Well, Bergdahl was apparently not being tortured every day- it was merely done to obtain information.
Say it again, Smapti. I don’t think you’re sounding quite enough like a kidnapper demanding a ransom yet.
The OP seems to be complaining that we exchanged prisoners for an American being held captive, but this particular individual remains in captivity.
Therefore, it follows that he deems this captive to be a commodity to be exchanged.
But this is obviously the US Admin position. Our Foreign Minister has made repeated public requests (most unusual in US-UK relationships) for his release. The USA refuses. He is hostage against something- I suspect because of his illegal kidnap, detention, current torture together with his competency in English, his political support and his access to publishers.
No. What I am saying is that the hypocritical US Administartion values and American as worth the release of five admittedly dangerous Taliban, but will not release someone who they admit they have no evidence against at all.
An American is obviously a more valuable commodity that a Brit.
And obviously historic torture of an American is more important than current torture of a Brit by American Forces.
Cite for these men being “admittedly dangerous”?
And are you going to address the fact that the “Brit” you keep talking about is actually a Saudi citizen with no British nationality whatsoever?
Your overall position still seems unclear to me. You seem to be saying that you support the release of detainees and you support the exchange of people. And I’m assuming you support the idea of American detainees being returned to us. So you appear to support everything that happened but are nonetheless upset. You’re coming off as somebody who’s looking for an excuse to find offense.
What do you not get.
An American was being held hostage by the Taliban and tortured- disgraceful and needed to be sorted- he needs to be with his family- probably worth the cost of releasing five high value detainees.
A Brit is being held hostage by the USA (who are celebrating the release of their citizen.) The Brit needs to be with his family yet the USA which used to claim the moral high ground insists on detaining him and torturing him everyday- an occasional use of torture against the American being seen as newsworthy, and the American torture of nearly a hundred people daily currently gioes without mention on the US media.
Hypocrisy.
He is a British Protected Person with a British Wife and Brish children (one of whom he has never seen); this is equivalent of a Green Card Holder with the virtually automatic right to British Citizenhip through marriage and residence. The British Government (your allies remember) have repeatedly publicly asked for his release so that he can return to live in the UK. The US continues to detain and torture him.
Excuse me if my celebrations of the release of the US hostage are less than fulsome.
It’s a sacred principle among Republicans that if Obama does it, it’s wrong. When Obama said that the US does not leave people behind, you could almost hear right wing talking heads shouting “BENGHAZI!!!”
What I find most intriguing about this whole thing is that Bergdahl’s mother is apparently Stands With A Fist.
Intrigued by a film character rather than Torture and Detention, Hostage Taking and Separation from family. Or the hypocrisy.
Must be some definition of shallow there. Or you just do not want to comment on the morality of the matter.
Let us get some indication of the Rank of Hypocrisy:
Five Taliban exchanged for one American:
Abdul Haq Wasiq - Taliban deputy minister of intelligence
Mullah Norullah Nori - Senior Taliban commander in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif who commanded insurgents fighting U.S. forces in late 2001
Khairullah Khairkhwa - Senior Taliban official believed to have ties to Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar, the Taliban’s founder
Mohammed Nabi - A regional Chief of Security for the Taliban and eventual radio operator
Mohammed Fazl - Believed to have overseen the mass extermination of Shiite Muslims during the 2000 - 2001 war that saw the Taliban rise to power in Afghanistan.
From: McCain leads Republicans as they hit out at Guantanamo Bay prisoner release | Daily Mail Online
One Brit still detained and tortured in Guantanamo
According to documents published in the Guantanamo Bay files leak, the US military Joint Task Force Guantanamo “believed” in November 2007 that Aamer had led a unit of fighters in Afghanistan, including the Battle of Tora Bora, while his family was paid a stipend by Osama bin Laden. The file asserts past associations with Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui.[6][7] Aamer denies being involved in terrorist activity and his lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, said the leaked documents would not stand up in court. He claimed that part of the evidence comes from an unreliable witness and that confessions Aamer made had been obtained through torture.[8][9] Aamer’s father-in-law, Saaed Ahmed Siddique, said: “All of these claims have no basis. If any of this was true he would be in a court now.”[10] The Bush administration acknowledged later that it had no evidence against Aamer.[11]
Aamer has never been charged with any wrongdoing, has never received a trial and his lawyer says he is “totally innocent.”[12][13] He was cleared for release to Saudi Arabia by the Bush administration in 2007 and the Obama administration in 2009.[1][13] He has been described as a “charismatic leader” who spoke up and fought for the rights of fellow prisoners. Aamer says that he has been subject to torture while in detention.[14]
Aamer’s mental and physical health has been declining over the years, as he has participated in hunger strikes to protest detention condition and been held in solitary confinement much of the time. He claims to have lost 40 per cent of his body weight in captivity but did not disclose his actual weight.[15][16][17] After a visit in November 2011, his lawyer said, “I do not think it is stretching matters to say that he is gradually dying in Guantanamo Bay.”[18] The UK government has been demanding his release for years, and many people there have repeatedly called for his release.[6][7]
And meanwhile polar bears are losing their natural habitat due to global warming.
Why are you creating this linkage between Aamer and Bergdahl? They’re two separate people who were being held by two separate countries.
A month ago, seven people were being held who you don’t think should have been. Six of them have now been released. What’s the hypocrisy you’re complaining about? That nobody should have been released unless everybody was? If they release Aamer next month, will you just move your outrage on to somebody else?
The hypocrisy is that the person responsible for the current detention and daily torture of a British protected Person is celebrating the release of an American at the risk of five senior Taliban going free for political purposes, but will not release someone he is detaining and torturing illegally.
It is the hypocrisy and the narrow mindedness and God’s Own Country approach that unconsciously values all American lives as more important than citizens of “lesser nations.”
How would you fell if there was an American Green Card Holder with a Wife and Children (one who he has never seen) in his 14th year of illegal detention in an allied country. That Obama had begged for a release and that he would be reintegrated into US society, but a British Government gave him the finger and said that it was their right to detain and continue torturing him because of the embarrassment a release would cause.
Would that seem fair to you?
I’m not sure that I believe forced feeding to be torture - and I’m assuming that’s what you mean by “tortured daily.” Can you explain why you think it is?
And correct me with cites, but it doesn’t seem to me like the UK really wants him back all that much. But you oppose him being sent to his home country of Saudi Arabia, which leads to the conundrum: if Britain is only paying lip service to wanting him back, and Saudi Arabia is not acceptable, what is your option number three?
The British Foreign Secretary has made the position clear for many years now:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2010/11/17/uk-guantanamo-usa-britain-idUKTRE6AG5I720101117
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Wednesday he urged the United States to send Guantanamo Bay inmate Shaker Aamer, the last British resident at the U.S. military prison in Cuba, back to Britain.
Regarding torture, I am a nurse and have had to forcibly pass a gastro-enteric feeding tube and no that without justification it is tantamount to torture.
The NY Times comments:
For decades, the international community, including the International Red Cross, the World Medical Association and the United Nations, have recognized the right of prisoners of sound mind to go on a hunger strike. Force-feeding has been labeled a violation on the ban of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. The World Medical Association holds that it is unethical for a doctor to participate in force-feeding. Put simply, force-feeding violates international law.
I’m afraid the narrative is going to get a lot muddier.
For the last 5 years those involved at the time let the story out that Berdahl was a deserter who left his weapon and equipment behind on a small outpost and went over to the other side voluntarily. There have been credible sources saying that several soldiers died while trying to find him. If he is brought home and feted as a hero the grumblings happening in the military now will become a roar. At best those in the military are reserving judgement until a court martial. At worst they are calling for his head.
This article is being a bit careful with their language. Military blogs are not: http://www.armytimes.com/article/20140531/NEWS/305310046/Military-community-reaction-mixed-Bergdahl-release
It’s only hypocrisy if you can claim to be able to see though the murky geopolitical water in which all of this is steeped.
And if you can ignore how much more Guantanamo policy is driven by domestic politics than international standards. (Let alone sheer efficacy, because every dubiously labeled “terrorist” that’s held in Guantanamo leads to dozens more sprouting around the world.)
It is hypocrisy to save one of your own at high cost and still detain a citizen of one of your allies.
If it were an American illegally detained by Britain we would never hear the end of it.