tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1138570918413841323.post760450909883154251..comments2024-02-23T03:29:54.261-05:00Comments on The Unreligious Right: Attacks on the CIA ContinueUNRRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17093711439992855042noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1138570918413841323.post-32193614750239780712009-04-17T23:11:00.000-04:002009-04-17T23:11:00.000-04:00"Are you only in favor of ensuring legal represent..."Are you only in favor of ensuring legal representation for those we've predetermined are innocent, and if so what's the point?"<br /><br />My arguments here apply only to those who are clearly not innocent. Al Nashiri is not equivalent to some guy we picked up based on little or no evidence in Afghanistan.<br /><br />As I argued before, suspected terrorists should have their home countries notified of their capture, and they should act on their behalf. <br /><br />I'm not arguing that things shouldn't be tightened up, in that we need to be a lot more selective in using extended detentions, let alone questionable techniques or torture. But in the case of known terrorists of the type that the latest memos are talking about, I think the CIA should have wide latitude.UNRRhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17093711439992855042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1138570918413841323.post-83556895595499866342009-04-17T22:49:00.000-04:002009-04-17T22:49:00.000-04:00Earlier you posted some criticism of Bush for not ...Earlier you <A HREF="http://unreligiousright.blogspot.com/2009/04/wages-of-incompetence.html" REL="nofollow">posted some criticism</A> of Bush for not taking steps to ensure due process for separating the innocent from the guilty.<br /><br />Are you only in favor of ensuring legal representation for those we've predetermined are innocent, and if so what's the point?Gherald Lhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14018224925808657621noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1138570918413841323.post-20511146005258602912009-04-17T22:26:00.000-04:002009-04-17T22:26:00.000-04:00"Sounds to me like his legal team is doing what th..."Sounds to me like his legal team is doing what they're supposed to do."<br /><br />The very fact that someone like that even has a legal team at all is a travesty.<br /><br />"Even if it means guilty people go free or get off easy because their prosecutors/jailors/interrogators denied them due process, it may be the correct result.'<br /><br />Letting a known terrorist go free because of some legal technicality that shouldn't even apply to him in the first place -- not such a good idea.<br /><br />"does not mean they've forfeited all rights"<br /><br />They have none, or should have none.<br /><br />"we are not sill bound by our own laws of war and treaties."<br /><br />Which have little to do with individuals like Al Nashiri. Our treaties were never intended to afford rights to non-state terrorists. And the clandestine section of the CIA operates in a legal gray area and always has. It is specifically designed to carry out illegal activities outside the U.S. That's kind of the point of all the secrecy.<br /><br />"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster."<br /><br />Torturing some terrorists hardly makes us monsters.UNRRhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17093711439992855042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1138570918413841323.post-41812374423552235592009-04-17T22:05:00.000-04:002009-04-17T22:05:00.000-04:00Sounds to me like his legal team is doing what the...Sounds to me like his legal team is doing what they're supposed to do.<br /><br />Whether they have a legitimate case on mistreatment, I can't say without knowing particulars.<br /><br />Even if it means guilty people go free or get off easy because their prosecutors/jailors/interrogators denied them due process, it may be the correct result.<br /><br />Just because someone is alien, openly hostile, disrespectful of laws, or hails from a state that has signed no treaties does not mean they've forfeited all rights or that we are not sill bound by our own laws of war and treaties.<br /><br /><I>"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."</I> —NietzscheGherald Lhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14018224925808657621noreply@blogger.com