THE SECRETARY GENERAL of the united nations astutely proclaimed that the detention of foreign prisoners at the american military base at guantanamo cuba is illegal, a violation not only of international law, but american law as well.
Presumably, in deference to the united nations and the international law it is charged to uphold, the united states will immediately close the prisoner camp and either try the hundred and sixty or so prisoners for something anything,, or release them. Or, not.
Arguably, the united states of america has never been a stickler for either international or american law. Millions of foreigners are allowed to cross the mexican border and live in the U.S., possibly because of the cheap labor they proved.
Then too, there are such small matters as wiretapping and harassing american citizens, like martin luther king, dealing drugs in latin america to fund uprisings against socialist governments disinclined to embrace american corporate "investment", aka imperialism, (see: oliver north), and, the convenient ignoring of habeas corpus by abraham lincoln.
when an american citizen is arrested, the rule is that the arrestee must either be charged with a crime within twenty four hours of the arrest, or released. lincoln found this annoyingly inconvenient, so he simply overlooked it. Also, he overlooked freedom of the press, and a few other annoyances.
Thrown in a few illegal undeclared wars, like viet nam, a few kidnapped dictators, a couple of murdered dictators, and you start to get tyhe impression that the american government, unfettered by any scrutiny by the people it purports to represent, and, well, you start to move beyond the realm of mere misdemeanor.
The coercive manner in which a chunk of cuba was "obtained" by the U.S. upon completion of the spanish american war about a hundred and fifteen years ago fits in there someplace. If the secretary general is holding his breath, he'll soon turn blue.
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