The Shame of the
Prisons
EDITORIAL, NYTimes on
the Web, February 18, 2006
Who needs sophomoric cartoons to
inflame the Muslim world when you've got the Bush administration's prison
system? One reason the White House is so helpless against the violence
spawned by those Danish cartoons is that it has squandered so much of its moral
standing at Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. This week, the world got two
chilling reminders of why both prisons must be closed.
On Thursday, the United Nations Human Rights Commission issued a scathing report
on the violations of democratic principles, human rights and the rule of law at
Guantánamo Bay: indefinite arbitrary detentions, hearings that mock fair
process and justice, coercive and violent interrogations, and other violations
of laws and treaties.
The Bush administration offered its usual weak response, that President Bush has
decided there is a permanent state of war that puts him above the law. And
that is exactly the problem: by creating Guantánamo outside the legal
system for prisoners who, according to Mr. Bush, have no rights, the United
States is stuck holding these 500 men in perpetuity. The handful who may
be guilty of heinous crimes can never be tried in a real court because of their
illegal detentions. A vast majority did nothing or were guilty only of
fighting on a battlefield, but the administration refuses to sort them out.
Some members of Congress tried to exert control over Guantánamo Bay late last
year. But their efforts were hijacked by Bush loyalists, who made matters
worse by stripping the prisoners there of the basic human right to challenge
their detentions.
Now the only solution is to close Guantánamo Bay and account for its prisoners
fairly and openly. The United States then needs a prisons policy that
conforms to the law and to democratic principles.
The U.N. report followed a broadcast by an Australian television station of
previously unpublicized photographs taken at Abu Ghraib in 2003. Many were
similar to the pictures the world saw two years ago when the scandal of abuse,
humiliation and torture first broke. Others show even worse abuses and
degradation.
All are a reminder that the Bush administration has yet to account for what
happened at Abu Ghraib. No political appointee has been punished for the
policies that led to the atrocities. Indeed, most have been rewarded.
The prison was a symbol of the worst of the Hussein regime. Now it's a
symbol of the worst of the American occupation. Congress should order it
replaced. And perhaps John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services
Committee, could keep his promise to dig out the truth about Abu Ghraib.
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