Six Degrees of Separation

It ain't personal.
We don't like you, but it ain't personal
--Dick Powell, Murder My Sweet
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Since Ranger last left the topic of Dick Cheney, let's re-visit John Walker Lindh [The American Taliban] and draw a connection.

Lindh was a rifleman for the Taliban, and no proof was given that he engaged in terrorist activity. Nonetheless, he was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for violating the embargo against the Taliban. Twenty years for carrying a rifle and fighting the Northern Alliance. So much for the freedom of religion in the U.S. Onward Christian Soldiers.

Lindh was shot, tortured, humiliated, kept in solitary confinement, denied medical care and generally treated as if the freedom of America hinged upon his skinny ineffectual ass.

And ineffectual, if not skinny, asses is where we join up with one-each Dick Cheney. Cheney outed CIA operative Valerie Plame, lied about intelligence data and continues to do so, told the CIA to lie or omit facts from their congressional testimony, facilitated torture, assassinations, secret prisons and illegal rendition programs, which included child kidnapping, and more. Just another day at the creepy Veep's office.

The question is: Who is the bigger criminal? Which deserves a 20-year prison sentence? If justice were served, Lindh would be pardoned and Cheney placed in immediate detention, minus habeas corpus.

It would be fair, but it won't happen because America is living its own real-time version of Lost.

Pardon Me

Opponent, Pavel Constantin

Excuse me! I feel good tonight, because, uh. . .
well, I've finally got a goal in life, and that's. . .
that's what pleases me, is to be able to have a goal,
and this is why I'm so happy
--SNL, Steve Martin (1978)

Some times are happy, some not happy. . .
But the idea of being able to serve a nation you love is --
has been joyful. In other words,
my spirits have never been down
--George W. Bush (2008)
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Recent talk of presidential pardons centers around the actors who brought you the wildly distracting Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) (Preemptive Pardons.)

The speculation is that Department of Defense (DoD), Department of Justice (DoJ) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and their contractors may receive a blanket pardon for committing torture, in violation of the Geneva Conventions (In Defense of Pardons.) The intention is to alleviate their chances of being tried in the U.S. for War Crimes.

CIA/U.S. policy of secret prison sites is probably still operational, but the concept of preventive incarceration is as felonious and ineffectual as preemptive invasions. Both policies are weak-minded and counter-productive, yet We the People countenance these illegalities.

As a follow on to yesterday's Terrorists are People, Too, consider the cases of sad sack detainee Jose Padilla and "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh.

No Mr. Klar here, just a couple of zhlubs trying to make it on the other side of capitalism. Unlike convicted killer Klar, neither Lindh nor Padilla can be proven to have ever killed an American, yet they both received proportionally heavier sentences than did Klar.

Let us hope that the entire DoJ approach to terror criminals will be reevaluated in this new administration. In this spirit, why not pardon Jose Padilla and John Walker Lindh? Both men should be considered for parole.

Of course, this will never happen. We need poster boys.

And goodies like pardons don't trickle down far into shallow pockets.

Genesis

Salvation is a last-minute business, boy
--The Night of the Hunter, James Agee

The weak in courage is strong in cunning
--The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, William Blake

And God saw every thing that he had made,
and, behold, it was very good
--Genesis 1:1, the Bible
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Unfortunately, GWB misunderestimated [sic] when he heard "God said unto them. . .[subdue and] have dominion over. . .every living thing that moveth upon the earth." He did not mean the U.S. executive branch, via the military and judicial system.

But this is, after all, the man who said, "It's the executive branch's job to interpret law." (The satin sash emblazoned "South Carolina" which he wore campaigning should've been a hint.)

The New York Times Op-Ed charges "Abu Ghraib Swept Under the Carpet" following the dismissal Tuesday of most charges against Lt. Col. Steven Jordan, leaving the tag of misfit deadenders on the 11 low-ranking soldiers who were skewered with charges for their abusive treatment of prisoners.

The higher-ranking misfits, "President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top officials have long claimed that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were the disconnected acts of a small number of sociopaths. It’s clear that is not true."

"Abusive interrogations, many of them amounting to torture, were first developed for Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, after Mr. Bush declared that international and American law did not protect members of Taliban or Al Qaeda, or any other foreigner he chose to designate as an 'unlawful enemy combatant'."

But Abu Ghraib and Gitmo were not the first instances of torture in U.S. policy in the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©).

How quickly America forgets the story of Californian John Walker Lindh, captured while serving as a Taliban rifleman in Afghanistan.

As a result of confused combat, Lindh was captured as an enemy combatant, which surely he was. Combatant--yes; terrorist, no.

U.S. citizen Lindh was held incommunicado 55 days following his capture. Testimony seems to bear out the fact that U.S. military brutalized and massacred Taliban captives (or allowed the Northern Alliance to do so) at Qala-i-Janghi fortress near Mazar-i-Sharif, where Lindh and his band were trapped.

Lindh was shot through the leg in a prisoner melee. After being secured, Lindh was stripped, taped to a stretcher and kept unfed inside a dark and freezing metal container for two days prior to his FBI interviews. When his blindfold was removed after this ordeal in the crate, an FBI agent presented him with a form waiving his constitutional rights. Lindh never received a note from his parents, sent via Red Cross, that they had retained counsel for him (Chertoff and Torture.)

The FBI interviews continued for two days. Afterwards, he was transferred to the USS Peleliu, where he was treated for dehydration, hypothermia and frostbite. The next day the bullet was removed from his leg.

Ranger reckons this is where it all started. The Departments of Justice, State, Defense and the CIA all learned that murder, torture and degradation were acceptable behaviors in the name of good. Thank you, Jesus, for wiping the true believer's slate clean for any number of atrocities.

However, the most egregious offense was to be committed later by the DoJ and the Federal Court system. None of Lindh's statements could be considered voluntary, and should not have held up to a Fifth Amendment challenge. Instead, he is now serving a 20-year sentence obtained in a plea bargain, for committing a felony while in possession of a firearm.

One can expect CIA and DoD to trample upon the rights of a U.S. citizen, but not the Federal Court system. Its independence and allegiance to an inviolable document, The Constitution, was hitherto sacrosanct.

Now, contrast Lindh's treatment with that received by Lt. Col. Jordan. This is the brave new version of fair and equal treatment that has become the hallmark of American justice.