This vigilantism demonstrates the utter breakdown of the government. These private security forces have behaved brutally, with impunity, in Iraq. To have them now on the streets of New Orleans is frightening and possibly illegal.
"Michael Ratner" is an Lawyer/attorney, President Emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a non-profit human rights litigation organization based in New York City and president of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) based in Berlin.
Ratner is known for his human rights activism.
Ratner and CCR are currently the attorneys in the United States for publishers Julian Assange and Wikileaks. He was co-counsel in representing the Guantanamo Bay detention camp/Guantanamo Bay detainees in the United States Supreme Court, where, in June 2004, the court decided his clients have the right to test the legality of their detentions in court. Ratner is also a past president of the National Lawyers Guild and the author of numerous books and articles, including the books The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld: A Prosecution by Book, Against War with Iraq and Guantanamo: What the World Should Know, as well as a textbook on international human rights. Ratner is also the co-host of the radio program, Law and Disorder (radio program)/Law and Disorder. He and three other attorneys host the Pacifica Radio show that reports legal developments related to civil liberties, civil rights and human rights.
More Michael Ratner on Wikipedia.This lawless situation must not continue. Every imprisoned person should have the right to test the legality of their detention. It is this basic principle that has been denied to our clients.
They couldn't show people what they were really doing, because what they were really doing was illegal and inhumane, ... It's such a fraud. It reminds me of the special concentration camps set up in World War II. They would take the Red Cross there to see there was an orchestra and all sorts of nice things.
It is an outrage that the U.S. government put him before a tribunal that is essentially a court of conviction not of justice.
[Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights alluded to Plessy v. Ferguson , the notorious 1896 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the] separate-but-equal ... The legacy of that thought is what we saw at the Superdome.
It's chilling to read it, not because of one incident but because of what you see here, the United States was running here, was a two-and-a-half year interrogation camp.
The conscience of our nation is up for grabs.
The Supreme Court has not closed the doors of justice to the detainees imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. This is a major victory for the rule of law and affirms the right of every person, citizen or non-citizen, detained by the United States to test the legality of his or her detention in a U.S. Court.
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