The Mute Button Truth / Guantanamo Bay Prison

In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, due process has disappeared from the American judicial system. Everyone has a right to a lawyer and a trial, right? According to the Bush administration, not anymore.

Here's the catch: if you're not charged with a crime, you don't get the right to a trial. The Bush administration has used this loophole to their advantage. Classifying detainees as "enemy combatants" avoids having to be consistent with all those messy international human rights standards like the Geneva Convention. Detainees at Guantanamo Bay have received a lot of attention recently, despite the Bush administration's attempt to keep things quiet. Not only have top intelligence officials confirmed that none of the prisoners are high-ranking terrorists, but they also verified that less than 24 of the over 600 detainees are even suspected to be members of al Qaeda. Dick Cheney and other Bush administration officials have justified their illegal, unethical treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo by declaring that they were the worst of the worst, but clearly this isn't true.

Reports of torture at the Abu Ghraib prison are not isolated incidents. A rapid increase in suicide attempts at Guantanamo prompted many human rights organizations to suspect similar conditions of torture. The ACLU and Amnesty International are among the groups calling for an independent investigation to document previous human rights abuses and prevent further torture from occurring. While the US plans to release secret documents that prove torture was not condoned by high ranking Bush administration officials, they are not releasing other documents that provide legal justifications for torture. In fact, Ashcroft will not even discuss them with the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Why won't the administration talk about this issue and Why can't we figure out by know who of these people are terrorist and then let the other one's go.