Rummy kicks the media out of Gitmo

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 11:24 AM on June 14, 2006.

A few moments ago on the Al Franken Show, Jim Norton, author of "Saving General Washington: The Right Wing Assault on America’s Founding Principles," talked about Gitmo as a not only a violation of all that is ethical and decent but as an egregious violation of American principles.

"Anti-American" was the word he used. As in: "[an] extraordinarily un-American veil of secrecy..."

It allows two-bit dictators to brush off criticism ("America's doing it!"), weakens our standing in the world (see today's PEW study on our declining popularity), and endangers Americans captured in battle.

Norton, whose book attempts to take the Founding Fathers back from the distortions of mean-spirited ideologues like Antonin Scalia, wrote this in the Christian Science Monitor, about George Washington's reaction to the brutal treatment of Americans captured by the British:

Eight days later, despite threatening to treat British soldiers with equal cruelty, Washington admitted that he could not and would not retaliate in kind, writing: "Not only your Officers, and Soldiers have been treated with a Tenderness due to Fellow Citizens, & Brethren; but even those execrable Parricides [traitors] whose Counsels & Aid have deluged their Country with Blood, have been protected from the Fury of a justly enraged People."

And just to put the icing on the cake of un-American-ism, Rumsfeld arrives. The Failure. The man who never served. Rumsfeld, according to the Center for Constitutional Rights, "[expelled] all reporters... from Guantánamo Naval Base" this morning, "rescinding an invitation from the admiral in charge of the prison to cover the recent deaths of three detainees."

Now, apologists and those who simply trust that these men are guilty (despite the idiocy of some of the government's assertions, like the Casio Condemnation and others you absolutely must see to believe, HERE) will undoubtedly rationalize this maneuver as some sort of national security mumbo jumbo, but this is actually an assault on the free flow of information that violates the rights of the people, the press and the offends the core principles of the U.S.

Truly ironic too, given the absolute bucket of BS peddled by Ken "you're the guy who has to spray perfume on these turds" Mehlman, RNC chairman and Jon Stewart whipping boy, last night.

As Stewart batted him about, like a cat with a doomed mouse, Mehlman laid a whopper even he had to laugh about. Namely, that the administration is being open. Good timing. Again.

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Evan Derkacz is a New York-based writer and contributor to AlterNet.