Definite Indefinite Detention

Notwithstanding the current nonsense surrounding the Cheney shooting incident, the White House has a credibility problem. Despite this, the White House still likes to overreact when anyone criticises the policy of indefinite detention of detainees who, in all liklihood, are entirely innocent of being terrorists. Who among us can forget the White House excoriation of Amnesty International when that organisation released a report that described US detention facilities like Guantanamo Bay and Abu Graib as "America's gulag"? Oh, the howling was fierce, with various administration officials declaring that AI had suddenly become an insane band of ranters.

Of course, not long afterwards, the CIA's network of secret prisons came to light -- some of which actually were former Soviet gulag camps. Suddenly Rumsfeld stopped bad-mouthing AI and ... changed the subject.

Well, now the White House has "savaged" a UN report that criticises the very existence of Gitmo and which calls for all detainees to be tried as the criminals the White House claims they are or be released. UN rapporteur Manfred Nowak says that

the detention of inmates for years without charge amounted to arbitrary detention.

Among other charges, the White House dismisses this as an "allegation." I think Scotty McClellan needs to be informed as to just what is the meaning of the word allegation:

A statement asserting something without proof.

These detainees are known to have been held without charges, in some cases for years. This is something the White House admits. This is not an allegation. It is a fact.