In light of Thursday's Supreme Court ruling on detainees at Guantanamo Bay, we thought it would be a good time to disclose the "presents" we received last week from the gift shop at Gitmo. The Sleuth's husband, a reporter who went to Guantanamo last week to cover the arraignment of five 9/11 suspects, brought back not one but three surprises: a Guantanamo Bay windbreaker, a baseball cap and a t-shirt. (Honey, you shouldn't have!) Yes, the Gitmo Naval base actually sells t-shirts, caps and other souvenirs advertising its detainee operations. And apparently, military base officials were thrilled to have reporters buying up goodies at the gift shop for their loved ones back home.
Yes, what could possibly be more American than buying a souvenir t-shirt to bring home to a loved one as a memento of your trip? Being a confirmed souvenir t-shirt junkie myself, I applaud this little-celebrated avenue of American capitalism. After all, what's more American than a t-shirt that essentially says "We detain and torture men, most of whom are innocent and detained only due to flimsy or fabricated evidence" than a t-shirt from the base souvenir stand?
It's easy to make light of this sort of thing, but the reality is that we as Americans- people who cherish and value freedom, due process, and the rule of law- have for years tolerated a system within our midst that deprives some men of these things simply because of what they might be. Because they might be terrorists, they've been incarcerated indefinitely- no habeas corpus, no due process, no rule of law- while our government determines what to do with them. That there seems to be no hurry to this process should give all of us pause. Human beings are being forcibly deprived of their freedom in a manner only Franz Kafka could really be appreciativee and proud of.
We have sat idly by while our government has created an extrajudicial system accountable to no one. Those detained have no access to legal representation, no access to family or loved ones, and no light at the end of the tunnel. THIS is the America that values freedom and the rule of law? THIS is the America whose judicial system is based on habeas corpus and the presumption of innocence? Somewhere along the line, this country I love jumped the tracks...and now the inmates are running the asylum while we sit by in mute acquiescence.
It's not a stretch for me to say that I'm ashamed of what my country has become...because I am.
WE DESERVE BETTER...and so do those being tortured and incarcerated in the most Kafkaesque of manners.
