The Problem with Bagram

"The Obama Administration is inheriting not so much a shrinking Guantánamo as an expanding Bagram."     ~Tina Foster, executive director of the International Justice Network

Bagram Air Force Base lies 40 miles north of Kabul, Afghanistan. It currently holds 670 detainees, more than 2.5 times the amount currently at Guantánamo Bay. And these detainees are being held without a trial, without any charges, and without an end.

The Bush Justice Department, in response to human rights groups bringing the case to the Federal District Court, said this in a filing for the court:

Federal courts should not thrust themselves into the extraordinary role of reviewing the military's conduct of active hostilities overseas, second-guessing the military's determination as to which captured aliens as part of such hostilities should be detained, and in practical effect, superintending the Executive's conduct in waging a war...

Given the ongoing war, there is every reason to believe that our military mission in Afghanistan would be compromised if the writ [of habeas corpus] is extended to Bagram. To provide alien enemy combatants detained in a theater of war the privilege of access to our civil courts is unthinkable both legally and practically.

Maybe the Bagram detainees don't legally have access to civilian courts, but the military mission in Afghanistan would hardly be compromised by providing them basic rights. We cannot win the "war on terror" by abandoning our democratic principles. Imagine the fear and anger we would be instilling into the very "hearts and minds" that we are supposed to be winning if we could just disappear innocent people in such an Orwellian fashion.

We must try to improve the lives, the economies, and the governments of the Middle East if we are to prevent the root causes of terrorism. We should either charge or release the detainees. Those who are charged should be tried in local courts. If there is a problem with the local courts, we should attempt to improve them or try them in military courts, preferably both.

And now, I leave you with a quote:

"Sometimes a democracy must fight with one hand tied behind its back. Nevertheless, it has the upper hand."     ~Aharon Barak, former President of the Israeli Supreme Court

Winds of Change?

Oscar Grant, a 22 year old man and father of a four-year-old daughter, went out to celebrate the New Year's like millions of others across the globe. The difference between Oscar and everyone else is that Oscar was shot in the back and killed by a Bay Area police officer while lying handcuffed, face down on the platform of a BART metro. He died in the early morning hours of January 1st, 2009.

While raw footage and eye-witness accounts of the shooting point towards the officer murdering Grant, BART authorities are still investigating the shooting:

There has been speculation that Mehserle [the officer who shot and killed Grant] may have believed he was reaching for his Taser to stun Grant rather than reaching for his gun to shoot him. To Burris [civil rights attorney for the family of Oscar Grant] such a distinction is not that important.

"If the officer had a Taser and he thought he was pulling it, to me that's still a criminal act," Burris said. "It means you're negligent, as opposed to knowing you pulled your gun." That, he said, would be "murder."

"I don't want to believe that an officer would just kill someone this way," said Burris, who called on BART officials to say whether Mehserle carried a Taser. "On the other hand, I'm not going to disbelieve my eyes either."

Grant had been celebrating New Year's Eve in San Francisco and was heading back to his East Bay home on a BART train when a fight broke out between two groups of riders about 2 a.m.

BART police met the train at Oakland's Fruitvale station and ordered passengers -- including Grant -- onto the platform.

Video taken by spectators with cellphones shows a chaotic scene, with uniformed officers pulling riders out of a train and then shoving one man onto the ground. While that man is face down, an officer stands over him, pulls his gun and shoots...

...According to the claim filed Tuesday, Grant was unarmed "and offered no physical resistance" to BART officers.

Here is the video of the shooting. Please be cautious, as the video could disturb some viewers.

The family of Oscar Grant is currently filing a $25 million dollar wrongful death lawsuit against the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency. For more information, please click here to view the article by the LA Times.

For updates, please click here.