Since 2002, the US has detained suspected terrorists without charge or trial at its gulag in Guantanamo Bay. Now, the prison's first commander has said what we all knew: that the US's descent to arbitrary imprisonment means that the terrorists won:
The man who opened up the Guantanamo Bay Prison now says he wants to see the facility closed.
U.S. Major General Michael Lehnert (retired), first commander of the Guantanamo Bay Prison, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that terrorists were “successful” in changing America.
“The objective of terrorism is to change the nature of their adversary,” he said. “And I would opine that they've been successful. They've changed the way we've acted, they've caused us to walk away from the Constitution, and they've caused us to act as if we were afraid.”
Sadly, he's silent on American torture, but the same applies. In a real sense, Al Qaeda has destroyed everything decent about America - with the full and eager cooperation of successive American governments.
As for Guantanamo, 160 prisoners are still there, 82 of them still imprisoned despite being cleared for release. Some of them have been there for over ten years without trial. They need to be either charged or released. And Guantanamo delenda est - Guantanamo must be destroyed.
