Secret U.S. Prison Ships?

(Conspiracy Nation, 06/18/08) – In the short story, “The Man Without A Country”, a fictional character is sentenced to spend the rest of his life in exile, aboard U.S. Navy ships. Published in 1863, the story (written anonymously by Edward Everett Hale) may now have become non-fiction.

Reprieve, a human-rights organization, has accused the U.S. of operating a network of secret prison ships. Allegedly, on as many as 17 Navy ships, terrorism suspects are held incommunicado and abused. The U.S. Navy denies its ships are being used as detention facilities. (The Week magazine, June 13, 2008. Page 5)

Hale's story was not based on fact, although it has an aura of likelihood. After “The Man Without A Country” was published, an unknown Civil War officer was actually sentenced to permanent exile on U.S. merchant marine ships. Such a cruel sentence would not have been beyond the capabilities of War Secretary Edwin Stanton. The unknown Civil War officer reportedly died in a ship's gaol offshore Goa in the 1880s. His crime? During the Civil War he had said, “I do not want to see America again.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Without_a_Country)

Hale's story has as its main character Philip Nolan, a U.S. Army lieutenant involved with Aaron Burr's conspiracy against the United States, who testifies, “Damn the United States! I wish I may never hear of the United States again!” In another instance of history's tendency to rhyme, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright has been in the news for exploding, “God damn the United States!” At least Wright has not been condemned to permanent exile on any prison ships, however.

Reprieve, the human-rights organization, plans to issue a report on the use of prison ships later this year. They claim as many as 26,000 people are being held by the U.S. in secret prisons, including the alleged prison ships. These persons, held indefinitely without a fair trial, are essentially 26,000 “Men Without A Country.” (“British group alleges US used ships as prisons,” AP, June 2, 2008)

“How many innocent people are going out of their minds today?” asks George Monbiot in today's Guardian (U.K.) newspaper. Monbiot reports “black sites” in Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Macedonia, Kosovo, Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Djibouti, Somalia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Jordan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Thailand and, possibly, Diego Garcia. If push comes to shove regarding the recent Supreme Court habeas corpus decision, will the 26,000 men without a country just be shuttled around internationally, away from the jurisdiction of U.S. courts? Monbiot reports on prisoners being driven mad by techniques such as being hung from the wrists, chained naked in freezing cells, and beaten with electric cables. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/17/usa.humanrights)

Not only the prisoners are going mad, however. In April 2005, Conspiracy Nation reported on how the Barney the Purple Dinosaur “I Love You” song was being used by U.S. forces as a torture device. (“Barney The Dinosaur Exposed,” http://www.shout.net/~bigred/Barney.html). What awful effect must orders to torture prisoners be having on our own fine young men and women? Even lovable Barney will never seem the same to them.

Not only the prisoners are going mad. “The nation's gone crazy,” an ad for a super-glue used to reiterate. (Crazy for “Crazy Glue.”) We have been “driven out of our wretched minds,” as R.D. Laing once suggested. However rather than being permanently exiled on a prison ship, like Philip Nolan, the country we love has been alienated from us. The effect is the same. We are all men (and women) without a country.

Conspiracy Nation

http://www.shout.net/~bigred/cn.html