Second Briton alleges mistreatment at Guantanamo Bay So let the US authorities open the camp to representatives of the world's media. I'm sure they'd show us what they saw and heard. Maybe after the election.
true about the mirror but some of the things in that are prob true.people can be very sick in what they do inorder to obtain information. History should prove that all to us.
Similar story from a respectable paper: http://www.guardian.co.uk/guantanamo/story/0,13743,1168501,00.html
An interesting quote from Colin Powell "Because we are Americans, we don't abuse people in our care." So why do they feel that they need to detain them in Cuba instead of the USA? That one fact alone is enough to make me uneasy... On a slightly connected side note- where is Saddam these days? Presumably hes in Saudi or somewhere where they can "convince" him to co-operate? Cheers
It's FAR cheaper and easier to keep Cuba under wraps that it would be to have them in the US. There is almost no privacy in the US. To keep the inmates as hidden away from the public as they are, in the US, would require security like that seen (or not seen) at the infamous Area 51. As to WHY they're keeping it so secret, we won't know for sure for another 50 years at least. But I think it's probably because there are a few things going on that the public would misunderstand, would sensationalize... Things like the punishment of an inmate who just killed another inmate... The Red Cross usually does a pretty good job of waving their finger and tsk-ing when necessary, if something really horrible were going on, I think they would raise the red-flag (no pun intended). I have no doubt it's tough there. There's no such thing as a luxurious imprisonment. But not noticing one man's frostbite for a while and "Medical treatment was sparse and brutal and amputations of limbs were more drastic than required" are two VERY different things. Your doctor may think you have a common cold when you actually have a deadly virus. Are you going to have it run in the papers that the doctor is slaughtering people by the thousands? There are at least two thousand different sides to this story, I'm not about to take one or even two as the whole thing.
Not so, the Red Cross NEVER make their opinions public. And is a beating normal practice for prisoners who don't behave? That's an eye-opener for me on the US penal system. We abolished flogging and the birch donkey's years ago.
Pretty disgraceful treatment of the prisoners if its true, but the Mirror article is rather quick to make claims that not even the prisoners would have any way of knowing... 'Food up to 10 years out of date' - I presume they got to unwrap everything then, and could see the best before date? Seems somewhat odd, given that the same article talk of being given food a section at a time through a hatch, not being given the whole thing at once. Same with the claims about excessive amputations - its horrific if its true, and I don't deny prisoners the right to comment about the standard of the medical care just because they're not qualified as doctors, but how exactly would they know how exactly much tissue should be removed in an operation? I notice the Guardian article when quoting what was said in the Mirror leaves out the more severe allegations (those which were reported in the Mirror) made by Jamal al-Harith..why would that be? Because the Guardian recognises possible journalistic embellishment of a story in order to sell 'papers and doesn't want to give it too much credence?
I was watching panorama the other day which had a big feature on this whole issue. some interesting point i remembered from it. The camps are specifically in Cuba because in that way they are technically not subject to US law, so that they can just deny any lawsuits/responsibility for what happens. There is a report that was done for the pentagon (at least i think it was) that details the reasons. There was also a very interesting interview with one of the US army lawyers assigned to "defend" some of the detainees. And he made it very clear that he didn't think they would get a fair trial! Frankly i think the whole thing is a criminal act. Imprisoning people for 2-3 yrs (so far) without a trial or even telling them why they were their and taking away their basic rights is frankly illegal anyway you look at it.
Is this the same person? Abraham Lincoln had it right - "Men who take up arms against one another in public do not cease on this account to be moral human beings, responsible to one another and to God." Even ignoring any recent press stories, the facts are a very large group of foreigners have been held without trial and with access to any legal aid denied for over two years. No-one has been allowed to show the world what life in the camp is like. No visits from anyone apart from the Red Cross, who are under a vow of silence. By keeping them off US soil (though on a US base guarded by US military) the US government argues they have no rights under any international convention. Is the word "cover-up" justifiable? Mr Powell, I do not believe you. You are a proven liar.
Collin Powell is full of bull****. Camp X-ray is the only place so far we have heard of any abuse from. What about all those other iraqi military officals that were interogated using un-ethical measures that we dont know about
