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Press Barred From Terror Trials »
Posted by: JamesMarcus 2 years, 9 months agoThe Pentagon said Tuesday it will bar news coverage of hearings for the 14 terror suspects who were transferred to Guantanamo Bay last fall from secret CIA prisons abroad--including an alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.
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JamesMarcus
James Marcus is a writer, translator, critic, and editor. He is the author of Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot-Com Juggernaut and ...
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Comments: 148
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LABELDUDE
March 6, 2007, 6:34 p.m.THE PRESS? As twisted as they are, who we gonna listen to then? Pentagon Briefings?
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NelsonR
March 6, 2007, 7:29 p.m.The press should not be involved. As taking a liberal approach on many matters, this is not one. These individuals should be tried and executed ASAP if found guilty. America has every right to be as dedicated as our enemy, if not we will instigate further cold blooded and unwarranted attacks on our nation.
If I were a Islamist Idiot I would attempt to subvert these proceedings to justify a barbaric attack. The media has no business being involved. Islamist attacked us first. I show them no compassion nor human rights nor geneva convention rules. They are not a National uniformed soldier, simple as that.
But I still avow that Bush is a lunatic conservative who has made a mess of America in the worlds eye along with most Americans opinions of his inane leadership. I wish his father would take over from his son. How much worse can it continue to be with this abysmal character.
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Thinkingisgood
March 6, 2007, 7:46 p.m.>>Coverage of (550 ) previous status tribunals was not prohibited, although there were restrictions. After each hearing for the former CIA prisoners..., the Pentagon will release a transcript after removing portions deemed potentially damaging to national security.
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Ts-rose
March 6, 2007, 9:31 p.m.The TERROR here is that the press is barred from these trials of "14 terror suspects who were transferred to Guantanamo Bay" ... after being detained for years. These prisoners at Guantanamo can just about now begin to image how it was for our indigenous Native American Indian ancestors (except those who were previously sold into slavery) who were ejected from their Southeastern homelands in the USA and forced to march the Trail of Tears across the Mississippi to the Okalahoma reservation... where many remain confined today.
At least with these trials, there won't be a civilian jury to beat into submission and force (?) a 'guilty' verdict out of them after 10 days or so.
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Dionys
March 6, 2007, 9:37 p.m.If the government and Republicans can take away our basic rights, push unabashedly wiretaps without warrants and tell us that we won't mind giving up rights "if we have nothing to hide,"
then why cannot we ask that the press be present (liberal, conservative and true "media" -- that is those in the middle) if *they* have nothing to hide.
These are the actions of a totalitarian government such as China or East Germany under the communists. It is disturbing to see it in America and even more disturbing to see Americans embracing it along with executions.
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JRad183
March 6, 2007, 9:42 p.m.Back to the Star Chamber. Some really brave and smart Americans fought a revolution to write the Star Chamber out of our lives forever, and now some sadistic, cowardly authoritarian idiots are attempting to resurrect it...and hide the reality of it.
"Hey! Torture is cool! Torture = entertainment! Torture works!" "The Geneva Conventions are quiant." Bullcrap. Torture belongs only in our shamefully uncivilized past.
If Americans would see the medieval brutality that's been inflicted on human beings since 2001, they'd be appalled and disgusted into action.
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royal-m
March 6, 2007, 9:51 p.m.If your cause is righteous there is no need for secrecy unless the testimony includes classified information
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gamahuche
March 6, 2007, 10:23 p.m.Justice is not done unless its seen to be done. We are all tainted by this appalling travesty of justice which is carried out in our name.
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KingOfTruth
March 6, 2007, 11:02 p.m.BOOOOOOO....I thought that the press was going to be put behind bars....especially the leftists from NYTimes, CNn, CBA, ABC, NBC, PBS, NPR.....etc
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joeeddie
March 6, 2007, 11:52 p.m.Here's a nice article from American Heritage that explains FDR's use of this type of trial:
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coreyspring
March 7, 2007, 12:15 a.m.These guys have been denied plenty of rights, might as well be consistent.
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ouzie-q
March 7, 2007, 12:46 a.m.The media deserves no access, what trust have they garnered by continually publishing war secrets and espousing anti-war propaganda?
They are "oh so quick" to remind us we are at war and people are dying for lackluster causes. Yet, in their own backyard, no topic is too sensitive for distribution; no subject too taboo to hold the presses on.
To the novice or blathersmite: the techniques employed are sadly nothing new, internment worked well in WWII and the supposed interrogation tortures are nothing more than simple stress extraction methods. Ninety percent of released muslims are apprehended again on the battlefield.
The antagonists to policy simply have no merit, as none have ever been able to provide a worthy example of these "supposed rights infringements being inflicted upon the American populace."
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ouzie-q
March 7, 2007, 12:47 a.m.I say unto thee yet again, please give us the clear examples of these grievances over which you weep.
Where art the masses being interned, the victims of the jack booted storm troopers and black helicopters so lovingly dolled out in daily diatribes?
As always...
please humor me.
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Sandmn
March 7, 2007, 1:32 a.m.It's hard to imagine that we could sink any lower than we did during the Nuremberg lynchings, but it looks like we just did. If the evidence were as cut and dry as many here would like us to believe, then a military tribunal would not be necessary. If america's leaders had clean hands, this could be demonstarted in open courts with the rights of evidence examination and cross examination intack. But in this tribunal, heresay is the soup of the day, and will be spoon fed to the american public. Heresay is the only evidence the united states has, and in another tribunal, it's all they need.
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Itachirumon
March 7, 2007, 2:40 a.m.I say it is time for america to rise up and take hold of these cases, in my opinion the reporters should be as pushy as they were when Princess Di was killed by their ruthlessness, let them knock down the doors and take to the stands, ten seconds of injustice will be enough to convict this faux Comrad Napolean of treason and roast him over an open fire, it is time to bring down this treasonous administration and restore order to the country, these suspects are innocent until proven guilty, and need to be given the rights to stand trial by a jury of bipartisan americans...oh wait, I'm sorry I do believe I've sworn, I've used the 'B' word, excuse me I must go wash my mouth out with truthiness soap now
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NeoWiccan
March 7, 2007, 6:13 a.m.I've heard all statements and I must say, everyone has brought up valid points. I hope no one minds if I throw my two cents in but isn't America diffrent from other countrys because of are rights and due process of law? these ppl may be "assumed" terrorists but they just like anyone else deserves a fair trial. letting the press in not only assures that, but it also imforms what might be a bias society. What if it were a "assumed" rapist? what if he/she didn't do anything but in court the press wasn't involved? who's to say that the judge isn't bias and sentences this person because they "think" they did it regardless?
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DPittman
March 7, 2007, 9:07 a.m.The reason they won't let the press in is because they would turn it into the same circus that they turned Anna Nicole's hearing into. Somebody made reference to Princess Diana, that is my exact point! This is real life and death people, do you really want people like Johnny Cochran turning these cases into "America made them do it!"
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toph1973
March 7, 2007, 11 a.m.This just shows that our government has never been and never will be honest with us. It's a certainty that these people in these secret prisons are being tortured. I wonder how many of these people being held are innocent, and have been tortured to death? This administrations is absolutely despicable.
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nostalgia
March 7, 2007, 12:04 p.m."The right of the public and the press to attend the recently authorized special military tribunals has not been established as of this writing. History suggests any such right will be limited, but there are steps members of the news media can take to maximize their access to the records and proceedings of such tribunals." The Freedom of Information Center
http://foi.missouri.edu/secretcourts/mediaaccess.h
The article also includes A Brief History of Secret Military Tribunals
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Jaydee40
March 7, 2007, 12:23 p.m.I must commend the few American people who try to stand up to thier government in thier recent suspension of civial rights. If only the german people had stood up to Hitler in such a way ww2 may have been avoided. However I truly don't think most Americans realize just how far thier country has gone with the Patriot Act that was passed - This Act suspends human rights at the whim of a bureaucratic decision that may or may not have any merit, and hold no one accountable for any errors that this autocratic administration will make. There is no timelimit for the act to be reviewed in fact if one mentions a need for review they could very well find themselves a target of the administration and detained indefinitely!! So much for due process and the scales of justice. I think that in America's quest to make every other government system in the world modeled after the American Constitution that it has abandoned it's own idealic philosphy and is now just a wolf in sheep's clothing.
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Daylight
March 7, 2007, 2:17 p.m.Americans have given the Muslims so many reasons to hate them, and this kind of outrageous behavior will make them to hate more and to take revenge on them in the future, America needs more violence and destructions, perhaps in order to survive in this competitive world.
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Jaydee40
March 7, 2007, 2:56 p.m.What America needs to do is take control of their government and not wait till the 2008 election. If there are no legal means to do this than maby it should be done illegally. But it all boils down to the American people are responsible for what their government does.
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earthlover
March 7, 2007, 3:16 p.m.people held without trial, some for years. held by who? myanmar generals? arab extremists? no the good old usa, and it wonders why the world hates it!
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AlaKai
March 7, 2007, 3:18 p.m.Press Barred From Terror Trials
US Refuses To Join UN Human Rights Council
Yep I just read these headlines side by side
this is sad
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