Response to Open Letter

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sat, 05 Mar 2005 03:03:23 GMT

From: ERMS <dlink@afis.osd.mil>
Reply-To: ERMS <dlink@afis.osd.mil>
To: bill@billstclair.com
Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2005 10:29:58 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Detention, treatment, and trial of alleged terrorists [Incident: 040612-000096]

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Subject
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Detention, treatment, and trial of alleged terrorists

Discussion Thread
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Response (Directorate for Public Inquiry and Analysis) - 03/02/2005 10:29 AM
Dear Correspondent:

Salim Hamdan is being held at Guantanamo as an enemy combatant along with approximately 545 other detainees. They are being held to prevent them from continuing to fight against the United States and our allies in the war on terror. The U.S. operates a safe, humane and professional detention operation at Guantanamo that is providing valuable information in the war on terror. Hamdan's status as an enemy combatant was reviewed by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal last year.

U.S. policy requires that all detainees be treated humanely and to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity in accordance with the principles of the Third Geneva Convention of 1949. For example, detainees receive three culturally appropriate meals each day, and daily opportunities for prayer, showers, exercise, means to send and receive mail, reading materials, and exceptional medical attention.

Investigations have shown that Hamdan's actions before his capture may rise to the level of war crimes and he is being tried by military commission. At present, this commission and three others are in abeyance pending the outcome of the March 8 hearing in Federal court.

DoD News Briefings:

DefenseLINK News: Government to Appeal Ruling That Halts Guantanamo Proceeding: ... in trying Salim Ahmed Hamdan in a military commission. The judge's ruling said the government should try Hamdan in a military court-martial ... officer, Army Col. Peter Brownback, was apprised of the judge's ruling. Hamdan is accused of being a member of the al Qaeda terrorist network and is ... http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Nov2004/n11092004_2004110903.html

DoD News: Military Commission Panel Changes Announced:
... that military commission proceedings in U.S. vs. Hicks and U.S. vs. Hamdan scheduled for Nov 1, 2004, will proceed as scheduled. The commission ... commission proceedings Aug 25-26, the defense counsel for Hicks and Hamdan challenged the fitness of three of the four commission members, the ...

DefenseLINK News: Many Issues Raised in First Week of Commissions Hearings:
... the government-appointed attorney for Yemeni national Salim Ahmed Hamdan, noted he has asked for but been denied an assistant defense counsel. Swift ... During his hearing, when Brownback asked Hamdan if he accepted the defense counsel appointed to him, he asked for an assistant for Swift. "I need ...

DefenseLINK News: Officials Working on Commissions Translation Issues:
... the Aug. 24 hearing for Salim Ahmed Hamdan, an Arabic translator was replaced mid-hearing because Hamdan couldn't understand what she was saying. In ...

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Customer - 06/12/2004 10:40 AM
An Open Letter to George W. Bush
Detention, treatment, and trial of alleged terrorists
12 June, 2004

Mr. President:

The photographs of torture and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison have shocked the world. They shocked you as well, as you clearly expressed by saying, "Such practices do not reflect our values." I agree. Such practices appear to be more widespread than one prison in Iraq, however. Prisoners released from Guantanamo Bay have also told stories of torture, deprivation, and humiliation to which no human being should ever be subjected, certainly not at the hands of the United States, the world's moral leader. And more horrific accounts surface every day.

Initially, I was willing to consider these to be isolated instances, the responsibility of a handful of prison guards. But I have concluded that you are at least partially responsible, though not intentionally.

On November 13, 2001, you issued an Executive Order titled "Detention, Treatment, and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens in the War Against Terrorism". Your administration has also treated some U.S. citizens apprehended in the U.S. as "enemy combatants", detaining them secretly without charges, denying Writs of Habeas Corpus. Though you were careful in your Executive Order to specify that suspected terrorists should be treated humanely, the spirit of these policies, heard loud and clear by the men and women in the field, is to create a new class of non-persons with no rights.

Mr. President, these practices turn the Sixth Amendment on its head. They deny the fundamental rights of the accused to a speedy trial by an impartial jury, to be informed of the charges against them, and to confront witnesses. Such practices do not reflect our values.

Torturing a man, dishonoring his religion, degrading his humanity, is a horrible crime, inexcusable, unjustifiable, Satan's work. I hope that you do not want yourself or America to be associated with this in any way. I hope that you immediately make it crystal clear that all prisoners of war will henceforth be treated in accord with the Geneva Conventions and that all suspected criminals apprehended within the United States, alleged terrorist or not, citizen or not, will be afforded their usual Sixth Amendment rights.

Before being informed of your unintentional complicity in the atrocities at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, you were only morally responsible for them; the matter was between you and your conscience. If you do not now make rapid changes in the U.S. policy for handling suspected terrorists, and these atrocities recur, you will be criminally responsible.

Sincerely,

Bill St. Clair
bill@billstclair.com

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Question Reference #040612-000096
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Topic: General Questions
Sub-Category: Issues and Policies
Please verify: bill@billstclair.com
Date Created: 06/12/2004 10:40 AM
Last Updated: 03/02/2005 10:29 AM
Status: Solved

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Quotes

Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair