If there is any beneficial aspect to the Pentagon-CIA torture center, prison camp, and kangaroo “judicial” system at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, it is that it stands as an ongoing, constant reminder to the American people as to the tyrannical governmental system under which we live. This is especially important for those Americans who love thanking God for being an American because at least they know they’re free.
Yesterday, the New York Times reported that the U.S. military sent 11 Gitmo prisoners from Yemen to Oman. Here is a critically important sentence from that article: “None of the released men had been charged with crimes during their two decades of detention.”
Now, just think about that for a moment. Some 20 years of torture and incarceration. Yet, no charges. No indictments. No trials. Not even kangaroo military tribunals. Not sham trials like in places like Russia and China. No convictions. No prison sentences. Just two decades of continuous torture and incarceration. Isn’t that the type of thing that U.S. officials condemn about communist and totalitarian regimes?
In a free society, the government is required to promptly charge people it has taken into custody with some criminal offense. No charges means quick release. That’s what habeas corpus, which has been called the lynchpin of a free society, is all about. And once the person is charged, except in extreme instances, he’s entitled to bail so that he can remain free pending the trial. And a trial must be held speedily so that the government can’t keep the charges hanging over the person indefinitely. The accused is presumed innocent. He has the right to have an attorney defending him. He has the right of trial by a jury of regular people in the community. He cannot be tortured or subjected to other cruel and unusual measures.
That’s what the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were supposed to prevent. Those types of things were never supposed to happen in the United States — to anyone, foreigner or citizen.
And yet they have happened, as Gitmo constantly reminds us. That’s the type of society in which we all live here in the United States — a society in which the U.S. national-security establishment wields omnipotent, totalitarian powers to do whatever it wants to people — in the name of keeping us “safe” from scary boogeymen — Russia, China, Iran, Iraq, Syria, the terrorists, ISIS, Muslims, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, the Reds, the drug cartels, the illegal immigrant invaders, and others.
Those who are willing and eager to trade their freedom for “security” respond, “But Jacob, terrorism is an act of war and so it’s okay for the Pentagon and the CIA to wield those omnipotent, totalitarian-like powers.” But there is one big problem with that rationalization for the intentional sacrifice of liberty: It’s not true. Terrorism is a criminal offense under the U.S. Code, not an act of war. Don’t believe me? Go look at all the criminal cases in federal district courts in Virginia and New York in which terrorist suspects have been brought to trial. What happened is that the Pentagon and the CIA didn’t like that constitutional judicial system and decided to implement their own in Cuba, one that intentionally and knowingly violated the principles of the Bill of Rights.
Moreover, as most everyone knows, the omnipotent, totalitarian-like powers wielded by the national-security establishment do not consist only of torture and indefinite detention. They also consist of assassination. The Pentagon and the CIA wield the power to assassinate anyone they want — foreigner or citizen — civilians or presidents — so long is it is done to keep us “safe” — i.e., to protect “national security,” the most meaningless and most important term in the American political lexicon.
Notice something else that is important: There isn’t anything that the Supreme Court, the Congress, and the president can do about this. That’s because it is the national-security branch of the federal government — the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA — that rules the roost. For years now, some U.S. presidents have vowed to close down Gitmo. It’s not that they have been lying. It’s that they lack the power to overcome the power of the military and the CIA. More than 80 years after the conversion of the federal government to a national-security state, Congress is controlled lock-stock-and-barrel by the national-security branch. And as we learned many decades ago, the Supreme Court rolled over practically from the beginning when it comes to the totalitarian-like measures adopted by the national-security branch.
Let’s look at the bright side of what has happened to our country. Without Gitmo, Americans might not realize the gigantic transformation of life and the destruction of individual freedom when the federal government was converted to a national-security state in the 1940s. The ongoing, continuing existence of Gitmo serves as a valuable reminder for everyone, especially those who love singing to themselves, “Thank God I’m an American because at least I know I’m free.”
