https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/07/26/dispatches-guantanamo-9/11-case-staggers
No doubt due in large part to lack of mainstream media attention of ongoing Guantanamo proceedings, many Americans today believe the perpetrators of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack all perished on that day. People are unaware of the fact that the US government has detained five men with alleged connection, at least one of whom is deemed to be a “mastermind.”
The 9/11 attack is the ultimate reason given for the reprised “War on Terror” in all its bleeding aspects, including but not limited to, Guantanamo Bay detention itself, the policy of torture in indefinite prison without trial, the Iraq War in 15th year with no exit plan, Patriot Act in its Constitution crushing entirety, unending escalations of televised terror threat, TSA, HSA and militarized police expansions, subsequent invasions and occupations of the Middle East culminating today with US troops in four haphazard ground wars, all authorized solely by the 9/11 triggered Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF), which also facilitates ever expanding global US Arms distribution, and all losses of privacy and civil liberties at home and abroad since then.
Why is it nobody in authority seems to care that our government, in the midst of all its ongoing so called anti-terror pursuits of justice, the perpetrators actually captured languish today in illegal detention without trial or publicized hearing or even an update for the people, much less a final judgement, over 14 YEARS (on the taxpayer dime)?
US Gov representatives and anyone else claiming to give a damn about bringing the perpetrators of 9/11 to justice, or about holding people responsible for their crimes, or about justice in general, or about healing the wounds of the victims of 9/11 or the spirit of the American people and the world, should not be ignoring the situation of the alleged actual perpetrators of the most heinous and devastating crime against USA, ever – the now indelible constant refrain of American Terrorwar culture: 9/11 9/11 9/11…
Ignoring the matter of illegal and immoral detention only bolsters the appearance that US Gov cares only about the opportunistic use of tragedy, fear and emotion to facilitate political agendas. Only parts of the 9/11 narrative that further those goals are discussed. If people don’t care what happens to actual perpetrators, then maybe they don’t believe these are indeed the actual perpetrators. But that only raises more questions: Who are they? And if they are not the perpetrators, then what is the purpose of holding them indefinitely under false allegations and giving them lawyers and constant attention from judges at endless hearings and disputes over alleged evidence, as if they really are who the government claims?
Surely repeated interrogations have yielded all the information possible by now. Are they being held in secret without trial as “known associates” just to keep them out of play, and as daily reminders to their families and countrymen? Are they just scapegoats of the time- another blunder or falsification that government doesn’t want to admit, so quietly following through with pre-trial ad infinitum is the way to handle it without handling it?
What is the purpose of Gitmo hearings? Why not try them in our legitimate and conventional criminal justice system, as we have with war criminals in the past?
None of this makes sense. Can somebody explain why nobody seems to care about justice, or even just plain punishment, in this case, of all cases?
These five alleged 9/11 terrorists were detained beginning in 2001-2002. The more time that passes, the less credibility the system itself and the official 9/11 narrative (which uses a real act of jihadist terrorism to legitimise atrocities elsewhere in the world) seem to have.
Originally published on Neocon Surveillance.
Ask President Barack Hussein Obama and the Democrat Congress who passed the Military Commissions Act of 2009 about why they chose to give detainees accused of war crimes virtually the same rights you or I would enjoy in a federal court of law. In 1942 6 of 8 German saboteurs were executed after denial of habeas corpus and a military commission trial as it is written in International and U.S. law. Oh, and the saboteurs hadn’t actually hurt a fly or damaged any property. Their crime? Breaking the Geneva Conventions and Law of Land Warfare. The saboteurs were not in uniform, carrying weapons openly and had the means and intent to kill and destroy property. They were spies. Detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are all at least unlawful combatants (same as the German Saboteurs). They were captured and not killed because of the belief that they may posess valuable information that could save many lives, and did. A few are charged with war crimes. Others may be lawfully held until the end of hostilities, just like over 400,000 mostly German lawful combatant POW’s were held in the U.S. during WWII. Gitmo is actually the finest military detention facility on earth. ICRC physicians I worked with there and in Iraq told me, “No one does [detention operations] better than the U.S.” Over 710 detainees have been RELEASED from Gitmo, and NONE have been executed, beheaded, hacked to death, blown up, dragged naked and lifeless through the streets, drowned or burned alive, all things our enemies have done to us and/or our allies. There is no moral comparison between Gitmo and how our enemies treat detainees. Gitmo detainees are lucky to be alive.