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This revelation is unsurprising:

The Central Intelligence Agency secretly detained a suspected member of Al Qaeda for at least six months beginning last summer as part of a program in which C.I.A. officers have been authorized by President Bush to use harsh interrogation techniques, American officials said Friday. ... The C.I.A. emptied its secret prisons in the fall of 2006, when it moved 14 prisoners to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, but made clear that the facilities could be used in the future to house high-level terrorism suspects.

How is it possible that a country founded on the belief that individuals must be protected from the unreviewable actions of a powerful government could condone clandestine confinement in secret prisons? Despotism in action:

Mr. Bush has defended the use of the secret prisons as a vital tool in American counterterrorism efforts, and last July he signed an executive order that formally reiterated the C.I.A.’s authority to use interrogation techniques more coercive than those permitted by the Pentagon.

It may be extreme but not entirely unfair to make this comparison.

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    Stopping this (none / 0) (#1)
    by Foxx on Sat Mar 15, 2008 at 11:52:00 AM EST
    is the first thing I want the new president to do.

    Remind me again... (none / 0) (#2)
    by white n az on Sat Mar 15, 2008 at 11:57:45 AM EST
    why is impeachment 'off the table' because I keep forgetting.

    Must be that damn liberal press that keeps pressing the President on his unlawful activities that makes things so unbearable for him.

    I suppose that this is the tendency of any unitary ruler but what happened to the notion of checks and balances? What happened to the free press? What happened to this country?

    liberal myths (none / 0) (#3)
    by diogenes on Sat Mar 15, 2008 at 02:01:49 PM EST
    That old liberal myth that the US was just as bad as the USSR died after the end of the Cold War, I thought.  Exactly how many millions of people are in Bush's secret prisons?  
    If you want the Democratic platform to say that the US will free a handful of Al Qaida prisoners in "secret prisons", be sure and make it plank number one and put it on all the TV ads too.

    defining deviancy down (none / 0) (#6)
    by Joe Bob on Sat Mar 15, 2008 at 08:31:17 PM EST
    Okay, okay, you're right the US's secret prisons are much, much smaller than the Soviets' were. It's not like every Western democracy doesn't have a secret prison here or there.

    Meanwhile, why be deliberately obtuse? No one is asking for Al Qaeda suspects to be set free. If Guantanamo is good enough for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, et al. it's good enough for Muhammad Rahim. Nevermind the principle that we shouldn't be detaining or trying these people in any setting we wouldn't want to see an American tried in.

    Parent

    No, it's not an extreme comparison, (none / 0) (#4)
    by scribe on Sat Mar 15, 2008 at 02:28:07 PM EST
    Bush = Beria.  In fact, it's pretty accurate.

    Of course, legend has it that Beria met his end violently, while enjoying the "favors" of underaged girls.  

    How about a coercive (none / 0) (#5)
    by jondee on Sat Mar 15, 2008 at 02:35:34 PM EST
    technique for stopping the chimp from embarrasing us further by acting in public like a snickering fratboy barely able to contain his glee?

    But Beria was (none / 0) (#7)
    by Wile ECoyote on Sun Mar 16, 2008 at 07:36:15 AM EST
    doing it in the name of international socialism, so that mitigates it somewhat.  

    Ironically, this the the first posting in a long time that mentions the word individuals.  The Common Good is cringing.