"The U.S. military will televise the Guantanamo trial of accused September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and five other suspects so relatives of those killed in the attacks can watch on the U.S. mainland," so reports Reuters.
Not only is this a disgusting spectacle that uses the image of 9/11 to cast doubt over the defendants’' allegedly presumed innocence, it is a self-fulfilling political statement that seeks to justify the farsical "war on terror". (Whatever happened to the American principle of "innocent until proven guilty?" ...which was developed from precisely these sorts of show trials that colonists were subjected to by the Crown before independence...)
The bit I find amusing is the part where the military cites the Geneva Conventions' prohibition on subjecting prisoners to "insults and public curiosity" (GCIII, Art. 13) in its disapproval of taking photos of them, yet those pesky GC provisions on things like torture and degrading treatment are somehow not applicable.
The military seems to have forgotten that GCIII applies to POWs... but the Guantánamo detainees are not POWs, right? So they can be tortured and humiliated and degraded since they're not POWs subject to the GC, but no photos can be taken of them because the 3rd GC prohibits public humiliation of POWs? Hmm.
Maybe the real reason the military doesn't want anyone to see the detainees is to prevent the outside world from learning of their health and treatment.
I agree with the 9/11 relative that this process should be about justice, not vengeance. Closed show trials held for quasi-political purposes are the practice of non-democratic countries. We, as a democracy, as the self-appointed 'city on a hill', can do better: open trials in real courts, with real evidence not manufactured or derived from years of degrading treatment and physical violence.
Sorry for the strong, undiplomatic tone, I'm tired and seriously cranky.
No comments:
Post a Comment