From: Adam <""4thwormcastfromthemolehill\"{at}the field.near
the bridge">

Is this the start of a rowing away from it?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6508779.stm

"The US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, has said that Congress should
look for ways to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba.

He said the military trials of terror suspects at the prison lack
credibility because they have been tainted by the harsh treatment of
detainees.

But he said that some detainees who have vowed to attack the US should
never be released from custody.

The US has started the military trials of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay.

Mr Gates told a House of Representatives committee that "my own view
is that because of things that happened earlier at Guantanamo there is a
taint about it."

He said he wanted the Guantanamo prison to be closed and the trials moved
to the US "because I felt that no matter how transparent, no matter
how open the trials, if they took place in Guantanamo, in the international
community they would lack credibility."

"

A) Too late. The US will never recover the moral authority it has lost when
it joined in the group of "countries with imprisonment w/o trial,
secret police snatch squads & military prisons outside of any
law".

The loss of credibility is far more far reaching than just GT.

They were warned but in their arrogance they thought nothing applied to
them. Seems perceptions are the same whether one wears the stars &
stripes on one's underpants or not.


B) Even then he insists on "describing it as "custody" which
helps to strain his own credibility given that custody implies some legal
authority where there is none.

Hey maybe Hamas have their Israeli soldier "in custody" etc.

Suddenly anyone with a gun can now say "oh this isn't kidnapping it's
....custody...."



Adam

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