Posted 9/06/2006 05:39:00 PM by Douglas

Just in time for the midterm elections, BushCo brings us the Federal Government's latest hack at outsourcing:

President Bush on Wednesday acknowledged previously secret CIA prisons around the world and said 14 high-value terrorism suspects — including the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks — have been transferred from the system to Guantanamo Bay for trials.

He said a small number of detainees have been kept in CIA custody including people responsible for the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 in Yemen and the 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in addition to the 2001 attacks.

Remember the good ole days when we'd capture, illegally imprison and torture Soviet spies and not even feel the need to make apologies for it? Me neither, but something about this makes me sick. If we need to do this, why the secrecy? But here's the clincher:

Aides said the legislation being introduced on Bush’s behalf later Wednesday on Capitol Hill insists on provisions covering military tribunals that would permit evidence to be withheld from a defendant if necessary to protect classified information.

Folks, this is offensive to kangaroo courts everywhere. Prosecuting people in "court" without making evidence against the defendant available to them? Shit, I could successfully litigate that case: "You're guilty for reasons I can't describe. Any questions? NEXT!"

And I thought this was America. Look, it's bad enough that these people are largely imprisoned for no reason, and even worse that over 100,000 are dead in Afghanistan and Iraq that had nothing to do with 9/11. But this sham trial doesn't validate our system of government over theirs. It destroys it.