The Bush Hangover: Guantanamo Undercuts Our Protests of North Korea

George W. Bush has been out of office for more than four months now, but I fear that the damage done during the Bush years has inflicted serious injury to the American psyche and reputation, and it will take years, if not decades, to recover.

Why am I bringing this up now?

I woke up this morning to the chilling news that two American journalists had been sentenced to 12 years of hard labor by a North Korean court for the "crimes" of illegally entering the country and committing "hostile acts." We can only hope that the reclusive, bizarre and barbaric leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-il (or those working for him), is putting on a show to get the attention of the rest of the world, and the two Current TV reporters, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, will be allowed to return home soon.

The two journalists have clearly committed no crimes (as such a term would be understood in any rational section of the world), and the international community has to stand against the heinous actions of the North Korean government. Clearly, the United States should be at the head of such international action.

But today, I also read about Lakhdar Boumediene, and the truly disturbing story of what happened to him after the 9/11 attacks. An Algerian man living with his wife and two children in Sarajevo, Bosnia, he was working for the Red Crescent in October 2001 when he was arrested and charged with conspiring to blow up the American and British embassies in the city. An investigation revealed no evidence of his involvement in any plot, so a Bosnian judge ordered him released, but the Bush administration intervened, and in January 2002 he was shackled and flown to Guantanamo Bay.

He was the name plaintiff in the 2008 U.S. Supreme Court case that, in a rebuke to the Bush policy, found that detainees had a right to challenge their detention in court, and a federal judge (a Republican appointed by Bush) later found that the evidence against him was a "thin reed" and ordered his release. France agreed to accept him, and he is now living as a free man in that country, reunited with his family.

In the end, Boumediene was held for 7 1/2 years in Guantanamo, during which time, he says, he was tortured. He says he was kept up for 16 days straight, beaten, "stretched" (pulled up from under his arms while his feet were shackled to a chair) and forced to run while chained to guards, and if he could not keep up, he was dragged until he was bloody and bruised. After he began a hunger strike, he had food tubes put up his nose and, he claims, soldiers would purposely poke IV needles into the wrong parts of his arm, just to induce pain. But the one thing that was not done to him? Nobody asked if he was involved in a plot to blow up the U.S. and British embassies in Sarajevo. Rather, all he was repeatedly asked was about his connections to al-Qaeda and Osama bin-Laden (he insists he had no connection at all to the terrorist group).

But there was one thing in the article that not only amazed me but brilliantly illuminated why the U.S. should never torture, and why it is so important that we repudiate what happened during the Bush years and chart a clear and unequivocal new path forward, one that reflects the country's traditional values. Boumediene said:

"I thought America, the big country, they have CIA, FBI. Maybe one week, two weeks, they know I am innocent. I can go back to my home."

In other words, Boumediene had faith that a country like the United States could not possibly keep an innocent man prisoner with no way to contest his guilt. His view of America is one that many in the world shared before the Bush years (as I discussed two weeks ago, an America that believes in democracy, freedom and due process, and an America that does not torture).

That is supposed to be the difference between a country like North Korea and a country like the United States. North Korea can seize two innocent journalists, put them through a bogus, private, star-chamber trial, and then sentence them to 12 years of hard labor, all without any justification. The United States I grew up in, the United States that fought wars from World War I to the Cold War defending democracy and freedom against repression, could never engage in such conduct like the North Koreans did.

And yet, there it is, for all to read, that we took a man like Boumediene and locked him up without a trial for 7 1/2 years, torturing him while in our custody, even though two courts, one in the U.S. and one in Bosnia (one before his detention and one after), found insufficient evidence to charge him with any crime. While we clearly have a more open and democratic society than North Korea does, for Boumediene, his experience with us was no better than what the two American journalists are now going through in North Korea.

That is why it is essential the we, as a country, do not try and brush the abuses of the eight years of the Bush administration under the carpet like they never happened. We have to recognize that Bush, Cheney and the rest of the gang did real damage to core American ideals, and that this damage is still being felt, both at home and abroad.

Simply put, we have to stand up and reclaim our country as a place where we will not be ruled by fear, and where our values of due process, freedom and respect for the rule of law are sacrosanct, not easily sacrificed at the first whiff of danger.

It really is possible. After all, the idea of the U.S. as a beacon of freedom for many in the world is still a powerful one. Boumediene, even after all he went through, said he doesn't blame the American people, but rather just the "stupid" people in command that caused his plight:

"Myself, I try to forget Guantanamo, I can't forget the four or five people, they are stupid, they are very, very stupid. I can't forget them."

He even recognized the fear of the American people and the possibility of making mistakes after a tragedy:

"The first month, okay, no problem, the building, the 11 of September, the people, they are scared, but not 7 years. They can know who's innocent, who's not innocent, who's terrorist, who's not terrorist. ... I give you 2 years, no problem, but not 7 years."

Boumediene's ordeal is also a prime example of the failures of ruling based on fear. He noted about his captivity:

"If I tell my interrogator, I am from Al Qaeda, I saw Osama bin Laden, he was my boss, I help him, they will tell me, 'Oh you are a good man. But if I refuse? I tell them I'm innocent, never was I terrorist, never never, they tell me. 'You are, you are not cooperating, I have to punch you.'"

Think the Bush administration wasn't using fear to change what we as a country would accept and not accept from our government? Two weeks after Boudemiene's arrest, Bush, in his State of the Union address, said:

"Our soldiers, working with the Bosnian government, seized terrorists who were plotting to bomb our embassy."

At best, this shows how wrong it can be to base policies that violate our core values on fear of an attack based on faulty intelligence. At worst, it shows how people like Bush and Cheney can manipulate or invent threats to help push along their agenda. Either way, it can't be the way we, as a country, make policy. We can't rule out of fear. We must rule out of reason. Otherwise, what are we as a nation? We would be no better than the countries we (correctly) criticize and oppose.

So as we all hope for the safety of the two American journalists being held in North Korea, and as we support actions to help secure their release, let us not forget that what makes the United States the country we are all proud to live in is that we stand for the very freedoms not available in North Korea, and that we oppose the kind of abuses that nation is currently perpetuating on two of our innocent citizens.

The next time you see a Republican defend torture or Guantanamo, think of what is going on in North Korea now and what Lakhdar Boumediene went through at Guantanamo, and ask yourself, What kind of country do you want to live in?

Comments

[kimno3]

You think those journalists did not commit any crime? How do you know? You think North Korean soldiers just enter to China and caputre them? It is one thing that if you insist that the trial is bogus, but saying that they commited no cirme shows typical American arrogance. I wonder why those people who are supposed to escape the capture habe remained silence if they did not sneak to North Korea.

By the way its too bad that Mr. Obama sounds more and more like Bush and Neo-cons when it comes to the matter of North Korea.

[bergerkos]

Everyone is reasoning as though those two unfortunate journalists did NOTHING wrong.
Come on, what's wrong with you?
Did they NOT REALIZE what kind of country they were playing tricks with? Was the job itself worth meddling with the legal system of SUCH country?

Frankly, I don't see how I can in good conscience call them "innocent victims".

No, I DON'T like the North Korean regime any more, than other normal people do.
But WHY did those journalists have to act in such silly way, and at such politically "uncomfortable" moment, too???
They acted at their own risk and USA justice seekers cannot help it, I'm afraid. Or it might look an awful lot like US bullying against North Korea, you know. Like a provocation, if you take my meaning.

I don't see how the president can help it here, unless it is by presenting his APOLOGIES to Korea.

[Manuel Fernandez-Cabrero]

Wow how far can you reach to blame Bush. The big difference is that during the bush years these two journalists would have gotten away with a lot before the North Koreans would have dared to even hackle them. Since we have such a fake and posturing president what we get back is the Highway Sign from the leadership in rogue countries like N. Korea and Iran. This episode is more about the weakness of a president rather than the foreign policies of its predecessor.
Besides if Guantanamo is such a mistake answer the following;
Why are the prisoners still there?
Why are the prisoners not released "without any preconditions" (our WH occupant likes that clause) back to their countries of origin?
Why are we creating another Guantanamo in the Pacific to house these poor victims?
What are we still doing in the Middle East?
Looks like the demagogues (democ-rats) found out is easier to promise the Moon than to deliver it.

[corte33]

Obama didn't promise a U-turn in foreign policy. Some Americans are still asleep, and you have to wake them gently, or they get upset. Like Plato's Allegory of the Cave, Americans are still mistaking Bush fabrications for reality. What is GITMO all about, besides the cowardice of the disgusting Bush administration?

[corte33]

True, Bush and his gang of thugs makes North Korea look like a day school camp. Remember, Germany had a great cultural tradition until the Third Reich. At least, the Nazis were trying to rid their country of Communism. What was Bush's excuse? We know 9/11 was not the reason for invading Iraq.
Bush and his cronies hurt our country beyond measure. All for oil and money. And we have the nerve to ask other countries to pick up our dog poop. We have plenty of prisons in our country housing inmates for trivial reasons. I'm sure we can find 200 spare beds!

[bighat]

Makes one wonder why Obama is staying in Iraq. Oil, money, stock in Haliburton. BTW what happended to the rigid time table of bring the troops home

[corte33]

Obama is trying to pull out without invoking the wrath of red necks, war mongers, and defense contractors. Moreover, they'll call Obama pro-Muslim, and we don't want that.

[Terribleblodge]

Prosecution of the war crime committed by the Bush administration are essential to restoring the Rule of Law to America. Only THEN can we again look North Korea in the face and say "you are bad".

[Wake-up]

You must be insane... to compare ole Kim to anything here in our 100+ years of history is insane.

[bighat]

terrible, are you running for congress.

[bighat]

terrible you are very strange. FDR put japanese americans into interment camps but we still decided to fight WWII and win. Seems the last time we used all of our power to win but we did.

Since we did this terrible deed should we surrender to Japan, Germany.

[janmarina]

Persons are abused in U.S prisons,nursing homes,and mental care facilities every minute of every day.No one should have to suffer from false imprisonment,but it happens.Remember "Hurricane?"These woman took a very gutsy risk,but they must have been aware of that risk at the time.Let's get past the blame Bush game.-----­Please?--I­t's getting old,as is he.

[bighat]

Liberals do not care how people are treated in health care facilities. They just want them to be affordable for every american so we can be abused equally

[Glenna Jones-Kachtik]

I have grown so tired of liberals only.... or conservatives are... That is such BS! There are liberals who every day put their A** on the line for conservatives and conservatives who do the same for liberals. I AM A LIBERAL. I CARE HOW PEOPLE ARE TREATED PERIOD. People deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. If you were elderly and in a nursing home and I found out you were being mistreated - I wouldn't care if you were rich or poor - I would stand toe to toe to make sure that your abuse was not continued. I have seen conservative friends who would react the same way. No one stands for equal abuse - equal treatment whether you are rich or poor, perhaps.
Yours was a snotty comment and is all to often the type of dead end comment made in America in the time of Us vs Them. Because you denigrate anyone who does not think like you, conversations don't even get started. We better start talking and listening to each other. Because, like it or not we are all in the boat together & to survive it is going to take all the thinking people we can muster together.

[langej]

The problem is that the system established under the previous admnistration did not really have a procedural way to find that an "enemy combatant" was not actually an enemy combatant. Thus Mr Boumediene became locked in a Kafka-esque bureaucracy that ground onward without check or control.

The major hangover stems from the initial refusal to grant Geneva Convention rights to enemy combatants. Access by the Red Cross or similar independent agencies might have provided the check that got Mr Boumediene fairer treatment and early release.

This initial refusal -and the over-inclusive use of the term "enemy combatbant" - is also the reason that people are now up in arms about folk being held "without a trial - not convicted of any crime." Remember that it is not a crime to fight for the other side in a war and that trials are not necessary to hold prisoners of war.

Unfortunately, we now have a situation where people (like Mr Boumediene) who were swept up for being in the wrong place at the wrong time are concatenated with soldiers who joined up to fight for our enemies. Military Tribunals were a device invented to deal with this stupid concatenation.

Just as it was a heinous nonsense to hold Mr Boumediene, it would be an equally heinous nonsense to release enemy soldiers as the result of anything but the cessation of hostilities or as part of a prisoner exchange.

[Hemihead]

Comparing Gitmo, where terrorists are held, provided with medical care, food and housing, with North Korean Gulags, where innocent dissidents are forced to hard labor, underfed, and provided little if any medical care pretty much discredits this argument.

[youngat80]

I agree that to us Americans, the comparison between Gitmo and North Korean Gulags is not valid. But North Korea does not make such comparisons. Neither does North Korea allow any visits or inspections or information exchanges.

[timmyt]

youngat80.....what point are you trying to make?

[RudyV]

So the place is like Club Med? Heck, sign me up!

[Glenna Jones-Kachtik]

I invite you to watch Torturing Democracy.

These "innocent dissidents" @ Gitmo are shackled to the floor so they are in a squating position; or they are hung by their wrists just near the floor so that their arms come out of their sockets. They alternately are bombarded with strobe lights or flood lights or they are in total blackness. Music blares into their cells or they are kept awake for hours at a time. They are waterboarded, slammed into walls...yes, medical care is given to them - so they don't die and they are fed foods that sometimes they are forbidden to Muslims.

Just because N Korea is a hell hole, does not mean that the US should be excused for mistreating prisoners - most of whom were not part of Al Queda, nor even terrorists. We kept this man for 7 and a half years. This innocent man! I imagine that even he would have preferred hard labor, poor medical care and less food & housing compared to the torture he received at the hands of "the land of the free & the home of the brave. We are supposed to be better than this.

[msn04061960]

North Korea has in the past and will continue to take Americans prisoner, put them on trial, show trial only, and then negotiate for their return. It has nothing to do with the Bush administration. Anybody who would write anything like that and believe it does not know the history of North Korea and their little games. As for that poor unfortunate from Serbia, I agree what happened to him is wrong, our government should never interfere with internal problems with other nations. He should be released and given compensation and an apology for everything our country did to him.

[skatoolaki]

Mitchell isn't saying the journalists' imprisonment is because of the Bush administration. Rather, he is pointing out the hypocrisy in Bush & Co's policies and courses of action by using the imprisonment of Boumediene to show that - during Bush's reign - we acted no better than North Korea is acting now.

[RudyV]

Even simpler:

Mr. Pot, have you met Mr. Kettle?

[Irishman40]

I see so it makes no difference who the subject of the apprehensions are? Capturing terrorists and holding them without trial is morally equivalent to incarcerating journalists?

In what universe?

[texasteph12570]

so when we are at war we should not detain suspects? during ww2 we had over 175 detention camps in the us and as i understand we did not allow those held there access to our court system. but we should now? these people are not citizens therefore not afforded the rights guaranteed by our constitution. they were captured during wartime and it is unfortunate if some innocents are caught up in the system, but as with the uighurs, if they are so innocent what were they doing in an al queda training camp? congress passed a law to allow the military to deal with them.

liberals, hard on fetuses and responsibility, soft on terrorists and reason.

oh and why cant we just send them to their home countries? oh yea because they will torture them for sure. wake up sheeple. more journalists have been waterboarded than terrorists.

[prankin]

Absolutely correct - the U.S. is the moral equivalent of North Korea. I recall just a few years ago, in fact - I believe it was during the Bush administration - when we suspended all rights for our population, deprived them of food, and eliminated the free press. I recall when we eliminated elections and our leaders jailed and killed their political opposition. Boy, those were the salad days, eh?

PWR

[daffey]

For a minute I thought you were serious! But that's because I actually hear folks saying that (nothing new, I had a professor in the late 80s say that America was no different than Nazi Germany). I don't know if that's where the article is going, though. I think it is raising a fair concern that if we deliberately cross certain lines, it can impede our moral high ground. Not that we have to be perfect, or even if our bad actions eliminate our ability to raise concerns about others. And while I don't think the article is necessarily correct, I didn't see an "America = N. Korea" take in it. But that might just be me.

[daffey]

Not really. We were wrong to use torture, that much I agree. And yes, the move to use torture and throw out much of the Geneva Convention certainly hurt, but it was just the logical progression of a country that had only a presidency before that said character and morals don’t matter (only money does). Still, I see your point. Nonetheless, Americans would do well to understand while there is the ‘let him without sin cast the first stone’ principle, there is also a clear understanding of right and wrong, and threats and danger. I may not be perfect, but as flawed as I am, I can shield my kids from a known child predator, tell them why I’m doing it, and not feel the sting of hypocrisy. Same here. We were wrong regarding torture, but that should never make us believe we still can’t stand up and say a country posing a clear threat to peace, the well-being of others, and the safety of ourselves isn’t wrong and must cease and desist.

[Irishman40]

We did not throw out the Geneva conventions and we did not torture.

The Terrorists do not qualify for any of the protections listed in the conventions because they do not fall under any of the protected categories. They aren't POWs and they arent innocent civilians. Look at my comments on page 6 of this commentary. I go into detail there about why they dont qualify.

I've also posted in numererous other spots why the actions performed by the CIA do not qualify as torture

[bighat]

Al Gore sent these 2 women to NKorea. Why is there no mention of this in the article. What is Mr Gore's endgame sending 2 women to the most dangerous country on earth.

Why is the media not covering Al's every move. Sending 2 women journalists to NKorea is not news. This should have been the headline

[ladybug7]

He did not send them to N. Korea. They were sent to China to research N. Korean refugees and apparently unknowingly wandered across the border. That is my understanding. I heard tonight that Gore is standing by to offer any help he can to try to get the reporters back.

[bighat]

I have no idea if you are right or wrong ladybug. Is there no border signs or anything to tell one you are entering NKorea. Or can you just be wondering around and then NKorea police snatch you?

[joemailman1]

When all of the comparisons have been made....when all of the accusations have been declared....when all or most Americans have looked for justice....the fact remains that at least half the people of this country voted for the most ignorant, arrogant, pompous asses ever assembled. The so-called opposition was equally stupid as they were obviously either not interested in winning the elections or they were complicit. Never in American history has such an ignorant body of people assembled to run for the highest office in the nation and never before in history, given the education of the people that make up the population of Americans, have the people of this nation given them everything they want and need, willingly and with great enthusiasm. It is no wonder then that these kinds of things happen when citizens are so ignorant as to believe their government via the encouragement of the officials who were elected to serve.

The intellect of the American people, as is made evident by their education standing on the world stage, is so deficient as to make the future of this nation very precarious and dangerously in peril.

[Pupadup4oBama]

I like your comment....however, I DO believe we are finally on the right track.
Keep hope alive!

[bighat]

Somehow, we have to find good people to run. Not people who have spent their lives in govt. The best people have made mistakes because they have taken risks. The media wants to destroy their liven and their families. We have too many attorneys in congress. For some reasom the media or the people think if a person has worked in high tech or oil or Chrysler than all that person will do is to help their own industry.

Yes, the monster is of our own making. And the public loves scandals and hate ads.

Until some brave man or woman steps up our nation will crumble. It has already started.

Voting for anyone but the incumbent would be the best thing we could do. Does not matter if you are diehard dem or repub make sure the incumbent is opposed in their own party if need be.

People spending 2/3rd of their life in congress and living to be 100 is a big problem.

[lilian101]

I'm sure that the journalists must be utterly innocent and naive and all that, but since the North Koreans did 'seize them' I presume that the North Koreans seized them in North Korean territory.
If a Bolivian commits a crime in the US that is not a crime in Bolivia, then the totally innocent Bolivian is prosecuted for an innocent act. Seems that there must be something missin from these totally innocent naive little girls who were seized by the North Koreans.
They must have had good pay benefits to risk imprisonment for a story.

[Carrie-On]

lilian101, I agree and thought that myself from the beginning - not to blame the victims; however, we have no information about the actual point of arrest, do we. I don't believe N. Korea's leadership - simple, simplistic Barbarians, that haven't a modicum of ethics in their blood, IMHO. That being said, that isn't an isolated nation by any means, and China's right in there helping them.

However, we do have a serious problem of credibility in America. We permit our children to be abuse in public schools, here - "disciple" reigns to the point that by the time many students in the U.S. reach high school they've given up.

Need we point out more egg on our faces?

[bighat]

Carrie-on

please expand on your meaning of abuse in public schools and disciple and what makes students give up.

I really would like to understand your meaning. I have read your statement a number of times and it confuses me.