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This article in The Guardian discusses all the people we have “disappeared” in the GWOT. It’s a very interesting article and reminds us of the stakes in this election.

Under military order No 1, issued by President Bush in November 2001, the president gave himself the right, in defiance of national and interna tional law, to detain indefinitely any non-US citizen anywhere in the world. Many ended up in Guantánamo where at least some of their names were discovered. Others simply vanished. They became in the US euphemism, “ghost prisoners”, an unrecorded host held in secret, their detention denied, hidden from the Red Cross, legal or family access barred, their fate in the hands of unaccountable and unnamed US personnel.

Perhaps Kerry would make the same decision, but I have to assume that he’s savvy enough, if not moral enough, to understand that these things can never be kept a secret. Imagine if you will the Republican congressional and senate hearings on this matter if President Kerry ordered such a thing and it became known. They went apeshit over Elian Gonzales, fergawdsake.

The article reminded me of perhaps the most sickening line ever uttered in an American presidential speech and one which should go down in infamy if there is any justice in this world:

In his state of the union address in February 2003, he said: “More than 3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested in many countries. Many others have met a different fate. Put it this way, they’re no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and allies.”

Notice that even he used the word “suspected.” His movie script tough guy lines may sound cute to some but when you actually look at that statement, and realize that he gave it in a national address before the US congress, he sounds like a sociopath.

Good thing this politics thing doesn’t matter. Did Teresa say anything kooky today?