oh, that's nice.

this is why i don't like obama. everyone is always like, obama is so awesome, he's going to change everything, he's so progressive.

yes, he's done some progressive things. SOME. but he hasn't done enough to warrant the mindless fawning over him that people engage in.

today the supreme court rejected an appeal filed by four men who were detained at the guantanamo bay. the supreme court was in step with the obama administration, who opposed the appeal as well.

the four men-- shafiq rasul, asif iqbal, rhuhel ahmed, and jamal al-harith-- claim they were tortured and denied religious rights.

the four were held at guantanamo from 2002-2004 and released with no charges laid.

according to the men rasul, iqbal, and ahmed were travelling from afghanistan from pakistan to do humanitarian relief work at 9/11 while al-hadith was in pakistan for a religious retreat.

the three men were captured by a uzbek war lord and then given over to the u.s. in afghanistan while al-harith was captured by the taliban in pakistan and accused of being a british spy, he was then placed in u.s. custody after the taliban fell.

al-hadith was actually told he could go home after the taliban fell but american forces decided to keep him.

he writes in his statement that after arriving at guantanamo he was "kicked, slapped, elbowed and punched" and told repeateledly "you are no property of the united states marine corps."

he also writes that when the afghans told him he would be moved into the custody of the americans he was relieved--americans were britain's ally and he knew had done nothing wrong.

but no, instead the american military was given full license to do whatever they wanted to prisoners. they took full advantage of the power they were given.

from 2002-2004 they were not only held without charges but claim they were beaten, shackled in painful positions, and threatened by dogs.

they were harassed for practicing their religion, forced to shave their beards, had their prayers banned or interrupted, denied copies of the quran/prayer mats, and had copies of the quran defiled in front of them.

the obama administration opposes high court review of their case

The Obama administration opposed high court review of the case, which is really just a defense of the bush administration officials who were responsible for the imprisonment of individuals for no reason.

these men lost years of their lives, were subjected to inhumane and indefensible treatment, but hey i guess as long as a bunch of rich white house adminsitrators and contractors get to live free of responsibility or consequence then obama should be able to sleep at night.

why did obama promise to close guantanamo bay if he wasn't actually interested in making sure that the people that were detained there received some semblence of justice?

maybe obama should close guantanamo but re-open it as a swanky resort where the people who orchestrated the horrendous torture and illegal detainment can spend the rest of their days in complete comfort, guilt-free of course.

you can watch a short documentary about the men, and others, who were detained at G. B here.

i mean, these men were only subjected to something that most of us couldn't even imagine, for no reason, but who cares? clearly obama doesn't.