Dec. 28, 2001 - 21:45 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

Thinking About It

Smarter people than I are thinking along the same lines ahead of me. Makes me feel that I am not, after all, around the bend playing with a short deck.

William Glaberson of The New York Times datelined December 27, 2001 has the headline, "Tribunals draw more fire." His first few words keep ringing the bell in my mind. He writes, "Going beyond claims that the military tribunals authorized by President Bush would violate civil liberties guaranteed by US law, experts are beginning to argue that they would breach international law guaranteeing fair treatment of prisoners of war." "Critics of the administration say the president's order authorizing the tribunals conflicts with treaties such as the Geneva Conventions, which gives POWs the right to be tried in courts that are independent of the prosecution and to appeal convictions." "None of those rights is assured in the president's order, which opponents say precludes at least two of them."

To go on, "The critics -- who include legal experts with military backgrounds -- say the tribunals could create the possibility of charges by other countries that US officers who conduct tribunals are guilty of war crimes."

The article goes on to discuss some of the ins and outs. But that first part is important to me. In my opinion we are playing the wishy washy game by implying we are in a war, but trying to reserve the right to jail in secret, try in secret and execute in secret people who are here as aliens in our country. The password now is, "But we can do what we want - they are not citizens." Yeah riiight! How the steam rises from our people and Washington when one of our citizens is an alien visiting in another country and is apprehended in a similar manner, held in secret, tried in secret and so on, much as the people in Washington want to do to foreigners here.

To my way of thinking there are basic human rights that everyone deserves regardless of nationality, color, religion or political feelings. Maybe some of our people who have tried to find a relative and to get defense for a relative who is imprisoned in another country could say something very pertinent about that. Very often the courts of that country want to put a foreigner down the tubes, it seems to me just like things are beginning to appear here in our country.

Shades of pre war Germany, recent finagling in former Yugoslavia, present day circumstances in many South American countries. I really wonder just exactly what our officials intend to do with us ? Are we going to be subject to a dictatorial finger pointing at us because we said we are dissenters of the direction our government is taking and possibly tried, convicted and executed in secret because we dissent ? In my opinion our government is treading a very narrow line these days.

So, I am and will be Thinking About It . . . . . . . .

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