasing critical scrutiny, with the president himself publicly acknowledging some of the bill’s flaws.”