This Is Not America

US accused of holding terror suspects on prison ships

Who would have thought when we entered this century that this is what our nation would be reduced to within a decade? Foreign citizens being kidnapped and placed on boats headed for America (maybe)--doesn't that sound an awful lot like the slave trade?

If this story in The Guardian is true, then the terrorists have won. Of course, considering all the people who have been extraordinarily rendered and detained at Guantanamo Bay, the real question is: why is this so much worse? Even if this allegation isn't true, there are so many equally awful allegations which have been proven to be true, why is this a tipping point?

Because we, the United States of America, can not have secret prisons.

Secret prisons are the final violation of everything to which we pledge allegiance.

If we have secret prisons, we are no better than Myanmar (another country whose government was caught flat footed when a hurricane hit its shores and then held up the aid arriving for those affected by the storm and devestation).

If we have secret prisons and people are being held in them because they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, who is to say that the government will not extend this action onto its own citizens, on its own shores? We already had the former Attorney General suggesting that habeas corpus is not guaranteed to residents or citizens of the United States, so what will prevent the government from scooping up citizens it determines are engaging in hostilities against the USA and tucking them away so that no one is the wiser?

Who will be next?

Who will be left to speak if they come for you?