The Terrorists like days in court: abolish them!
Time to play today's edition of What's Wrong With the Scott McClellan Quote, courtesy of NYT:Alert to the [UN] report's conclusions from news accounts circulating based on a draft and reacting quickly to its publication today, theWhite House suggested the investigators had based their conclusions on disinformation deliberately spread by terror groups.
"I think some of this appears to be a rehash of some of the allegations that have been made by lawyers for some of the detainees," said Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman.
"We know that Al-Qaeda detainees are trained in trying to disseminate false allegations."
This underscores the Administration's total contempt for basic principles of American constitutional law. Thanks to our Bill of Rights, a defendant's or prisoner's allegations of misconduct on the part of law enforcement officials are entitled to a hearing before a judge, who determines whether or not they're false. There's a disgusting circularity to Bush's cynical argument that the very reason for denying detainees their rights (including due process) is that they are - so the Executive Branch has determined - merely raising false claims about abuse.
They do this because Al Qaeda trains them how. Even though it is a perfectly legitimate way of challenging the basis and conditions of detention in our constitutional system.
Besides, who said all these guys are Al Qaeda, or that Al Qaeda taught all of them to "abuse" the American and/or international human rights legal order?
(Oh right, the Administration did. So therefore they must be. And hence they don't deserve to go before a court. Which means that we will never get a full hearing of ...whether they're really Al Qaeda operatives?)
(Just checking.)
"I think some of this appears to be a rehash of some of the allegations that have been made by lawyers for some of the detainees," said Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman.
"We know that Al-Qaeda detainees are trained in trying to disseminate false allegations."
This underscores the Administration's total contempt for basic principles of American constitutional law. Thanks to our Bill of Rights, a defendant's or prisoner's allegations of misconduct on the part of law enforcement officials are entitled to a hearing before a judge, who determines whether or not they're false. There's a disgusting circularity to Bush's cynical argument that the very reason for denying detainees their rights (including due process) is that they are - so the Executive Branch has determined - merely raising false claims about abuse.
They do this because Al Qaeda trains them how. Even though it is a perfectly legitimate way of challenging the basis and conditions of detention in our constitutional system.
Besides, who said all these guys are Al Qaeda, or that Al Qaeda taught all of them to "abuse" the American and/or international human rights legal order?
(Oh right, the Administration did. So therefore they must be. And hence they don't deserve to go before a court. Which means that we will never get a full hearing of ...whether they're really Al Qaeda operatives?)
(Just checking.)