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[bacasper]

Obama: Life Imprisonment Without Trial

Written by Thomas R. Eddlem
Saturday, 29 May 2010 11:30

President Obama's Guantanamo Review Task Force has �unanimously� concluded that 48 detainees at Guantanamo should be detained indefinitely � in essence, a life sentence � without trial, including lifetime detention for some detainees who, the commission concluded, hadn't committed any crimes that �constitute a chargeable offense in either a federal court or military commission.� The Washington Post revealed May 28 that the Task Force decided to repatriate the majority of the 240 detainees they investigated, while other detainees should be tried in criminal court or by �military commissions� the Obama administration would reconstitute.

Most Guantanamo detainees have already languished in prison for eight years without trial, and the commission � consisting of officials from the intelligence, military, Defense, Homeland Security, State and Justice departments � concluded the following of the 48 detainees who would remain in prison without trial indefinitely:

Generally these detainees cannot be prosecuted because either there is presently insufficient admissible evidence to establish the detainee's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in either a federal court or military commission, or the detainee's conduct does not constitute a chargeable offense in either a federal court or military commission.

In other words, the Obama administration officials think the detainees might have committed a crime but can't be sure, or they are sure the detainees didn't commit a crime and want to keep them in prison for life anyway.

The untrammeled power of government to throw people into prison without a trial by jury was a key grievance the Founding Fathers cited in their reason for separating from Britain, charging the British with �depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of trial by jury� in the Declaration of Independence. Therefore, the Founding Fathers sought to require both due process of law for all those arrested in the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

No person shall be ... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.

And they also guaranteed an unqualified right to trial by jury in the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

continued at link

[Fox]

This is beyond ridiculous.

[moosehead]

chances are they know something someone doesn't want anyone else to know.

[bacasper]

[moosehead]

[bacasper]

But in our open democratic system, aren't those reasons supposed to see the light of day? Otherwise, it becomes a system of autocracy.

[moosehead]

for someone so enlightened, you appear surprisingly naive.

the military has run things since time immemorial; and it's the rich who rule the military.

when someone does the bidding of a powerful person, one understands there's a pact that's been made. to go against that pact is to sign one's own death warrant - or in some instances, one's life imprisonment.

funny, tho, even when certain individuals do try to expose the underlying hold on power, they are often labeled conspiracy theorists or otherwise discredited.

why else keep someone locked up without even access to a lawyer? think about it - seriously - even Jeffrey Dahlmer had a lawyer.

[bacasper]

You are missing the point which is not to merely 'understand' what is going on, but to effect the change necessary to correct the injustice. That is done by exposing it, and that is what is being done here.

[moosehead]