Which is more important: the fact that illegal and cruel activities are taking place in detention centers or the fact that people know about it?
If you are Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, the decision is clear - illegal activity and abuse can take a back seat to the fact that the newspapers know about it.
According to a Thursday CNN.com article, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has stated he believes the leak of information about the prisons is more of a threat to national security than the actions the leaks report. According to his statement, he is "not concerned about what goes on" in these prisons and detention centers.
The centers in question made up some of the information leaked to the Washington Post for a Nov. 2 article. The article mentioned several touchy national security issues, including the existence of secret CIA-managed detention centers for use with suspected terrorists in various Eastern European and Asian countries.
As Senate majority leader, Frist has access to classified information that covers prison activity in these areas. He was asked point-blank if he meant he was not worried about investigating what may be happening at these detention centers. His response?
"I am not concerned about what goes on, and I'm not going to comment about the nature of that," he said.
Frist went on to state, "I'm going to make sure that everything that's done is consistent with the Constitution ... and the laws of the United States of America."
How he's going to do this when he doesn't care about what goes on in these places isn't made clear by the interview. It does, however, leave the statement sounding ridiculous and false in light of the man's complete apathy toward abuses and illegal activity going on in detention centers.
This gives a clear picture of where the priorities of the people in power lay.
Somewhere, under our jurisdiction, people are being tortured, killed, held indefinitely or treated cruelly, but leaders seem to say that's fine, as long as no one knows about it.
These detention centers were secret, after all. As anyone can tell you, it's only illegal if someone finds out.
Where do these people come from? What kind of training does it take to play with lives as if they're tinker toys? People don't matter. People are disposable, but information is sacred. Besides, it's happening to people who aren't American, right? That makes it okay, right? Or at least, it's not a big deal.
According to the Washington Post article, the CIA has been imprisoning and interrogating some of the more important al-Qaida captives in a compound in Eastern Europe. This compound, the article said, was part of a secret prison system set up four years ago, which includes at least eight countries, some of which are democracies.
Not only are we the police of the world, we are now the prison wardens +â-¡- except we aren't. No, the CIA and important people of the government are the wardens.
We, the people of the United States, are not to know about their behavior under any circumstances. And because somebody told us, now the dirty brown gunk will hit the spinning thing with blades.
Frist and others have got to keep their priorities in order.
Write to Jonathan at tenement_cellar@msn.com
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