Friday, March 23, 2007

THIRD RATE LAWYER

So today we learned that the new secretary of defense wanted to close Guantánamo, but Cheney and his side kick Gonzales said “no.” To anyone paying attention it is no surprise they do not want Guantánamo closed. I mean, look at Gonzales’ best terrorist cases that were tried in our federal courts… all miserable failures. Why in the world would Gonzo want to put the Guantánamo prisoners on trial in a real courtroom for the entire world to see? That is why Guantánamo must stay open, that is why the men dribble out of Guantánamo in the dark of night a few at a time in hopes that no one is paying any attention. No, Gonzo and his man Cheney will fight to keep gitmo open because the truth behind Guantánamo is even more embarrassing than the political firing of prosecutors.
You see, no federal court in this country would ever convict a man because he was wearing a “casio watch;” or because a man stayed in the same guest house (our closest equivalent would be a B & B) where someone who might have been a terrorist might have stayed, at some point in time; or because some unknown person claimed they saw you in a suspicious place. Oh yeah, and no federal court would allow someone to be convicted based on evidence that cannot be told to the prisoner.
The attorney general is supposed to be the top lawyer of our land but GW’s man Gonzo did not even know that habeas corpus was guaranteed under our constitution. Even if Gonzo did not bother taking constitutional law while in law school you would think that he would have picked up on the concept in a history class or somewhere along the way in his career. But, I guess you don’t become a yes man because of your brains. You become a yes man because you will disregard anything and everything you (may) have learned and act in blind loyalty… to what? Not to our country but to a corrupt and incompetent president.
So this third rate lawyer who thinks it is ok to torture people (just short of organ failure), who thinks it is ok to have secret prisons and send suspects to countries that don’t have the organ failure prohibition, who thinks it is ok to listen in on our telephone conversations and review our bank records without bothering to get approval from a court and who thinks his army of attorneys are there for his master’s political agenda, cannot allow Guantánamo to be closed. His fear is that someone might care that we have been holding men without justification for over five years and they might want to hold him responsible. I, for one, don’t think he has anything to worry about on that score.