16 July 2014

Military Justice, Isn't.

It is an embarrassment  to be a citizen of a country, like the United States that conducts the kinds of kangaroo court proceedings that the United States military is conducting at Guantanamo Bay.

There, military tribunals issue orders that prosecutors and judges can see, but defense counsel and the defendants are not allowed to see.  This is a fundamental miscarriage of anything remotely resembling due process, and it is fundamentally at odds with the principles upon which our nation was founded.

It is clear that the truth of the matter is that the U.S. is covering up an illegal policy of intentional torture, while seeking to use information obtained through torture in legal proceedings.  The defies all domestic and international standards of justice and deprives proceedings meant to bring terrorists to justice of all legitimacy.

President Obama, as a former constitutional law professor, with whom the buck stops as commander in chief of every members of the United States military involved in these military tribunals, owes our constitution and our nation's reputation for fairness and justice, more respect.

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