Military Tribunals and You!

I have just returned from five days in Egypt. To me, visiting foreign countries is so enlightening as an American who grew up as parochial and nationalistic as the next. However, since my son was killed in Iraq, I have had a crash course in foreign “relations” and cultures that came with a too steep price.

Ironically, I was in Egypt because 40 members of the Muslim Brotherhood are being tried in military tribunals. Trying civilians in a military tribunal is against every law one can name (except in the US where we have the Military Commissions Act that contradicts international law and our own Constitution). While I was in Egypt to stand in solidarity with the families of the accused, I heard on the BBC about six men being tried at Guantanamo for the crime against humanity that occurred here on 9-11.

I turned on the TV in my motel room just as a military officer was reading the charges against the six detainees and for a brief moment my heart skipped a beat with joy. I mistakenly believed that the officer was reading charges against BushCo: “killing civilians; destroying civilian property and committing acts of terrorism.” My happiness that someone-anyone in our nation was taking his oath to “protect and defend our Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic” seriously was short-lived, though, as the pictures of the six accused flashed on the screen.

Although the case against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, et al and the 40 members of the Muslim Brotherhood could not be more different, there are also some similarities. We all know that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is accused of being the “mastermind of 9-11” (hey, wasn’t that Osama bin Laden before it was Saddam Hussein?), however very few Americans know about the case of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

Of course, when some people hear the term “Muslim Brotherhood” they are automatically going to be translating that into “terrorist.” These are the same people who get their “news” from Fox and believe that almost 5 million “terrorists” have been killed wounded or displaced in Iraq. These people could not be more wrong about the people of Iraq or the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). According to a scholarly article in Foreign Affairs (March/April 2007), the MB “reject global Jihad while embracing elections and other features of democracy.” The MB is a moderate Islamist group that is the largest and most influential in the world. The MB promotes change through the ballot box, non-violent protest and charity. As a woman, I may not like that the men (always nicely garbed in Western suits) wipe their hands off on their coats after they shake my hand, but they are in no way terrorists and are often targeted by radical Islamist groups that do not agree with the MB’s moderate positions.

It seems that the “crime” that the MB has committed in Egypt is winning too many seats in Parliament (as Independents as the MB is an outlawed organization in Egypt) and in coalition could have been an effective opposition voice to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak who has been a puppet of American Imperialists since 1981. I heard many citizens in his country from cab drivers to tour guides derisively (and quietly) refer to Mubarak as “President for Life.” Anyway, in an early morning raid over one year ago, 40 members of the MB were rounded up in tactics that reminded me of stories that my Iraqi friends have recounted: yelling soldiers bursting into their homes in early morning raids wearing riot gear and brandishing terrifying weapons; frightening women and children and hauling off the breadwinner to be swallowed by the depths of a prison in moves calculated to instill terror and suppress dissent.

After four civilian courts exonerated the accused, Mubarak had the prisoners transferred to a military prison and given a kangaroo court trial. The families are expecting a pre-determined guilty verdict that could carry strict sentences. And of course, George Bush, who is a paragon of virtue and respects “human rights and human dignity” (BBC interview, Feb 15th) has harshly condemned Mubarak and has threatened to withhold some American largesse (Egypt is second only to Israel in US aid) due to the gross violations of international law and human rights, right? Well, not exactly. While Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, among others, has condemned the Egyptian government for this travesty, BushCo has been oddly silent.

Of course, although George can say that he has the “moral high ground” (BBC, again), of course the US is one of the international leaders in detaining people without due process and has committed water torture and other inhumane practices in the Middle East and in our own backyard in Guantanamo.

While I was in Guantanamo, Cuba and Cairo, Egypt advocating for human rights, I dared not make any judgment of an individual detainee’s guilt or innocence. Although the MB 40 have been acquitted four times, I cannot presume to judge the “evidence” that I haven’t seen, anyway. And although the confessions of the six that will be on trial for 9-11 were garnered through torture, I of course, cannot judge their guilt or innocence, because I have not seen (nor will see) the evidence against them. This is the inherent problem of military tribunals: they are neither transparent nor fair and there is almost always a foregone verdict. This secrecy is not fair to the victims either who deserve to know the “truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,” and rarely receive anything resembling “the truth.”

How do these military tribunals in Egypt and Guantanamo affect us here in the US? Americans always receive fair and equal treatment under the law, right? Wrong! Madam Justice’s fabled scales are heavily weighted to benefit the wealthy or the established ruling class. Ask any person of color or poor citizen here how the American justice system works for them. There is no place for secrecy or suppression of dissent in any free, open or democratic society. In allowing these military tribunals to continue the very cornerstone of human rights is being shattered.

One does not have to be clever or have a particularly vivid imagination to fear an even harsher police state in America where any of us can be rounded up, tortured, and tried for opposing the government. Detention centers are already being built.

Besides, for argument’s sake, even if these military tribunals have absolutely no implication here in America, humans are being profoundly hurt by the policies of our allied governments that are dancing the “Totalitarian Two-step” and as MLK, Jr wrote from the Birmingham Jail:

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Spc. Casey Sheehan who was killed in Bush's war of terror on 04/04/04. Sheehan is a congressional candidate running against Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco. You can visit her campaign website at CindyforCongress.org. She is the co-founder and president of Gold Star Families for Peace and The Camp Casey Peace Institute. Read other articles by Cindy, or visit Cindy's website.

11 comments on this article so far ...

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  1. Lloyd Rowsey said on February 18th, 2008 at 6:59am #

    “One does not have to be clever or have a particularly vivid imagination to fear an even harsher police state in America where any of us can be rounded up, tortured, and tried for opposing the government. Detention centers are already being built.”

    To paraphrase Arthur Silber (and with apologies to him): BushCo’s threat and ability to do this is quite sufficient to silence all but an infinitesimal fraction of truly radical American dissidents.

  2. Wendy said on February 18th, 2008 at 11:17am #

    Hey CindyCo, what are you doing in Egypt? I thought you were campaigning for Congress here in San Francisco. Did our city all of a sudden solve the homeless problem so you can make a transcontinental trip? How much do you charge for your speeches so you can make such a distant trip? And you call Bush a war profiteer?

  3. HR said on February 18th, 2008 at 12:40pm #

    I agree with Lloyd. Sadly, most USans are, and will be, happy to go along with the program, happy to rat out their neighbors at the first sign of noncompliance with the new order. They’ll slap on the insipid car magnets and antenna flags and praise a nonexistent god with every increase in police state power.

    All that is happening now is a logical result of what preceded it for the last 40 years, and more. There was a brief period of hope, from about 1965 to 1975, though it was throttled from the start by our fascist government. And, the government took its repressive actions with the support of an unthinking majority, the folks who gave us Nixon, Reagan, Bush I … and Slick Willie and George II.

    Folks, what little democracy ever existed here is doomed. Get used to it, or be prepared to risk your lives to stop further advancement of the police state. The slightly-left-of-far-right wing of the ruling corporate party would not have sold us out as they did after 2006 if they did not believe they had the support of a majority of the herd. They would not be selling us corporatist candidates and pushing aside any voices of true progressivism if they truly thought we would reject them. And, indeed we welcome them, with their lies about “change” that is used to conceal their complete and utter devotion to continuation of the corporate police state, to complete privatization of everything, and to establishment of a formal feudal system here. We will exist only to serve the wealthy.

    You get exactly the government you deserve.

  4. corylus said on February 18th, 2008 at 9:10pm #

    Hey, Wendy,
    STFU! Ignorance knows no bounds.

  5. Hue Longer said on February 18th, 2008 at 11:18pm #

    I have a feeling that Wendy wasn’t going to Vote for Cindy before she left to Egypt.

    The bizarre group that follows Cindy Sheehan is made even weirder by the inclusion of liberal Democrats (not saying you are one of these for sure, Wendy… after all, you believe someone you consider to profit from war is unable to call Bush a war profiteer…do YOU think he’s a war profiteer, Wendy?)

  6. Hue Longer said on February 18th, 2008 at 11:19pm #

    sorry, I meant “stalks” -not “follows”

  7. Lloyd Rowsey said on February 19th, 2008 at 7:18am #

    HR. I didn’t say anyone would rat anyone out. I said they would be silent. With “agreement” like yours, I’ll take disagreement any day.

    Hue Longer. Nice work, as uusal. And your “war profiteer” question got to me.

    Many are the extreme BushCo critics that are “making a living” off (criticizing) Bush. See Chris Floyd’s website, for example, with its Christmas Tree collection of advertisers. And yet, when I said to Chris in a personal email that he was making his living off Bush, he seemed so abashed it was as if he’d never had the thought before.

    I had in mind a contrast — between Arthur Silber and Chris Floyd, who icidentally thinks relatively highly of Chris — and in mind how most of the posts at Chris’ website seem sycophantic in the extreme — not in mind to criticize Chris’ politics, much less his very readable and occasionally brilliant anti-Bush pieces.

    Was I being wrongheaded?

  8. Hue Longer said on February 19th, 2008 at 3:18pm #

    Thanks Lloyd,

    I was just saying that if a murderer calls you a murderer, it doesn’t mean you are not. Truth is truth and isn’t dependent on the one speaking it. If Wendy thinks Cindy (this is sounding like logic 101…hehehe) is a war profiteer, that doesn’t dismiss Cindy’s contention that Bush is.

  9. Bob Redman said on February 19th, 2008 at 4:22pm #

    I read this post with interest. I’m not sure if Ms. Sheehan believes what she writes, or if she is just pulling my leg. Where are these jails being built? What is the source of her information? And finally how is it she hasn’t been rounded up yet?

    I guess I’m not well informed on the conspiracy against her!!!

    Thanks for reading.

  10. Mark Ullman said on February 19th, 2008 at 9:04pm #

    Ms Sheehan has been supported by the most honorable Ann Wright for years. Google her name. Over 30 years in the military & state dept all over the world. She resigned the night before we went to war, as did 2 other state dept employees.

  11. hp said on February 21st, 2008 at 11:33am #

    Bob, just go to Google and type in “US detention camps.”