Are The Bush administration's Post 9/11 Insane Policies Crumbling

We aren't going to hold our breath.

Not after Specter just gave Bush carte blanche to continue eves dropping on Americans

tbe Progressive American: (FULL ARTICLE: Bob Herbert)

Could it be? Will the Bush administration, under pressure from the Supreme Court, actually make an attempt to emerge from the Middle Ages? Is the post-9/11 American Inquisition beginning to come undone?

Here's the way it has been. The administration has rounded up people at various points on the globe and dumped them like animals (sometimes literally in cages) at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Top officials have insisted not only that these were terrorists, but that they were, as Donald Rumsfeld loudly proclaimed, the 'worst of the worst.'
Dick Cheney told Fox News: 'They are very dangerous. They are devoted to killing millions of Americans, innocent Americans, if they can.'

In the administration's view, these prisoners had no rights. They could be kept in a state of permanent degradation. They had no right to a lawyer, or even to see the evidence against them. They could be sentenced to life in prison or even death in what could only be called a kangaroo court.

The entire system was rigged. Hearsay evidence would be allowed. Witnesses could be concealed. Information obtained through abuse and even torture could be used.