Republicans Anonymous

The BBC reports on a Guantanamo "Administrative Beview Board" hearing:

The Bush administration has argued that holding detainees without trial is imperative for national security, but lawyers for the Guantanamo Bay inmates argue that the detentions have no basis in law.
...
Before the proceedings began, they briefed us on what we would see. One officer likened the proceedings to a parole hearing - even though the detainees have not been found guilty of any crime.
...
The detainee was already sat when we entered the room. He wore an orange jumpsuit, signalling that he was a "non-compliant" prisoner.

[RepubAnon: care to wager that "orange jumpsuit" = guilty verdict?]

We were struck by the cursory nature of the questioning, and the absence of an attempt to reconcile conflicting claims as to what the young, sullen detainee had actually done.

More than 60 of these boards have now taken place.

And on the basis of their recommendations, senior Pentagon officials decide if detainees remain in captivity or go free.
Source: BBC Inside Guantanamo's secret trials April 8, 2005

What a travesty. How much evidence was obtained under torture? How much from inmates tortured until they implicating others? Why can't the prisoner's defending officer dispute the "top secret" evidence outside the defendant's hearing? Was there any evidence at all, or just some Administration underling's notation? Indeed, why bother holding such cynical "kangaroo court" hearings at all? (Which of course was Mr. Bush's original position.)

In the 1950s Superman TV series, the superhero used to fight for "Truth, Justice and the American Way." Are Truth, Justice - No Longer the American Way? Too bad Mr. Bush doesn't believe the American Way is about such quaint concepts as "honor" and that "Truth" can only be found by scouring the text of the King James version of the Bible.