Report: U.S. Is Abusing Captives
A U.N. inquiry says the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay at times amounts to torture and violates international law.

By Maggie Farley, Times Staff Writer


NEW YORK — A draft United Nations report on the detainees at Guantanamo Bay concludes that the U.S. treatment of them violates their rights to physical and mental health and, in some cases, constitutes torture.

It also urges the United States to close the military prison in Cuba and bring the captives to trial on U.S. territory, charging that Washington's justification for the continued detention is a distortion of international law.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gitmo13feb13,0,7562292,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines
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Should a "coalition of the willing" come in and remove this torturous despot?

I think if the US government was 100% confident in what they were doing at Gitmo - then the camp would be in the US. The mere fact it's in cuba indicates it's all a bit shady.

Apparently the authors of the report have never been to guantonmo.

Did they channel their findings?

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

New Abu Ghraib photos shown on Australian TV
Jeannie Shawl at 8:41 AM ET

[JURIST] Previously unpublished photographs [SMH slides] and video depicting alleged abuse of prisoners by US personnel at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison [JURIST news archive] were shown on Australian television Wednesday. In an effort to expose "the extent of the horror that occurred at Abu Ghraib," SBS television's Dateline program showed images [program transcript; AAP report] of blood-soaked prisoners who had been tortured or shot and a detainee who seemed to be covered in feces, along with video of a prisoner repeatedly slamming his head into a door and a group of prisoners being forced to masturbate.

The existence of the images was not unknown and they were viewed by members of Congress in private briefings when the original Abu Ghraib photographs were made public in 2004. They are also the subject of litigation in the United States. The American Civil Liberties Union sued [ACLU case backgrounder] under the Freedom of Information Act and in September won a court order [PDF decision; JURIST report] giving them access to the photographs, but the government is currently appealing that decision [SMH report], arguing that their release would further anti-American sentiment. In his decision to allow the ACLU access to the photographs, US District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein wrote that "fear of blackmail is not a legally sufficient argument to prevent us from performing a statutory command."

Rest of story with link to photos (http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/02/new-abu-ghraib-photos-shown-on.php)

Obviously, the U. S. would never abuse captives. Nor would the government ever attempt to suppress evidence that such abuse occurs since, of course, it hasn't.

You don't understand. It's the Vietnam strategy all over again. In order to save our rights and freedoms, they have to destroy them. That's how we won Vietnam, no thanks to Bush and Dick.

OMG, those images are just sickening. :rolleyes:

Originally posted by DrewM
I think if the US government was 100% confident in what they were doing at Gitmo - then the camp would be in the US. The mere fact it's in cuba indicates it's all a bit shady.
That's a thought well worth considering. But who is it who has top authority there? Is it the military or the CIA?

You don't understand. It's the Vietnam strategy all over again. In order to save our rights and freedoms, they have to destroy them. That's how we won Vietnam, no thanks to Bush and Dick.
Ah,yous didnt win Vietnam..

What I see is a constant change of rules (laws) to make legal anything that till that moment was illegal. No morals at all.

OMG, those images are just sickening. :rolleyes:
Yup - makes your stomach turn... psycho GI's! I pray that this whole Abu Ghraib-thing is an isolated incident....

Originally posted by DrewM
"I think if the US government was 100% confident in what they were doing at Gitmo - then the camp would be in the US. The mere fact it's in cuba indicates it's all a bit shady. "

A bit shady? Perhaps. New situations call for new remedies. Those being held at Gitmo don't qualify as actual P.O.W.'s as they weren't in the military service of any particular nation. The need to imprison them is/was very real. Keeping them out of U.S. courts is all well & good.