Ken Salazar's Tortured Logic

The Gazette finally notices the nasty military tribunal bill that our glorious Senator Salazar voted for:

The bill sets up a system whereby those who have been detained can be tried in military commissions or tribunals rather than in civilian courts. It would allow prosecutors to introduce confessions obtained by “cruel, unusual or inhumane” interrogations before 2005 but not afterward. It would immunize government employees who may have violated the 1949 Geneva Conventions on permissible wartime activities or the 1994 War Crimes Act before 2005, but would impose tighter standards on interrogators in the future.

(That's retroactive immunity for Bush's illegal orders - Z)

Our objections to this bill do not revolve around specific provisions, many of which are still shrouded in vague language and governmental secrecy. It is to the idea that a country grounded in the concept of individual rights should think it necessary to suspend time-tested judicial procedures evolved over the centuries to ensure fairness and minimize arbitrary government actions in the name of a vague and ill-defined “war on terror” that could last for generations.

It is characteristic of tyrannical regimes to hold prisoners for long periods without charging them or giving them a chance to prove their innocence. It should not be the way the United States operates.

We have no illusions that treating prisoners in the terror war humanely will induce terrorists to behave humanely. The United States should behave humanely because that is what decent countries do, even in difficult exigencies.

When we depart from such standards, the terrorists have already won.

Thanks, Ken. You've bought into Bush's horrible planning, decisions and his weakness in honoring our constitution. If this was really the "best bill" we could get you shouldn't have voted for it.