Monday, March 29, 2010

Habeas What?

I remember hearing pundit after pundit and talking head after talking head and Republican lawmaker after Republican lawmaker rail about the (accused) terrorists being held at Guantanamo Bay. I remember hearing claims that these "terrorists" are the "worst of the worst" and they don't deserve habeas corpus, they aren't entitled to see the evidence against them, they are not being "tortured," rather they are subject to "enhanced interrogation techniques" that result in waterboarding as many as 183 times. Stress positions, sleep deprivation, induced hypothermia? Slamming heads against walls? Force-feeding? Tricking individuals into believing that they bore witness to murders in an effort to coax confessions? All this was completely kosher and indeed was part of the "arsenal" needed to protect America from the scourge of Terror." And besides, these evildoers aren't even being held in America, and they're not POWs, so American law doesn't apply!

Now that the Joint Terrorism task force has arrested 9 individuals from an American group charged with planning attacks against the United States, including attempted use of WMD, in theory, shouldn't these same politicians, pundits, and talking heads be demanding that this same treatment be applied to Caucasian American Citizens? What are the odds that they will?

No comments: