Hey maybe the founding fathers were on to something afterall

The National Journal has been looking into the claims v. reality of Administration statements about GITMO, GWOT, and the like. Here, here, here, but start here. I hope these come through. My favorite is the quote that a majority of those at GITMO are there becasue they were fingered by reward seeking warlord and villagers. Well thats sound. "Here, we'll give you money if you turn in someone you don't like, saaaaay, a rival. We'll take them away forever, so you win. So you get money, no rival, and probably get whatever you're fighting over. Understand? But only use this power for good, and no cheating, you folks that have been fighting for centuries." How can that go wrong? How can that lead to false arrests? Or put more succintly, "It was "win-win," Haqqani said. "The Americans get their prisoners, Pakistanis get their praise, the guy who captures the prisoners gets his reward, and Al Qaeda gets its escape." Good thing the prisoners don't have the right to question their imprisonment. Habeus Corpus is for suckers. Ahh, the sweet smell of victory.

This part just made me sad:
The tribunal hearings, based largely on such guilt-by-association logic, have been travesties of unfairness. The detainees are presumed guilty unless they can prove their innocence -- without help from lawyers and without being permitted to know the details and sources of the evidence against them. This evidence is almost entirely hearsay from people without firsthand knowledge and statements from other detainees desperate to satisfy their brutally coercive interrogators. One file says, "Admitted to knowing Osama bin Laden," based on an interrogation in which the detainee -- while being pressed to "admit" this, despite his denials -- finally said in disgust, "OK, I knew him; whatever you want."

And finally, this made me scared:
Bush said, "I know for certain ... that these are bad people" Well, if he knows "for certain" then that explains why we don't need the courts.

I heard a great statement about prayer. "There are those who pray they make the right decision, and those who believe they made the right decision becasue they pray." I admire those in the former, and fear those in the latter.