2008 Woodie Awards
Black Sites
Issue date: 9/13/06 Section: Opinion
Our country has changed significantly since 9/11. The emotional chaos that gripped our country
following that fateful day can still be felt
reverberating across these United States. New Yorkers still cringe at the empty skyline left by the towers fall and two bloody wars have been waged as a result. However, what darkens America's light most of all is not that which has been previously stated. Not to negate their importance, no, this is not our aim. It is the instatement of the CIA's "black sites," secret prisons operated under the radar in unnamed
foreign nations.
On September 7, President George Bush announced to the world what many already knew. The CIA has been capturing and detaining terrorism suspects all over the world. According to a Washington Post article released in November of last year, Canada, Italy, France, Sweden and the Netherlands have begun inquiries into the CIA's alleged operations where the intelligence agency has captured and detained several of these countries'
citizens and legal residents.
The battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq have also supposedly given up hundreds of these detainees. They are held without due process of law. Most of the time they are not even allowed to know the charges against them or face their accusers, they exist in a legal black hole.
It is understandable that America's justice system is working overtime to keep these Islamo-fascists from successfully laying another attack at our doorstep. But the means by which we are acquiring the information we need to achieve this paints a darker picture of the already widely distrusted CIA. Snatching people in the middle of the night and whisking them away to be secret prisoners is not the right path to be on. The ACLU and other organizations have made a very public outcry against these prisons.
Though Bush maintains that he does not condone the use of torture, there have been incidents where this line has been skewed by illicit
definitions. The Department of Defense and the FBI's own doctrines forbid the use of torture, the CIA is not so clear on these issues.
following that fateful day can still be felt
reverberating across these United States. New Yorkers still cringe at the empty skyline left by the towers fall and two bloody wars have been waged as a result. However, what darkens America's light most of all is not that which has been previously stated. Not to negate their importance, no, this is not our aim. It is the instatement of the CIA's "black sites," secret prisons operated under the radar in unnamed
foreign nations.
On September 7, President George Bush announced to the world what many already knew. The CIA has been capturing and detaining terrorism suspects all over the world. According to a Washington Post article released in November of last year, Canada, Italy, France, Sweden and the Netherlands have begun inquiries into the CIA's alleged operations where the intelligence agency has captured and detained several of these countries'
citizens and legal residents.
The battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq have also supposedly given up hundreds of these detainees. They are held without due process of law. Most of the time they are not even allowed to know the charges against them or face their accusers, they exist in a legal black hole.
It is understandable that America's justice system is working overtime to keep these Islamo-fascists from successfully laying another attack at our doorstep. But the means by which we are acquiring the information we need to achieve this paints a darker picture of the already widely distrusted CIA. Snatching people in the middle of the night and whisking them away to be secret prisoners is not the right path to be on. The ACLU and other organizations have made a very public outcry against these prisons.
Though Bush maintains that he does not condone the use of torture, there have been incidents where this line has been skewed by illicit
definitions. The Department of Defense and the FBI's own doctrines forbid the use of torture, the CIA is not so clear on these issues.
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