It was reported July 9 on DemocracyNow.org that the Bush administration is actively and purposefully blocking the American Civil Liberties Union from providing funding to lawyers representing prisoners at GuantÃnamo. A statement released by the ACLU asserts that the administration's actions -- specifically, the delaying of Treasury Department licenses required to pay the attorneys -- amount to nothing less than "obstruction of justice." According to ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero, "The government is stonewalling again by not allowing Americans' private dollars to be paid to American lawyers to defend civil liberties."

This news comes on the heels of several key Gitmo-related happenings, not the least of which is the Supreme Court's ruling that habeas corpus does indeed apply to the prisoners in the upcoming court proceedings (President Bush's subsequent pouty face notwithstanding). Also, there's the implicit encouragement by the administration of prisoners to refuse professional and civilian counsel -- a tactic which, if successfully implemented, would allow the prosecution to refuse to turn over documentation to defendants (who do not possess the security clearance that a licensed attorney would).

In spite of, or perhaps in light of, the crumbling of the foundational reasoning for the prison's very existence, the administration seems bound and determined to push through these proceedings just in time for the November elections -- a decision that likely will be seen as nothing more than a sign of desperation.

In any case, the whole point should really be moot, as the hearings are tainted not only by evidence based on coercion and torture-forced confessions, but by the fact that a good percentage of detainees are being held without just cause in the first place.

Josh Ruffin, Augusta