A report filed by five independent investigators working for the UN Human Rights Commission alleges violations amounting to torture at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. It demands the U.S. immediately try or release all the detainees, and shut down the prison. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060216/wl_afp/usattacksunguantanamorights_060216160136
The inspectors never actually visited Gitmo – because the U.S. government would not allow them to actually interview the prisoners. But they did interview former detainees.
I think the US shouldn’t shut down Gitmo prison because the UN says so. The US should only act in it’s own best interest. Now that may include a policy of shutting down Gitmo, butreacting to a UN demand is certainly not something the US should agree,too.
Now I know someone will com ein and say, "Isn’t that what Saddam was doing?’ I guess so, and if anyone wants to try and enforce this, then go right ahead. (P.S. I do not support the war in Iraq or this administration.)
That’s been my postition all along, too. Except some of these guys may indeed be POWs. In that case, let’s set up a POW camp, and run it in strict accordance w/ the GC.
As for the UN… We’ll give your input all the consideration it is due.
Definitely. Not because the UN asked, but because its the correct thing to do. This administration needs to get off its ass and DO something about this situation instead of just letting it ride on. I’m not hopeful that they will get their head out though…
I’m sure you’re right, but it isn’t right. I question why we even need a naval base in the Caribbean, and if we do why not move it to Miami or even Puerto Rico. It would make duty at the base a whole lot more pleasant, pump some money into the local economies, and make the US look a bit less imperialistic. This whole embargo thing has probably hurt the US as much as Cuba, when you consider all the business opportunities lost. Let’s face it, we couldn’t get him out so let’s learn to live with him.
We should definitely continue to ignore norms of international law; after all, we’re bigger and might makes right. Nice guys finish last. Why should we follow the rules we are accusing our opponents of breaking? :rolleyes:
If anyone wants to read the actual report, here it is:
While I am against the use of Guantanamo bay I feel it’s necessary to point out that the “UN” didn’t say anything of the sort.
“Five independent experts” for the UN Human rights commission said that Guantanamo should be shut down. This does not equal the UN nor is it a UN declaration or anything of the sort. Now, once again I agree with their statement but it’s extremely inaccurate to describe their statement as “the UN says.”
When the UN “says” something it means there was a vote. When a commission says something it means that there was a decision by one of the advisory panels. In this case, more along the lines of a House committee. The committee may make a call but it rarely means anything until congress votes on it.
Um, they’re basing this assessment strictly on former prisoners statements? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills here. That makes this assessment completely, totally, and utterly worthless.
You need to understand something about prisons. Unlike 100% of the movies you’ve seen about them, prisons are not populated by poor, oppressed, wrongly-convicted, salt-of-the-Earth altrusians and staffed by evil, sadistic, inhuman guards.
I know people who work in high security prisons. 99.999999% of prisoners are brutish thugs who would (and do) kill you just as look at you for their own benefit, and 99.999% of the guards are just underpaid, overworked, bluecollar working men & women trying to feed their families.
I’ve heard stories and seen photos of prisoner on prisoner (and guard) violence that makes the Abu Gribah pics look like musical chairs.
In almost every case prisoners are in prison because they deserve to be and Gitmo is no different, politics be damned…
The US should not, and cannot, allow its policies to be dictated by anyone. Not the UN, not the EU, no one. We need to decide, in each case, what we should do.
To do anything else is an abdication of our responsibility. The question is not whether we should comply or not. The question is, what is the right path?
Often the right path may be to comply, but equally, it may be to do something totally different.
In either case, we cannot give up the decision making power. The choice is ours to make. We need to make it with all of the fairness and equity and logic and compassion and realpolitik and wisdom we can muster … but we can’t simply “comply”. We need to make the choice ourselves, not hand it over to anyone else.
Kofi Annan has backed the report and called for Gitmo’s closure. If there was a vote in the General Assembly it would almost certainly result in a call for closure (even though many countries would be voting hypocritically because their actions are worse than the US ones). If it came to the Security Council, the US would veto the motion.
I think that saying that the UN has called for the closure of Gitmo is as close to reality that you are going to get.
I find it politically hypocritical from the stance intended, but actually very true.
Most people in prison are there by happenstance - sentencing is random and biased. Different equivalent countries imprison different numbers of people by mere political whim. Numbers of prison places go up and down randomly and for no apparent cause (in the last thirty years in the UK as crime has steadily fallen over that period, over the latter half of that period, prison places doubled with no noticable effect on long term decline in crime levels as the baby boomers became middle aged and consequently the number of 15-30 year old males dropped. Crime dropped at the same rate as the number of potential criminals (15-30 year oild males) dropped. Yet public pressure has led to more prisons being built.
The average prison population is made up of people who mostly could and should be dealt with elsewhere. Imprisonment is largely a means of satisfying the revengeful feelings of an ill educated population. And it costs too much.
Additionally prisons are an excellent place for young thugs to learn from role models how to become more skilled criminals.
Sounds similar to Gitmo- random detainees, no evidence of it working as an intervention, much evidence that it actually does the reverse of what was intended- prisons educate criminals in crime, Gitmo causes more terrorism.
So someone turned in by an enemy or for a bounty, or grabbed at random with no evidence, is almost certainly guilty ? I’ve yet to see evidence that a signifigant number are guilty, much less most.
Main Entry: Is·lam
Pronunciation: is-'läm, iz-, -'lam, 'is-", 'iz-"
Function: noun
Etymology: Arabic *
islAm* submission (to the will of God)
1 : the religious faith of Muslims including belief in Allah as the sole deity and in Muhammad as his prophet
2 a : the civilization erected upon Islamic faith b : the group of modern nations in which Islam is the dominant religion
Is·lam·ic /is-'lä-mik, iz-, -'la-/ * adjective*
1 : guilty, culpable independently of legal process
Is·lam·ics /-miks/ * noun plural but singular or plural in construction*
Who was that fat lady lawyer who represented perpetrators of the first Trade Center bombing and got in trouble for passing info between terroorists(I use fat only in the descriptive sense)?
Maybe that is why we didn’t want any UN “human rights experts” talking to them.
