HELIOLITH

Most of us have an aversion to sad news. It’s not easy reading sad stuff, but some things I feel are simply unethical not to re-publish. Take what you will, leave the rest.

Prisoners in a detention center for immigrants in Queens, New York recently began a hunger strike to protest their being held inhumanely without rights. Read the NY Daily News editorial.

From Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now comes this statement:

According to a press release issued by Khan: “None of the prisoners currently being held at Wackenhut Detention Center have any terrorism related or other criminal charges against them. Yet, they are locked for 23 hours per day and several have been there for close to a year or more. These detainees were picked up in the aftermath of 9.11 and have been held without criminal charge or due process, and in some cases, without access to a lawyer or access to appropriate food and medical healthcare. Several of the detainees are married to US citizens.”

Why is this legal? WHY? Or is it legal even?
Does it seem to you that the law (ie. the Constitution) is scant refuge lately?

The prisoners in this prison/gulag/sweatshop (they’re paid $1/day for labor) aren’t even suspects in our infamous war on terror. Could it be they are victims of racial profiling? Evidence of domestic racial-profiling in this article from “The Next American City” clearly answers yes.

WHAT THE HECK is going on with justice in the USA? You might not find a more reptuable or well written answer than this Amnesty International report on the “Deepening stain on US Justice” which is disheartening to say the least. Nevermind fair trial, nevermind innocent until proven guilty; this report gives ample evidence that the U.S. has gone way off-track on its war-path. But far be it for the media to uncloud our eyes to the truth; valuable glimpses alternate with frightening versions of a distorted make-believe world we have created for ourselves.

The by-line for the recent documentary, “Orwell Rolls in his Grave” puts it well: “1984 is no longer a date in the future.”

Want a more positive ending? Go subscribe to Amnesty International’s Urgent Action Network with options for alerts once, twice, four, or eight times a month. That’s how I’m coping.

tip via Xeni @ Boing Boing