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Terror Networks
BBC: Guantanamo detentions blasted
2003-10-10
Some unfair and imbalanced reporting from BBC...
A senior Red Cross official has launched a rare attack on the US detention of al-Qaeda and Taleban suspects at Guantanamo Bay. Christophe Girod told the New York Times it was unacceptable that the 600 detainees should be held for open-ended terms without proper legal process.
Boo friggin’ hoo.
His criticism came as a group of American former judges, diplomats and military officers called on the US Supreme Court to examine the legality of holding the foreign nationals for almost two years, without trial, charge or access to lawyers. Mr Girod said the International Committee of the Red Cross was making the unusually blunt public statement because of a lack of action after previous private contacts with American officials. "One cannot keep these detainees in this pattern, this situation, indefinitely," he said during a visit to the US naval base where the Taleban and al-Qaeda suspects are being held.
Maybe the splodeydopes should have thought of that when they were training to attack the U.S. in a previous "safehaven".
US officials insist there are reasons for holding the alleged fighters and say they will get a fair legal hearing in due course. Mr Girod is leading a team from the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has just completed an inspection tour of the detention camp in Cuba. Although he did not criticise any physical conditions at the camp, he said that it was intolerable that the complex was used as "an investigation centre, not a detention centre". "The open-endedness of the situation and its impact on the mental health of the population has become a major problem," he told the New York Times.
Mental health of Islamist killers?
They'd be dead a lot longer than they're going to be detained, more's the pity...
Christine Huskey, an American lawyer representing 28 Kuwaiti inmates, told the BBC she had had "absolutely" no access to them. "I represent a ghost," she told the World Today programme. In the past 18 months, 21 detainees have made 32 suicide attempts, and many more are being treated for depression, the New York Times says.
"Depressed, Mahmoud?"
"Yeah. I wanna go home to Yemen."
"Here, have some giggle juice."
"Thanksh! I feel mush bedder..."
Mr Girod says prisoners who spoke to his team regularly asked about what was going to happen to them.
"You're gonna grow old and die living in cages."
On Sunday a group including former American judges and military officials filed legal papers urging the US Supreme Court to intervene. Don Guter, the US navy’s judge advocate general until last year, said it was not acceptable simply to hold suspected al-Qaeda or Taleban members until the US war on terror was over.
It's not "acceptable" for their victims to be dead forever, either...
The argument filed to the Supreme Court by Mr Guter and others said: "The lives of American military forces may well be endangered by the United States’ failure to grant foreign prisoners in its custody the same rights that the United States insists be accorded to American prisoners held by foreigners." That view was backed by ex-prisoners-of-war, some of whom told the Supreme Court they owed their lives to the fact that their captors abided by the Geneva conventions. On Wednesday an Australian lawyer representing some of the suspects said they were being submitted to torture.
Here comes BBC’s version of "fair and balanced" reporting--one short sentence:
US officials have denied torturing detainees, saying they are allowed to practise their religion and given good medical care.
Geez, thanks for the help in fighting terrorism, mates.
Posted by:TJ

#6  This is still the same old problem we've gone round and round on since 9/11 and before. What kinds of rights do our happy campers have?. Are these mokes "criminals" or POWs or "war criminals" or something else? If criminals, then there's the whole pro-perp legal system to deal with - e.g., Massoui or however the hell you spell his name. If POW, there's all that Geneva convention/Red Cross/Red Crescent stuff. If War criminals, you're still looking at some kind of "fair hearing" process, unless of course you can invoke the "shoot spies immediately" type clauses.

I'd like to propose that a traditional Northern European approach be reinstituted; that is, outlawing. In Norse culture, being declared an outlaw didn't mean you were operating outside the law, it meant you were placed outside the protection of the law. Any one who felt like it could settle your hash without the penalty of weregild or starting a feud.

Let's see.... Al Queda is decared outlawed. Capture a terrorist, put him in Gitmo, wring him/her out, produce some fertizer for the crops and screw you ALCU, AI & Red Crescent.
Posted by: Mercutio   2003-10-10 6:53:05 PM  

#5  Wow, the Red Cross is such a swell organization. Remember when they visited the Concentration Camp at Theresienstadt and said it looked good to them?
Posted by: Greg   2003-10-10 1:33:44 PM  

#4  Of course they tried to commmit suicide, that's part of their training.

Perhaps the depression is related to the fact that they are now realizing to some extent that they have been fed an enormous pack of lies about the decadant west and regret their previous stand even if they can't admit it to themselves.
Posted by: Yank   2003-10-10 11:09:30 AM  

#3  We have a large group of idiots in this nation that think everything will be just hunky-dory if the proper "legal" rules are followed. They don't have a clue that the people in detention in Cuba don't give a damn about our rules, our laws, or any of the rest of our civilization. These people need to be visited by a cluebat to the schnozz. Sometimes I wonder how we've managed to remain an independent republic with all these "superminds" trying to micromanage our government.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2003-10-10 10:47:50 AM  

#2  Can we develop a tagging system like Marlin Perkins used to use for big cats. That way we could kind of check on these guys once they are released. As a tradeoff with human rights activists, we could provide a free large soda at any worldwide McDonalds for any tagged jihadi.
Posted by: Super Hose   2003-10-10 10:42:57 AM  

#1  In the past 18 months, 21 detainees have made 32 suicide attempts, and many more are being treated for depression, the New York Times says.

It doesn't get any better than that. I guess BBC is afraid these murdering bastards won't get a crack at civilians.

On Sunday a group including former American judges and military officials filed legal papers urging the US Supreme Court to intervene. Don Guter, the US navy’s judge advocate general until last year, said it was not acceptable simply to hold suspected al-Qaeda or Taleban members until the US war on terror was over.

Why not? It is a long established legal precedence that the government can hold someone indefinately if it can show the court the detainee's intentions are to make widespread havoc upon his release. If they can do this domestically, they sure as hell can for these foreign suicidal murderers.

I wonder what is happening to the legal profession in this country. They are going to considerable lengths to protect sworn enemies of the United States, men sworn to take their own lives as long as they can murder Americans. That makes the packet of foo's who filed this brief with SCOTUS traitors.
Posted by: badanov   2003-10-10 9:59:59 AM  

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