Why fight the power?
If there were only clearchannel, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have heard about Murat Kurnaz (as is the story has been pretty well buried since Sunday's Post. Maybe because of the big newsflash that Bush lied. Ok, either lied or was incompetent. Honestly, though, which is better? In either case, what is the sound of 48% of the electorate all saying "no duh" at once? But I digress...)
Murat's story is astonishing not because it happened under the military tribunal system, but that people involved continued to defend the tribunals for so long after Murat's hearing. Basically, he's been held at Guantanamo for three years even though the evidence is overwhelmingly in his favor. This did not become an issue for anybody until the materials were declassified. The implication of the story, then, is that, far from being capable of policing itself, the military-security apparatus is out of control. It's not that current policy could be abused or that innocent people could fall through the cracks. It is and they are. Read David Cole to throw more wood on this fire.
Murat's case shows that you don't have to be involved in anything terroristical to be legally treated as a terrorist. The situation of Dora Maria Tellez shows that you don't even have to have a Turkish or Arabic-sounding name. Being a revolutionary is all it takes for the state to step in and declare you persona non grata. If I were Harvard, and the state were telling me I couldn't invite Tellez to campus, I would be pretty worried about my lofty self-concept as a utopia of freely exchanged ideas. It sounds like even a bigger crisis than having an idiot president. So, when do we start deporting old contras, or stop hosting Haitian death-squad types on state visits?
All of this is putting me in a Bastille-storming mood. It's time, let's go! But first I have to prepare for my 11 oclock class. Meet you there.
Murat's story is astonishing not because it happened under the military tribunal system, but that people involved continued to defend the tribunals for so long after Murat's hearing. Basically, he's been held at Guantanamo for three years even though the evidence is overwhelmingly in his favor. This did not become an issue for anybody until the materials were declassified. The implication of the story, then, is that, far from being capable of policing itself, the military-security apparatus is out of control. It's not that current policy could be abused or that innocent people could fall through the cracks. It is and they are. Read David Cole to throw more wood on this fire.
Murat's case shows that you don't have to be involved in anything terroristical to be legally treated as a terrorist. The situation of Dora Maria Tellez shows that you don't even have to have a Turkish or Arabic-sounding name. Being a revolutionary is all it takes for the state to step in and declare you persona non grata. If I were Harvard, and the state were telling me I couldn't invite Tellez to campus, I would be pretty worried about my lofty self-concept as a utopia of freely exchanged ideas. It sounds like even a bigger crisis than having an idiot president. So, when do we start deporting old contras, or stop hosting Haitian death-squad types on state visits?
All of this is putting me in a Bastille-storming mood. It's time, let's go! But first I have to prepare for my 11 oclock class. Meet you there.
posted by cultcrit at 10:11 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home