With Liberty And Justice For All: US Secret Prisons, Then and Now: 2001-2005, 2008

_____

My country 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing...

____

What happens when the checks and balances of our government are compromised, and justice is undermined?

What happens when the most criminally corrupt group of criminals rule with nearly complete control of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of government for nearly two full Administrations, and the media fails to oppose, to challenge and to expose them?

Criminal malfeasance. Negligence. Dereliction of duty. Failure -- multiple failures: failure to uphold the law, failure to act, failure to uphold the duty and responsibility of office.

Actively undermining the just due process of the law and Constitution. Actively interfering with the proper operation of government.

War crimes.

Eight years of crimes, unaccountable to anyone and protected by the entire Republican party -- and Joe Lieberman.

:: ::

"...one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all..."

Now the news of secret prison ships is back in the news -- had everyone (in the US) forgotten about it?

It came out before, amid the dribs and drabs and faux horror at the secret prison and rendition exposure. I say "faux" horror because nothing was done to stop it. Nothing overcame the Republican then-majority. Nothing overcame the post-2005 Republican minority's braggadacio over their successful obstruction of the slim-majority Democrats.

This is what was printed then:

Google Results 1 - 10 of about 182,000 for US Secret prison ships 2004

Here's a few choice selections from the list:

• US faces prison ship allegations -- Tuesday, 28 June, 2005
• UN investigates secret US prisons -- UPDATED: 17:11, July 01, 2005
• CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons
  By Dana Priest
  Washington Post Staff Writer
  Wednesday, November 2, 2005; A01
  
• 'US running secret prisons' -- 18/06/2004 13:46 - (SA)
• U.S. Holding Prisoners in More Than Two Dozen Secret Detention Facilities Worldwide, New Report Says -- For Immediate Release: June 17, 2004
• Global detention system -- March 24, 2005.
  

  _____

  The operation was brought to light in a December 18, 2003, New York Times report by James Risen and Thom Shanker

  [...snip...]

  A review of more "than a dozen documents and investigative statements obtained by The Washington Post" showed, despite claims by "senior defense officials" that the "CIA practice of hiding unregistered detainees at Abu Ghraib prison" was "ad hoc and unauthorized, ... that the agency's 'ghosting' program was systematic and known to [at least] three senior intelligence officials in Iraq."

  _____

• Hidden Prisons: U.S. Maintaining Global Network of Secret Detention Facilities -- July 14, 2004
• Claims of secret CIA jail for terror suspects on British island to be investigated
  · Legal charity urges action on Diego Garcia claims
  · Prisoners may have been held in ships off coast
  by Ian Cobain and Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian,, Friday October 19 2007

And this is what is coming out (again) now:

US accused of holding terror suspects on prison ships
· Report says 17 boats used

· MPs seek details of UK role
· Europe attacks 42-day plan
by Duncan Campbell and Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian, Monday June 2 2008

And let's not forget this:¹

_____

Government lawyers told federal judges that the president can send the military into any U.S. neighborhood, capture a citizen and hold him in prison without charge, indefinitely.

_____

My fellow Americans, where the hell is the outrage? Where are the people demanding that these criminal leaders, who have fouled the reputation of our nation beyond anything imaginable, are removed from office -- along with all those who protect them still -- and held accountable for their crimes?

Wake up, my fellow citizens. This MUST be stopped now, before they leave office and disappear back into the woodwork. We must reject their crimes NOW, before they are allowed to leave, or anything we do afterward will simply be a token nod at the concept of the liberty and justice we once believed in and believe that we stood for as a nation.
_______________________

Footnote
_______________________

1. Hat-tip Kagro X. The idea for this whole trip through just one small channel in the Bush Administration and their Republican slush pile of destruction, decay and corruption was generated as a response to this piece by ask.