Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sent an alarming message last week about the 660 or so detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

The government will hold the majority of the prisoners without a trial or any judicial oversight for the foreseeable future.

“Our interest is in not trying them and letting them out,” Rumsfeld said to the Associated Press. “Our interest is in – during this global war on terror – keeping them off the streets.”

We do not advocate the release of prisoners who pose a threat to the United States or our allies. But detaining citizens from 42 countries without due process or regard for our own or international law is wrong.

President Bush and members of his administration have warned us of the prolonged nature of the war on terrorism and the extended commitment it will require.

The potential exists that young men will grow old behind American bars without any hope of exoneration or release. Some of the prisoners are, no doubt, enemy combatants who would do us harm. But are we so certain that all of them are guilty that we are willing to segregate them from family, friends and life indefinitely?

“How long could that be?” Vermont Law School Professor Stephen Dycus asked the AP. “If the answer is potentially forever, then we’ve really created a new institution by which we can take people, lock them away – and that’s not locking them up in the same way for a common criminal, but isolating them from the world, held incommunicado, where they don’t have access to counsel or the court system.”

A transparent, judicial procedure should be developed to deal with the Guantanamo prisoners. Our Constitution and our sense of justice should demand it.
Developing habit


The developing world is catching up with the West in at least one category. Unfortunately, it’s the number of deaths caused by smoking.

Research published in The Lancet medical journal pegs the number of smoking-related deaths worldwide at 4.83 million in 2000. About 2.41 million of those deaths occurred in the developing world while 2.43 million occurred in industrialized nations.

The World Health Organization is leading an effort to restrict cigarette advertising in poor countries and to require warning labels on packages. Such rules already exist in the United States and Europe. They should be exported to the rest of the world.

Smoking contributes to the general poor health in developing countries, already struggling with infectious and other diseases.

The world’s addiction to smoking – estimates suggest there are more than a billion smokers worldwide – takes an enormous economic and social toll.

The sooner we snuff out this bad habit, the healthier we all will be.
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