The Supermax: Is this any improvement on Guantanamo?
Le Quotidien d’Oran, Algeria
Obama Should Know Better: Supermax as Bad as Guantanamo
"Obama
admits that some people will continue to be detained without trial and for an
unlimited duration. Not for what they have done, since the U.S. administration
has produced no proof to implicate them, but in the name of their potential
danger to the United States. In a country that prides itself on functioning
under the law, this is legal heresy."
By K. Selim
Translated By Mary Kenney
May 25, 2009
Algeria - Le Quotidien
d'Oran - Home Page (French)
Barack Obama is
an excellent communicator as we have discovered with each of his speeches. Yet
his talent is of no use when he tries to cast a different light on preserving
the "mess" of his predecessor, George W. Bush. The new American
president, to remain faithful to his campaign commitments, announced that the
sinister camp at Guantanamo will be closed before the end of the year. Quite rightly,
the American president has declared that the detention camp is outside the law
and undermines the image of the United States and its democracy.
Everyone would applaud this
measure of salubrity if it weren't accompanied by announcements that empty it
of substance. Because, as human rights organizations feared, Guantanamo, with
its enduring spirit of legal transgressions, will not be closed - but
transferred to the United States. This is slight of hand, since, among the
different categories of those forced to reside at Guantanamo, Barack Obama has
cited some who can neither be tried nor released. In other words, President
Obama admits that some people will continue to be detained without trial and
for an unlimited duration. Not for what they have done, since the U.S. administration
has produced no proof to implicate them, but in the name of their potential
danger to the United States.
In a country that
prides itself on functioning under the law, this is legal heresy. The Bush
team, with immeasurable damage to the world and the United States, took leave
from the law. Mr. Barack Obama is closing the Guantanamo camp, but without
returning to the legal norm. Being detained indefinitely, without trial and on
the basis of a simple presumption of a threat made by the security apparatus,
is no different, whether one is in Guantanamo or in a high-security prison like
the Supermax, in the United States. The American
president, who is an excellent jurist, knows this.
Since the Bush Administration
put this place of detention offshore, beyond the reach of American law,
Guantanamo is not so much a place as it is a symbol of a serious drifting off
course. There is no choice but to conclude that by maintaining unlimited
detentions without trial, Obama the jurist has not put an end to it. And
neither has he put an end to it by restoring military tribunals by
"improving" them.
\
[Expresso, Portugal]
In this matter, as in others,
we discover that Obama in power is closer to the demands of the system than to
his commitment to change. In his "solution" for Guantanamo, he manages
the tour de force of equally displeasing human rights groups and partisans
of torture and arbitrary internment of the "enemy."
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
The former are, to be sure,
more justified than the Cheney-style warmongers in declaring that Obama has
broken with the principles he has championed. After Guantanamo, the Supermax will not in fact be progress ...
SEE ALSO ON THIS:
Die Zeit, Germany:
Germany Must Refuse U.S. on Guantanamo Prisoners
Liberation, France:
How Brave Americans Were Turned Into Torturers
NRC Handlesblad, The Netherlands:
Torture Has No Place in 'Shining City on a Hill'
Le Temps, Switzerland:
Doing Evil in the Name of the Good
Izvestia, Russia:
U.S. and Torture: For Mr. Obama, It's 'Hard to Be Gorby'
Publico, Spain:
Torture Charges Filed Against Bush Legal Team; Judge Garzon Handles Case
Hurriyet, Turkey:
Dick Cheney's Torture Logic is 'Deeply Offensive'
Die Tageszeitung, Germany:
America and Torture: 'Just Following Orders'
Financial Times Deutschland, Germany:
Obama: Inviting the Next Torture Scandal
Jornal de Noticias, Portugal:
Poverty and Torture: Bush Has Company in Europe
Le Monde, France:
'Fussy' Rights Groups 'Wrong' to Be Impatient with Obama
Le Figaro, France:
Obama's Moral Crusade: A Few Words of Caution
The Independent, U.K.:
America Doesn't Need a Witch-Hunt
BBC News, U.K.:
U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture Calls CIA Exemption 'Illegal'
Ottawa Citizen, Canada:
Torture the 'Chicago Way'
Toronto Star, Canada:
Winking at CIA Abuse
CLICK HERE FOR FRENCH VERSION
[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US May 28, 11:46pm]
