[Population: One] <A HREF="http://popone.innocence.com/ar

[bryant]

I’m really hoping this one is wrong. Certainly the term “death camp” is overblown rhetoric. The reality is bad enough. We can’t be executing prisoners without very open due process, and Guantanamo Bay is a closed system. No appeals, no juries. No spectators.

This is not an accusation. I do not say that the proceedings would be unfair; I can’t say that, because I don’t know who the men on the tribunals would be. What I’m saying is this: our system is an open one precisely because our Founding Fathers knew that it was necessary; it is an open system because we are expected not to trust the government’s unsupported word.

Proof of fairness is a burden that lies on the shoulders of the court. They must not refuse to take up that burden.

Comments

[colubra.livejournal.com]

it's australian news.

[bryant]

Yeah, I have no way to judge it. How reliable is the Mail?

[colubra.livejournal.com]

Well. How often do you hear of the Australian press bandied about as a bastion of journalistic excellence? I asked a friend who grew up in Brisbane her opinion of the newspaper in question. Once she stopped laughing, she said that it's generally 'about 1% news and 99% bollocks'.

Major-General Geoffrey Miller is in charge of Guantanamo, interestingly; this was outside of her expectation set.
Infoshop News seems to be floating the story you cite as highly factual; they're pulling it off news.com.au now.
The most telling bit of reporting here:
They see it as the clearest indication America has no intention of falling in line with internationally recognised justice. Because, as we all know, up to this point, the US has produced so many signs of that intention. The story isn't about what IS going on in Guantanamo; the story is more about pointing at the abuses that have already gone on and saying 'And NOW they're going to do MORE crazy shite, those focking Yanks.'
Personally? They may be contemplating building a more secure prison facility in Guantanamo- and they may even be contemplating attaching some means of execution to that.

Beyond that, though, it smells like drum-banging for a story, to me.

[artbroken.livejournal.com]

Well. How often do you hear of the Australian press bandied about as a bastion of journalistic excellence?

There was a time when they were, but that was years ago.

I asked a friend who grew up in Brisbane her opinion of the newspaper in question. Once she stopped laughing, she said that it's generally 'about 1% news and 99% bollocks'.

Speaking as someone who currently lives in Brisbane, your friend was being generous. The Courier-Mail is garbage, pure and simple. I wouldn't even use it to wrap fish and chips with.

[tavella.livejournal.com]

Mmm. I agree about the doubts about the source, but the asserted facts are pretty much the logical outcome of the situation. They've announced that they are going to hold trials; they can't do them in the US, because the moment they bring prisoners here they lose the magic Gitmo zone exemption the courts have been handing them. And the same for executions. So if they want to do capital trials -- and I have trouble seeing this administration, which is in love with the death penalty, not doing so -- they have to set it all up at Gitmo.