How much effort to write to your Senator?

November 14, 2005 2:21 PM

Adel is innocent. I don't mean he claims to be. I mean the military says so. It held a secret tribunal and ruled that he is not al Qaeda, not Taliban, not a terrorist. The whole thing was a mistake: The Pentagon paid $5,000 to a bounty hunter, and it got taken. The military people reached this conclusion, and they wrote it down on a memo, and then they classified the memo and Adel went from the hearing room back to his prison cell. He is a prisoner today, eight months later.
posted by dash_slot- (46 comments total)

Via the best new blog I discovered this year: Firedoglake.

What happened to the America the world fell in love with?
posted by dash_slot- at 2:23 PM on November 14, 2005

What happened to the America the world could freaking tolerate?
posted by Malor at 2:25 PM on November 14, 2005

Dark days.
posted by squirrel at 2:27 PM on November 14, 2005

Fortunately, he is almost certainly the only innocent to be hurt by this magnificent and just war.
posted by maxsparber at 2:30 PM on November 14, 2005

Well I have a new hero. P. Sabin Willett, thank you for doing your best. Sometimes it feels like you're playing tennis against a wall, but even walls have been known to come crashing down.
posted by allen.spaulding at 2:34 PM on November 14, 2005

The Defense Department says it is trying to arrange for a country to take him -- some country other than his native communist China, where Muslims like Adel are routinely tortured. It has been saying this for more than two years. But the rest of the world is not rushing to aid the Bush administration, and meanwhile Adel is about to pass his fourth anniversary in a U.S. prison.

posted by smackfu at 2:34 PM on November 14, 2005

Why not give him refugee status in the US? After what he's been through, it's the least they could fucking do.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 2:38 PM on November 14, 2005

I wonder when I'm gonna bottom out about how I feel about my country...
posted by dig_duggler at 2:39 PM on November 14, 2005

I'm going to have to show this article to my Uighur friend. Thanks for posting this dash_slot.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 2:41 PM on November 14, 2005

Jesus. I thought I was inured to this shit, but... I guess I was wrong.

Thanks for posting it, even if it's ruined my digestion.
posted by languagehat at 2:43 PM on November 14, 2005

smackfu:
I guess that if - if - it is not possible to return him to the bosom of his family, from which the bounty hunter presumably removed him, how about the US government make restitution by, oh, I dunno, releasing him from prison? Providing him with a pension? Housing him (as they are doing anyway)? Taking some responsibility for what they hath wrought, ffs?
posted by dash_slot- at 2:43 PM on November 14, 2005

I was just reading the comments on this over at Kevin Drum's site. I really think crap like this is doing irreparable harm to American reputation abroad. And at the end of the day, that's going to have some real consequences...
posted by teece at 2:47 PM on November 14, 2005

Why not give him refugee status in the US? After what he's been through, it's the least they could fucking do.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 8:38 AM AEST on November 15 [!]

That would mean his story would get out. He would talk about the conditions in Gitmo.

Somehow, I don't think the people holding his key want that.
posted by spazzm at 2:55 PM on November 14, 2005

Sadly, there is no email link at the US Embassy here in the UK, so could 1 extra person protest on my behalf to their senator?

This makes the US government on a par with the Chinese government, the Soviet government and the other one which always derails threads but we don't need to mention.

However, more and more the words of Niemoller come to mind, and might best be borne in mind by citizens of the US.
posted by dash_slot- at 2:57 PM on November 14, 2005

Horrifying. Will we ever undo the damage this administration has done to our country and our reputation?
posted by Outlawyr at 2:59 PM on November 14, 2005

Great post and a very good blog to bookmark.

I really never thought that we'd have to argue for habias corpus in the U.S.
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 3:01 PM on November 14, 2005

You can’t free a man simply because he’s innocent.
Who was it that said people will fear the death penalty even more if you kill innocent people (with the eye toward crime prevention)?

Yeah, so, like that. Lousy terrorists. *scoffs*

I’m exceedingly ignorant when it comes to specifics in law, but couldn’t a judge demand his release?
I’m not sure how a bench warrent would be served in Gitmo, but....
posted by Smedleyman at 3:15 PM on November 14, 2005

5 grand? What is that, the smallest Pentagon payout this year?
posted by telstar at 3:17 PM on November 14, 2005

The h.c. revoking measure passed only because it received support from five Democrats: Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Ron Wyden of Oregon.

If these villains represent your district, remember their names with their deeds come 2006.
posted by squirrel at 3:25 PM on November 14, 2005

This is excellent: Why Habeas Review Matters. Thanks, dash_slot-.
posted by homunculus at 3:26 PM on November 14, 2005

Editorials Opposing the Graham Amendment
posted by homunculus at 3:44 PM on November 14, 2005

If "Tricky" Dick Cheney has his way, Adel will be eligible for free torture!
posted by clevershark at 4:45 PM on November 14, 2005

Disgusting.

Spazzm has nailed it: one suspects that the authorities are waiting for the furore to die down before releasing him - under strict surveillance - and ensuring that nobody is able to talk to him. We're still lacking that one credible eyewitness who is able to tell us exactly what goes on in there.
posted by blag at 5:06 PM on November 14, 2005

Sucks for Adel!
posted by b_thinky at 5:19 PM on November 14, 2005

The Pentagon paid $5,000 to a bounty hunter, and it got taken.

Good thing it stopped there, and wasn't passed on to the taxpayers.

Could we PLEASE, from now on, always speak in terms of TAXPAYERS' MONEY, not government money, even for other programs and expenditures we might happen to like? It would be more intellectually honest, don'cha think?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 5:41 PM on November 14, 2005

Is that what you're most outraged by, ZenMasterThis?
posted by dash_slot- at 5:42 PM on November 14, 2005

America does something reprehensible. Shocking and without precedent.
Seriously, aren't you guys used to this yet?
posted by nightchrome at 5:49 PM on November 14, 2005

Sucks for Adel!
posted by b_thinky at 1:19 AM GMT on November 15 [!]

It'll suck for you too, should your government feel it can detain you for no good reason, for a time without end, far from home. I'm surprised you have so little imagination that you cannot see yourself in Adel's shoes.

It couldn't happen here? It already is.
posted by dash_slot- at 5:58 PM on November 14, 2005

PS:
Current front page of the US Embassy site in the UK - "Rule of Law Is Key to Advancing Democracy, Rice Says" ... Governments must support and promote the rule of law in their countries if democracy and freedom are to take hold, according to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

What's the appropriate emoticon for 'sick joke'?
posted by dash_slot- at 6:01 PM on November 14, 2005

In the not so distant past, Free Adel! would have become the rallying cry for ending a policy that is clearly unjust. Where is freeadel.com? What happened to all the Americans who used to speak in favor of political prisoners in other countries? I don't recognize this country anymore. Shame on you! Shame on us!
posted by miguelbar at 6:40 PM on November 14, 2005

dash_slot, while we're being snarky at people's little throwaway lines, I'll pick you up on "What happened to the America the world fell in love with?".

Never actually happened. You may have been told about it in school, but it wasn't ever true.
posted by wilful at 7:08 PM on November 14, 2005

What happened to the America the world fell in love with?

The world didn't fall in love. It just told America that to get her into bed.
posted by Hildegarde at 7:43 PM on November 14, 2005

Thanks for posting this - I wrote my senator tonight.
posted by Staggering Jack at 7:49 PM on November 14, 2005

Holy shit. I am at a complete loss for words. Win the war on terror by overturning one of the foundations of the US Constitution? I am so mad i could spit. Roll call
posted by rxreed at 8:02 PM on November 14, 2005

God damn it, what the hell is wrong with the people that let this happen?

I really try not to be disgusted when I think of America, but it's a losing battle these days.
posted by WinnipegDragon at 8:10 PM on November 14, 2005

Absolutely horrifying. Where's the fucking outrage?
posted by leftcoastbob at 8:23 PM on November 14, 2005

Where's the fucking outrage?

All over the internet. And pretty much nowhere else.
posted by nightchrome at 9:29 PM on November 14, 2005

Gosh, where could we send the guy? No one will take him. I mean, it's not like the rest of the world is rushing to help the Bush administration or anything!

"...Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Oh yeah, right.
posted by moonbiter at 10:33 PM on November 14, 2005

Why does Emma Lazarus hate America?
posted by alumshubby at 6:23 AM on November 15, 2005

The h.c. revoking measure passed only because it received support from five Democrats: Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Ron Wyden of Oregon.

If these villains represent your district, remember their names with their deeds come 2006.

At least in Lieberman's case, he hasn't been a Democrat for quite a long time. He wears that title because the Dems in his area (in which I lived for 8 years) are completely fooling themselves into believing they have anything to do with the party. The Republicans in that area (SW Connecticut) are just as bad, but at least they're honest with their greed and selfishness.

I now live in Wisconsin. Thank god for that.
posted by thanotopsis at 6:56 AM on November 15, 2005

When will this be on CNN? Fuck, I wish this ends up on the CBC. Or the BBC. This is important news. America is fucking evil.

Only habeas corpus revealed that it wasn't just Adel who was innocent -- it was Abu Bakker and Ahmet and Ayoub and Zakerjain and Sadiq -- all Guantanamo "terrorists" whom the military has found innocent.

posted by chunking express at 7:50 AM on November 15, 2005

If I were in his position, and I didn't want to hurt America before, I certainly would now.

Good job, government - that's the way to eliminate the motivation for terrorism. By letting innocents rot in prison for four years on ethnically motivated charges. He may not have hated us before, but I guarantee he does now.
posted by chundo at 8:32 AM on November 15, 2005

Myths About the Graham Habeas Amendment
posted by homunculus at 9:52 AM on November 15, 2005

This is really fucked up.

If I were in his position, and I didn't want to hurt America before, I certainly would now.

A very good point.

The only part of this that is heartening is that one of these secret military tribunals did find someone innocent (and that the tribunals don't just bow to whatever would be easiest for the government). Of course, that means zilch if their decisions aren't acted upon!
posted by Marquis at 11:32 AM on November 15, 2005

350 Law Profs Write in Opposition to Graham Amendment
posted by homunculus at 11:55 AM on November 15, 2005

chundo: If I were in his position, and I didn't want to hurt America before, I certainly would now.

Hell, it's getting to the point I'd practically pay for his lapdances and his plane ticket myself!
posted by hincandenza at 5:19 PM on November 15, 2005