via MichaelMoore.com:
November 21st, 2008 11:29 am
The 43rd President's Dark LegacyBy Scott Horton /
Harper'sOver the last week, the American press has been filled with drip after drip from smug, generally anonymous Bush Administration clones who promise that when Barack Obama is saddled with the responsibilities of government he will "get real" about the threats presented by terrorists at Guantánamo and will tack away from his promise to shut the infamous prison camp down. But in a remarkable interview with CBS's Sixty Minutes last night, the president-elect made clear that his commitment to clear, affirmative action was unwavering:
"I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that. I have said repeatedly that America doesn't torture, and I'm going to make sure that we don't torture. Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America's moral stature in the world."
Moreover, the Obama transition team are now looking closely at the accountability issue. What should be done about a long track record of torture and other often criminal abuses committed against prisoners under the authority of President Bush? There are no easy answers to that problem, but I venture an approach in my essay "Justice After Bush" in the December issue of Harper's. The answer must ultimately focus just on the point that Obama identified: America's moral stature in the world and its commitment to live to the standards it advocates for others.
Here's a new document that helps put that moral and legal issue in proper perspective. The Human Rights Center of the University of California has issued a compelling new report entitled "Guantánamo and Its Aftermath." The report focuses on an important but largely neglected issue: what effect did the extraordinary detention arrangements at Guantánamo have on those who have been released? While the Bush Administration is fond of painting the Gitmo detainees in terms of pure villainy, it tends to obscure the fact that it has released roughly two-thirds of the total number of detainees. Most of them have returned to their homelands and tried to resume normal lives. The Human Rights Center report has been meticulously researched and is a "just the facts, ma'am" recounting of what happened to these former detainees. The five hundred "alumni" of Gitmo are now scattered in thirty different countries. One of the American guards at Gitmo was quoted telling a British detainee "if you didn't hate America when you came here, you sure will after what we've done to you." That is borne out by the study, which shows that a majority of the detainees harbor bitter thoughts about the United States over their treatment. .......(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=12668
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