Signs of the times

The degree of just blind, unbelievable, conceited arrogance displayed by the Shrub team is becoming SOP for the entire executive branch of the federal government. I'm sure you've heard about the case, but wait for the punch line:

In a rebuke of the Bush administration's treatment of suspected terrorists, a federal judge ruled yesterday that military tribunals set up at the Guantanamo Bay naval base to allow detainees to contest their imprisonment are unfair and illegal, and failed to provide due process to suspects. ...

At issue was whether a Navy-run review panel set up last year to evaluate each prisoner's status as an "enemy combatant" satisfied a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that detainees deserve a case-by-case review.

In a blow to the Pentagon, [District Court Judge Joyce Hens] Green said it did not.

In her ruling, Green cited allegations of torture at Gitmo while blasting the so-called "Combatant Status Review Tribunals," run by the Navy, in which captives appealing their confinement are denied legal representation and are unable to challenge or even see intelligence reports used against them - that is, the case against them is a secret.

The judge also noted that some Guantanamo detainees were "captured hundreds of thousands of miles from a battle zone in the traditional sense of that term." Prisoners were swept up in Gambia, Zambia, Bosnia and as recently as four months ago in Thailand, she said.

Even the "necessity" of "strong action" against "enormous and unprecedented threats" cannot be allowed to override "most basic fundamental rights for which the people of this country have fought and died for well over 200 years." she wrote.

A pretty thorough thrashing, it would seem, and directly contrary to the idiotic ruling of Judge Richard Leon last month that while prisoners could file for habeas corpus relief there is no way they can actually get it.

But - here comes that punch line - she hadn't taken into account the utter contempt in which the administration holds all contrary opinion.

In a statement, the Defense Department said: "We believe that Judge Leon's decision recognized the authority and responsibility of the president to detain enemy combatants. The Defense Department is using necessary, lawful and appropriate means to defend the United States and our troops."

That is, their response to the ruling is to declare that she actually ruled in their favor and so they can go on doing what they damn please!

Just appalling. Then again, it's much the same as what the WHS* did under the original Supreme Court ruling from last June that the prisoners had the right to have their status considered by the courts and remanded the matter to lower courts for consideration of the cases on the merits: They simply went back into court and made the same arguments over again, as if the Supreme Court had never ruled!

Their contempt for Constitutional government is palpable.

*WHS = White House Sociopaths