Morris Davis: Where is justice for the men still abandoned in Guantánamo Bay

MoonHowler

gitmo

Colonel Morris Davis:

 

Where is justice for the men still abandoned in Guantánamo Bay

 

“I will be back soon,” I said, as we stood up and shook hands. Then I turned and walked a few steps to the gate, and waited for the guard to unlock it so I could leave. Those were the last words I said to Mohamedou Ould Slahi after I met him in the tiny compound he shared with Tariq al-Sawah in the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay. That was seven and a half years ago. I have never been inside the camp again. Slahi has never been out.

I didn’t know, that afternoon in the summer of 2007, that in a few weeks I would send an email to the US deputy secretary of defence, Gordon England, saying I could no longer in good conscience serve as chief prosecutor for the Guantánamo military commissions. I reached that decision after receiving a written order placing Brigadier-General Tom Hartmann over me and the Pentagon general counsel, Jim Haynes, over Hartmann.

Hartmann had chastised me for refusing to use evidence obtained by “enhanced” interrogation techniques, saying: “President Bush said we don’t torture, so who are you to say we do?” Haynes authored the “torture memo” that the secretary of defence, Donald Rumsfeld, signed in April 2003 approving interrogation techniques that were not authorised by military regulations – the memo where Rumsfeld scribbled in the margin: “I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing [for detainees during interrogations] limited to 4 hours?” Rather than face a Hobson’s choice when they directed me to go into court with torture-derived evidence, I chose to quit before they had the chance.

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Hail to the Gipper?

MoonHowler

From Delegate Ramadan:

HJ509  Establishing President Ronald Reagan Week – This bill designates the first week of February of 2016 and in each succeeding year, as Ronald Reagan Week in Virginia. Hail to the Gipper!!!

Give me a break!  Ronald Reagan is not a Virginian.  I am not even sure he knew Virginia was here.  Hail to the Gipper?  I want Bill Clinton Week if we have to have a Ronald Reagan Week.

Half of Virginia is named for Reagan.  He wasn’t everyone’s fair hair child.  In fact…..So far we have a middle school, an airport, and a part of the Prince William Parkway named for this guy.  I am not really sure what he did for Virginia.

Let’s put things in perspective.  I will continue to rant and rave until this absurd matter is settled.

It’s time for everyone to get all the stardust out of their eyes.  H was just a man, not a deity.  I wish people realized how stupid some look when they say his name with adoring eyes.  Geez.

McAuliffe to Veto Anti-dream Act Legislation

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

 Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) said he would veto a bill barring undocumented immigrant students from receiving in-state tuition at state universities, which passed a Senate committee Thursday.

A spokesman for the governor called the legislation, put forward in the House and Senate by two Loudoun County Republicans, “counterproductive and mean-spirited.” The Senate version advanced Thursday morning out of the Senate Education and Health Committee on a party-line vote of 8 to 7.

McAuliffe “is focused on expanding economic opportunity to Virginians from all walks of life, not targeting some for discrimination,” spokesman Brian Coy added.

In his first State of the Commonwealth address Wednesday night, McAuliffe called for passage of a state version of the so-called Dream Act that would grant in-state tuition to some students who were brought to the country illegally as children. Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D) has already ruled that students who qualify for deferred action under President Obama’s recent executive order can apply for the tuition discount.

“The Senators who voted for this measure should meet some of the young people they are trying to punish,” Herring said in a statement Thursday.

Herring is right.  Black and Ramadan should have to meet some of the kids they are attempting to discriminate against.   I think they would feel like worthless dogs if they ever met some of these kids that have worked so hard to become something.

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