- "Has she ever questioned Gonzales' extreme and bizarre
legal opinions justifying the torture, indefinite detention and disappearing
of countless innocent people? We don't know. Her legal opinions have yet
to be released and Senate Republicans, in keeping with the Bush Administration's
obsession with keeping the people's business secret from the people, say
they'll fight to keep them shrouded by the night and fog."
-
- Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel, supreme chief of the German
armed forces, explained the thinking behind the Nazis' "Night and
Fog" (the term comes from Goethe) decree: "Efficient and enduring
intimidation can only be achieved...by measures by which the relatives
of the criminals do not know the fate of the criminals...These measures
will have a deterrent effect because the prisoners will vanish without
a trace and no information may be given as to their whereabouts or their
fate."
-
- Anyone who doubts the extravagant pain of not knowing
what happened to a loved one should talk to Natalee Holloway's parents.
-
- Night and Fog came to the United States when federal
agencies built and filled a global, ad hoc network of prisons and concentration
camps during the months following 9/11, and began filling it with Muslims
of varying status. Officials promising to update lapsed visas lured foreign-born
residents to immigration offices and arrested them when they showed up.
Captured Taliban soldiers, stripped of their rights under the Geneva Conventions,
were thrown together with civilian shopkeepers sold by local warlords for
bounties to the CIA in Afghanistan, to whom were added anti-communist
rebels from China and democracy activists from Pakistan. Some were shipped
to Cuba, where many were tortured, some to death. Others were delivered
for "extraordinary rendition" via covert CIA jets to countries
reputed for their pain-inflicting expertise, including Syria, Yemen
and Uzbekistan. No one knows what happened to them.
-
- Four years after 9/11, the U.S. government still refuses
to release information about the disappeared. We do not know how many there
are, where they are being held, how many are dead and alive, or even their
names. The vanished have access to neither their families nor legal representation.
They cannot send or receive mail or packages. Because there was no evidence
against them, none have been charged with a crime. But catching terrorists
was never the purpose of America's new Night and Fog policy. The goal was
to instill fear, particularly among Muslims. It has also worked with other
"enemies of the state": since 9/11, "See you in Gitmo"
has become a standard joke among activists on the left.
-
- The legal cover for the Bush Administration's updating
of Night and Fog comes courtesy of then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales,
since promoted to attorney general. In his January 22, 2002 memo, for example,
Gonzales repeatedly twisted the facts in order to obtain the result Bush
desired.
-
- Gonzales' contradictory linguistic contortions, here
to argue that the Taliban were not covered by Geneva and could thus be
vanished into thin air because they were not a viable government, would
be comical if not for the man's chilling willingness to suspend intellectual
honesty along with fundamental human rights: "It is unclear whether
the Taliban militia ever fully controlled most of the territory of Afghanistan.
At the time the United States air strikes began, at least ten percent of
the country, and the population within those areas, was governed by the
Northern Alliance."
-
- Since when does 90 percent, or nearly 90 percent, fail
to qualify as "most"?
-
- Harriet Miers, Bush's nominee to succeed Sandra Day O'Connor
on the Supreme Court, replaced Gonzales in November 2004. Has she ever
questioned Gonzales' extreme and bizarre legal opinions justifying the
torture, indefinite detention and disappearing of countless innocent people?
We don't know. Her legal opinions have yet to be released and Senate Republicans,
in keeping with the Bush Administration's obsession with keeping the people's
business secret from the people, say they'll fight to keep them shrouded
by the night and fog.
-
- We know that Miers has chosen not to issue a full-fledged
rebuttal of Gonzales' disappear-'em-and-torture-'em philosophy, which remains
in full force at Abu Ghraib, Bagram, Guantánamo, Camp Mercury and
other giant memory holes. Reports continue to emerge, most recently from
a former Muslim chaplain at Gitmo, that top officials encourage soldiers
to abuse inmates.
-
- This comes as little surprise, given that Miers' reluctance
to rock the boat appears to be more highly developed than the average striver.
"In [a] White House that hero-worshipped the president, Miers was
distinguished by the intensity of her zeal: She once told me that the president
was the most brilliant man she had ever met," right-winger David Frum
writes in the National Review.
-
- Senate Democrats and patriotic Republicans should insist
on a full review of Miers' advice to Bush on torture and disappearances
before voting on confirmation to the Supreme Court. No one who agrees with
Alberto Gonzales' monstrous contempt for human rights ought to be elevated
to such a powerful post--even if her consent is expressed through tacit
silence.
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