Guantanamo and Abuse of Presidential Power
As the Administration puts out more spin on detainee suicides, the reality is that these suicides are acts of despair, not acts of war.
Many of these men, uncharged of any crime, have reported that they've been told that they will never get out. Aziz does not know if he will survive what he calls this "compulsory, slow execution."
Still, many detainees also believe that there is some moral impulse that will push the American people to action. They thought that starving themselves will make people pay attention. They thought that telling the humiliating and painful stories of torture or abuse will outrage us. Perhaps now they think that their dying will make us finally acknowledge what our country is doing. Instead, we allow ourselves to be told that these deaths were an act of war and not even give it a second thought.
In the mail today: Guantanamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power by Joseph Margulies, lead counsel in Rasul v. Bush in which the Supreme Court ruled that Guantanamo detainees are entitled to judicial review.
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