Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.
So the DC Court of Appeals has determined that Gitmo Detainees Do Not Meet Definition of “Person.” This, mentioned on Democracy Now!, is frightening. In this country where corporations meet the definition of persons, but humans do not is appalling. I don’t care how much you think someone is an enemy, dehumanising them is a step in a dangerous direction, the kind of precedence you don’t want to see.
I repeat this article here for convenience:
The D.C. Court of Appeals has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by four British men who were held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay. The four men had sued former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top military officers for ordering torture and religious abuse. The judges effectively ruled that the detainees are not persons at all for purposes of U.S. law. The court ruling read in part “Because the plaintiffs are aliens and were located outside sovereign United States territory at the time their alleged claim arose, they do not fall with the definition of ‘person.’” The ruling was issued on Friday just as thousands of human rights activists were gathering around the world to protest the sixth anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo.
Well, on one hand, this is OUTRAGEOUS AND STUNNING. On the other hand, it is completely predictable. You ain’t seen nothin yet.
And this is news to you why? Have you been in a coma the last six years?
Alas, I have not been in a coma, and I am aware that the Gitmo detainees have been granted no rights, yet I have not seen that these persons are indeed not persons.
I am quite aware that this is a part of the fabric of the United States (and predecessor countries inside and outside of the trend toward so-called Western Civilisation), as I am aware that women were not considered to be persons, nor indigenous Americans, nor blacks. There is much precedence, I suppose. It is just that when non-persons are called persons and persons are called non-persons, I get confused. Forgive me.