Close Guantanamo Now

He just doesn't get it, does he? The damage done by the imprisoning and torture (or 'harsh interrogation') has completely eroded America's standing in the world. How can the USA lecture anyone on their human rights record when their own record is so abysmal.

There is no chance of anyone now receiving any sort of fair trial and any 'evidence' is tainted.

From a NY Times Editorial today:

It was distressing to see that the president has retreated so far into his alternative reality that he would not listen to Mr. Gates — even when he was backed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who, like her predecessor, Colin Powell, had urged Mr. Bush to close Guantánamo. It seems clear that when he brought in Mr. Gates, Mr. Bush didn’t want to fix Mr. Rumsfeld’s disaster; he just wanted everyone to stop talking about it.

If Mr. Bush would not listen to reason from inside his cabinet, he might at least listen to what Americans are telling him about the damage to this country’s credibility, and its cost. When Khalid Shaikh Mohammed — for all appearances a truly evil and dangerous man — confessed to a long list of heinous crimes, including planning the 9/11 attacks, many Americans reacted with skepticism and even derision. The confession became the butt of editorial cartoons, like one that showed the prisoner confessing to betting on the Cincinnati Reds, and fodder for the late-night comedians.

As Andrew Sullivan has been repeating - "The point of torture is now and always has been only torture".