Saturday, December 26, 2009

Have Americans Traded Freedom For Security?

by Paul Craig Roberts, December 26, 2009

"Obama’s dwindling band of true believers has taken heart that their man has finally delivered on one of his many promises — the closing of the Guantánamo prison. But the prison is not being closed. It is being moved to Illinois, if the Republicans permit.

In truth, Obama has handed his supporters another defeat. Closing Guantánamo meant ceasing to hold people in violation of our legal principles of habeas corpus and due process and ceasing to torture them in violation of U.S. and international laws. All Obama would be doing would be moving 100 people, against whom the U.S. government is unable to bring a case, from the prison in Guantánamo to a prison in Thomson, Illinois......

With stunning insouciance, Americans have given up the rule of law that protected their liberty. The silence of law schools and bar associations indicates that the age of liberty has passed. In short, the American people support tyranny. And that’s where they are headed."

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