This makes me very proud. Today, 145 members of Congress - all but one of them Democrats! - sent a strongly worded letter to President Bush calling on him to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay and move the detainees to the United States.
McClatchy has the story. The letter is worth reading :
"The closure of the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay would represent a positive first step toward restoring our international reputation as the leader of democracy and individual rights," the letter said.
I am so glad to see House Democrats finally taking a moral stand against the depredations of the Bush regime:
"Holding prisoners for an indefinite period of time, without charging them with a crime goes against our values, ideals and principles as a nation governed by the rule of law," the letter said. It argued that allegations of torture and of the indefinite detention of innocent men have hurt America's credibility.
Could this be the beginning of a turning point? Maybe this is a sign of hope.
Another glimmer of hope arrived as the Supreme Court agreed to review whether the detainees should be able to go to federal court to challenge their confinement. Given the rightward leaning of this court, we can't expect them to necessarily do the right thing, but if they have a moral conscience at all, we can hope that they will uphold the Constitution. We can only hope.
From the New York Times:
Experts on the Supreme Court said the justices so rarely grant such motions for reconsideration that the order itself was significant. They said it signaled that the justices had determined they needed to resolve a new politically and legally significant Guantanamo issue, after two earlier Supreme Court decisions that have been sweeping setbacks for the administration’s detention policies.
Also, Colin Powell gave an interview on CNN last night, in which he reaffirmed his stated desire to close Guantanamo, arguing it is one of the reasons “we are losing around the world”:
The reason I am feeling so strongly about Guantanamo is that while we’re arguing these legal issues, we are getting killed in terms of our international reputation because of the place. And we are losing around the world. And what makes it even more difficult is some of the biggest thugs in the world and people that you want to press on moral issues and human rights issues hide behind Guantanamo and say don’t lecture us when you have Guantanamo.
Powell also confirmed that Iraq is in the middle of a civil war, and supported Senator Lugar's speech about Iraq, stating "unless [the Iraqis] find a way to resolve their differences politically, then there's no reason to suspect that our continued surge presence is going to make the difference."
So... is it possible that we are finally turning a corner? Has the country finally reached the point where the reality of the Bush regime's depredations are too obvious to avoid? Will we finally start turning back from the direction that the neocons have been taking us?