Gitmo Gulag

The Panopticon, Jeremy Bentham

~A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny

~The breadth of interpretation of Section 6 lay further in the fact that people were sentenced not only for actual espionage but also for:

• PSh - Suspicion of Espionage-
• NSh - Unproven Espionage- for which they gave the whole works.
• And even SVPSh - Contacts Leading to (!) Suspicion of Espionage.

--The Gulag Archipelago, Alexander Solzhenitsyn

''He is the youngest detainee at Guantánamo Bay, nearly blind in one eye from injuries sustained during the July 2002 firefight in which Sergeant Speer was mortally wounded and another American soldier was severely injured. Last week, Mr. Khadr said he wanted to fire all of his American lawyers, and some of them said they understood why he might distrust Americans after five years at Guantánamo''(''Legal Debate in Guantanamo on Boy Fighters.'')

The fact is that young Omar Ahmed Khadr did in fact kill SFC C. J. Speer, but, this clearly happened on the field of battle. Ranger wonders why the U.S. calls Khadr a murderer. If the SFC had killed Khadr, we would call him a hero.

Obviously, on one side are murderers and on the other, liberators. It is all so simple.

Retired Special Forces Sergeant Layne Morris, wounded at this fight, said Mr. Khadr had the chance to surrender after the American forces surrounded their compound. ''Anyone who was inside had a choice of fighting or surrendering, he said, including Mr. Khadr.''

Ranger asks: In today's world, why would anyone surrender, knowing that they will be sent to a black hole like Gitmo? U.S. policy insures fight-to-the-death scenarios, which could possibly be avoided by application of Geneva Convention rules.

The case has since been adjudicated, and further comments will follow.