Secret CIA Prisons

OK folks - who thinks this is ok?

The CIA, under the direction of the Bush Administration, is operating secret prisons in foreign countries. We, the American people, aren't supposed to know they actually exist. We're not going to be told where they are or who's in them. We don't know what goes on there. Neither do Congressional Democrats. (Apparently Cheney briefed a few Republicans in a closed door session, but Dems are clearly not on the "need to know" list.)

This is for our security, you understand. No doubt you are feeling more secure in the knowledge that undisclosed CIA operatives are holding undisclosed prisoners in undisclosed locations for undisclosed reasons.

So hold the bus. I thought this was the kind of shit that BAD countries did. I thought countries run by EVIL CRETINS, like Russia and China and Cambodia and Syria and Burma locked people in secret gulags where they were not charged with any crime and never heard from again. I thought Americans believed in people's right to a fair trial. I thought we were signatories of the various Geneva Conventions and that we actually subscribed to and upheld the humanitarian principles they described. I thought one big difference between civilized societies and FUCKING-LUNATIC-DEPRAVED-BLOODTHIRSTY-FOUL-SMELLING-BABY-EATING BARBARIANS was that the latter tortured people in secret prisons and the former did not. Seriously, that's what I thought, fool that I was.

I also thought we had checks and balances written into our Constitution that existed to prevent any one branch of government from becoming so powerful that it could actually do stuff like this and get away with it. But let's go to the videotape. In the aftermath of 9/11, the Congress, which holds the sole Constitutional power to declare war, signed off its responsibility in this regard to President George Chimpanzee Bush. In other words, it abdicated its authority, and in so doing it removed one of the most important checks over the Executive Branch. And this is the guy who Congress gave all the war juice to, right here:

They just said - "Here's a boatload of money Mr. President. We're pretty much scared shitless over this whole terrorist thing, so if you need to declare war on some A-Rabs, you just go ahead - no need to check with us first." So now, he doesn't just have the steering wheel - he's got the brakes AND the throttle AND the gearshift too. He is in total control and when the Cheneysfeldowitz hydra told him it needed to set up some secret Auschwitz in Siberia, they just went ahead and did it. What the hell.

Now you gotta ask yourself. Why do we need secret prisons on foreign soil? (Jeopardy music.)

What is.... - Because it's illegal under US law and under the Geneva Conventions to torture detainees on US soil, but it's not necessarily illegal to do it in some frozen snake pit in the middle of the Ukraine?

Right. Now for the daily double: - Why does the Bush administration want to veto the anti-torture bill? Because it would make torturing anybody anywhere illegal under US law. Damn. That would mess things up, wouldn't it? So if Congress wants to get its credibility back, and at least get a foot on the brake pedal before Wonder Boy drives us all over a cliff, it had better override the veto.

I don't know what scares me more, that the US is doing this, or that the people of this country are not completely freaking out about it. What gives?