Ten years ago today, the first 20 prisoners, or detainees as they are now known, arrived at the US base at Guantanamo Bay. Over the course of 10 years, that prison has held 779 “enemy combatants”. Labeled thusly, they were somehow allowed to be held indefinitely and without charges.
Today, 171 detainees remain. Nearly half of them have been cleared for release, but there are no plans to release them. President Obama, by signing the NDAA on Dec. 31, 2011, has made this indefinite detention the law of the land. The United States now legally can hold these prisoners – many of which have done nothing to merit their imprisonment – indefinitely.
This morning on the show, I discussed the legacy of Guantanamo Bay from its past to its shameful present with Jason Leopold, who has been writing about Gitmo for Truthout.org.
“It Was a Sunny Day,” published this morning, recounts the opening of Guantanamo Bay as hell on earth, as told to Jason by then-Gitmo guard Brandon Neely, who was there as the first prisoners arrived.
I also invited Tim Karr of FreePress.net to come on the show this morning to talk about something the corporate media is ignoring – SOPA and its companion bill in the senate, PIPA. The reason you won’t hear about these bills that could and would change the internet as we know it is because they – the major media companies – are in favor of their passage. We will continue talking about online censorship here, and doing all we can to stop these horrendous bills from going through.
January 20 marks the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizen Untied that allows for unlimited personal and corporate donations to political groups and, indirectly, candidates. That ruling has given way to this hit piece about Mitt Romney by Newt Gingrich (err, indirectly). It’s a 27.5 minute film (as Newt explained – though he really knows nothing about it)… Here’s the trailer:
Although I enjoy watching the Republicans destroy on another, the entire notion of unfettered campaign contributions is simply wrong.
Lee Camp put together a great video to help spread the word about the importance of overturning Citizens United… Enjoy and please share: