Bush says "let me do it my way" or I won't do it at all!" ... and we have 14,000 detainees in secret prisons?

President George W. Bush

At the same time that the European Union is condemning the US for its "secret detention facilities where detained persons are kept in a legal vacuum" not being in "conformity with international humanitarian law and international criminal law," President Bush is threatening Congress with stopping a major part of his "War on Terror" altogether if they don't approve his plan to weaken the Geneva Conventions and permit "aggressive techniques" (a.k.a. "torture") of detention and interrogation.

Threats don't work, Mr. Bush!

And neither do secret prisons through which hundreds of detainees have passed, and many have died!

The EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, Gijs de Vries said it best: "secret prisons are illegal, immoral, and counter-productive in any strategy to win hearts and minds." What do you think the Iraqi family and friends of Waleed Abdul Karim (26 and found not to have any terrorist connections) think and say about America after he was released after a "year and a half of hell" in a secret location?

As for Waleed Abdul Karim, his mind is made up. "I will hate Americans for the rest of my life!" is the way he put it.

Although only 14,000 are currently in such prisons, tens of thousands more have already "been there, done that and been released." And our own Congress was totally unaware of even the prisons' existence until this month.

Something is very wrong.