How can they say this stuff with a straight face?

This scares the hell out of me. There are currently 520 detainees at Guantanimo Bay. How many have actually been charged with being terrorists? A grand total of four.

It's always been clear that the administration isn't at all concerned with silly little things like "laws" and "evidence." Now they are formally claiming that the detainees can be held at Gitmo forever.

From a Reuters article:

It's our position that, legally, they can be held in perpetuity. (Deputy Associate Attorney General J. Michael Wiggins)

and

I think that we can hold them as long as the conflict endures (Brig. Gen. Thomas Hemingway)

"The conflict" there being the War on Terror. Which of course we can't win, because it's not meant to be won. There is no enemy to surrender, there is no capital to conquer, there is no leader that can be killed. The War on Terror is meant to scare us into giving up power over our lives. It's meant to be a tool for political speechmaking. Imagine tomorrow that we win the WOT. How would we know? Is there a certain time without a car bomb going off somewhere on the planet that will define the end? Will it end with the deaths of bin Laden and Abu whazzizname Zarqawi? Or will someone from the Justice Department just stand up one day and say, "OK, we're done! Last person out turns the lights off."

Now the administration is actually saying that, given a declaration from Donald Rumsfeld or some other official that you are a terrorist, bam, you can be held forever without access to any legal recourse or oversight of your situation.

Remember Bush's Education Secretary has called our largest teacher's union a "terrorist organization." Any Democrat or "liberal" that speaks out against the Bush administration is often accused of being soft on terror.

If we permit the government this power it will be misued. It's not a matter of if, but when. Maybe not today, but God forbid there is another terrorist attack in this country.