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<font size=3><a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/<br><br>
</a></font><font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000">December 22,
2009<br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>Silence of the
Lamb-like Lawyers <br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">
Relocating Guantánamo
</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>By PAUL CRAIG
ROBERTS <br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=6 color="#990000">O</font>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>bama’s dwindling band of true believers has
taken heart that their man has finally delivered on one of his many
promises--the closing of the Guantanamo prison. But the prison is not
being closed. It is being moved to Illinois, if the Republicans permit.
<br><br>
In truth, Obama has handed his supporters another defeat. Closing
Guantanamo meant ceasing to hold people in violation of our legal
principles of habeas corpus and due process and ceasing to torture them
in violation of US and international laws. <br><br>
All Obama would be doing would be moving 100 people, against whom the US
government is unable to bring a case, from the prison in Guantanamo to a
prison in Thomson, Illinois. <br><br>
Are the residents of Thomson despondent that the US government has chosen
their town as the site on which to continue its blatant violation of US
legal principles? No, the residents are happy. It means jobs. <br><br>
The hapless prisoners had a better chance of obtaining release from
Guantanamo. Now the prisoners are up against two US senators, a US
representative, a mayor, and a state governor who have a vested interest
in the prisoners’ permanent detention in order to protect the new prison
jobs in the hamlet devastated by unemployment.<br><br>
Neither the public nor the media have ever shown any interest in how the
detainees came to be incarcerated. Most of the detainees were unprotected
people who were captured by Afghan war lords and sold to the Americans as
“terrorists” in order to collect a proffered bounty. It was enough for
the public and the media that the Defense Secretary at the time, Donald
Rumsfeld, declared the Guantanamo detainees to be the “780 most dangerous
people on earth.”<br><br>
The vast majority have been released after years of abuse. The 100 who
are slated to be removed to Illinois have apparently been so badly abused
that the US government is afraid to release them because of the testimony
the prisoners could give to human rights organizations and foreign media
about their mistreatment. <br><br>
Our British allies are showing more moral conscience than Americans are
able to muster. Former PM Tony Blair, who provided cover for President
Bush’s illegal invasion of Iraq, is being damned for his crimes by UK
officialdom testifying before the Chilcot Inquiry. <br><br>
The <i>London Times</i> on December 14 summed up the case against Blair
in a headline: “Intoxicated by Power, Blair Tricked Us Into War.” Two
days later the British First Post declared: “War Crime Case Against Tony
Blair Now Rock-solid.” In an unguarded moment Blair let it slip that he
favored a conspiracy for war regardless of the validity of the excuse
[weapons of mass destruction] used to justify the invasion.<br><br>
The movement to bring Blair to trial as a war criminal is gathering
steam. Writing in the First Post Neil Clark reported: “There is
widespread contempt for a man [Blair] who has made millions [his reward
from the Bush regime] while Iraqis die in their hundreds of thousands due
to the havoc unleashed by the illegal invasion, and who, with
breathtaking arrogance, seems to regard himself as above the rules of
international law.” Clark notes that the West’s practice of shipping
Serbian and African leaders off to the War Crimes Tribunal, while
exempting itself, is wearing thin. <br><br>
In the US, of course, there is no such attempt to hold to account Bush,
Cheney, Condi Rice, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and the large number of war
criminals that comprised the Bush Regime. Indeed, Obama, whom Republicans
love to hate, has gone out of his way to protect the Bush cohort from
being held accountable. <br><br>
Here in Great Moral America we only hold accountable celebrities and
politicians for their sexual indiscretions. Tiger Woods is paying a
bigger price for his girlfriends than Bush or Cheney will ever pay for
the deaths and ruined lives of millions of people. The consulting
company, Accenture Plc, which based its marketing program on Tiger Woods,
has removed Woods from its Web site. Gillette announced that the company
is dropping Woods from its print and broadcast ads. AT&T says it is
re-evaluating the company’s relationship with Woods.<br><br>
Apparently, Americans regard sexual infidelity as far more serious than
invading countries on the basis of false charges and deception, invasions
that have caused the deaths and displacement of millions of innocent
people. Remember, the House impeached President Clinton not for his war
crimes in Serbia, but for lying about his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
<br><br>
Americans are more upset by Tiger Woods’ sexual affairs than they are by
the Bush and Obama administrations’ destruction of US civil liberty.
Americans don’t seem to mind that “their” government for the last 8 years
has resorted to the detention practices of 1,000 years ago--simply grab a
person and throw him into a dungeon forever without bringing charges and
obtaining a conviction. <br><br>
According to polls, Americans support torture, a violation of both US and
international law, and Americans don’t mind that their government
violates the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and spies on them
without obtaining warrants from a court. Apparently, the brave citizens
of the “sole remaining superpower” are so afraid of terrorists that they
are content to give up liberty for safety, an impossible feat.<br><br>
With stunning insouciance, Americans have given up the rule of law that
protected their liberty. The silence of law schools and bar associations
indicates that the age of liberty has passed. In short, the American
people support tyranny. And that’s where they are headed.<br><br>
<b>Paul Craig Roberts</b> was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the
Reagan administration. He is coauthor of
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0307396061/counterpunchmaga">
The Tyranny of Good Intentions.</a> His new book, <i>How the Economy was
Lost,</i> will be published next month by AK Press / CounterPunch. He can
be reached at:
<a href="mailto:PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com">PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com</a>
<br><br>
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