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| ICRC raises Guantanamo conditions |
| 2005-02-17 |
| The head of the International Committee for the Red Cross has met US President George W Bush to discuss concerns about detainees at Guantanamo Bay. ICRC officials regularly visit the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where suspected al-Qaeda and Taleban members are being held. The committee said Mr Kellenberger had met President Bush in Washington on Monday. Their discussion "focused on ICRC concerns regarding US detention" as well as the main challenges facing the organisation in armed conflicts around the world. He also met US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and is due to meet Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Tuesday. The Geneva-based agency said it welcomed the opportunity to "raise these issues at the highest level and looks forward to strengthening its confidential dialogue with US authorities." The Bush administration insists the 540 or so inmates of Guantanamo - many of whom have been held without charge since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan - have been treated humanely. Human rights organisations |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #10 CrazyFool: The ICRC is only doing what it feels is in it's best interest to validate itself. We're one of the few countries that will meet with them to discuss their "concerns" as you pointed out with North Korea. Otherwise, they'd be gettin' around the world (and in the news) alot more often. Just smile and show 'em the door. |
| Posted by: shellback 2005-02-17 2:21:41 PM |
| #9 shellback, are you talking about doing it to the detainees or the ICRC 'inspectors'? Does it make a difference? BTW: has the ICRC ever denounced the beheadings? |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2005-02-17 1:14:38 PM |
| #8 ...to discuss concerns about detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Jeez, talk about a standing headline, we see it every freakin' week. YWWWWWN... |
| Posted by: Raj 2005-02-17 1:01:30 PM |
| #7 what we need to do is stick electronic tracking devices up their ass and let 'em go. God willing they'll lead us straight to the big dogs. |
| Posted by: shellback 2005-02-17 10:53:13 AM |
| #6 The ICRC neets a very harsh, very public tongue lashing. Ask them when they last visited those prisons on North Korea. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2005-02-17 10:04:27 AM |
| #5 Badanov has it pretty much right. But I think it may even be worse than he says. The anti-US impulse in the comfortable, protected parts of the industrialized world is so strong that it seems to have infected an organization that wasn't previously that way. Last I checked, the ICRC was even joining those who argued that the Conventions had no actual content, and no inter-locking system of obligations and privileges -- they had a laughable "legal" argument on their website that very unconvincingly tried to argue that global terrorists merit Convention POW status. I hope Dubya had a list of his own -- at the top of mine would be to administer a tongue-lashing to the ICRC for abandoning its confidentiality doctrine several times in the last few years to the special detriment of the US. They did this both in Iraq and WRT Guantanamo. |
| Posted by: Verlaine in Iraq 2005-02-17 9:54:41 AM |
| #4 You're on the right track SPOD, actually the detainees all need to be executed right now. That eliminates the problem altogether. |
| Posted by: JerseyMike 2005-02-17 8:55:18 AM |
| #3 Put me in charge. I will execute on inmate everytime the ICRC opens it's mouth. Tell me the last time the ICRC protected a US soilder from his captors? WW2? They can all FOAD. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2005-02-17 4:00:17 AM |
| #2 Here's the deal with the United States military and 'humanitarian' organizations like the Red Reticle. The NGOs know the US military/US Government will cooperate so therefore they made absurd demands to ensure their supporters that 'soemthing is being done,' inasmuch as something would have been done regardless of their input. The NGOs also know they will never get this type of cooperation fron 90 percent of the world's other nations: Not Sudan, not Cuba, not North Korea. So, NGOs are bravely making those who are not only willing to cooperate but who are staying ahead of any problems, while even more bravely acting as though such 'examples' will make the other truley crappy mobocracies/tyrannies in the world do the right thing. The concept is insane, but there it is. |
| Posted by: badanov 2005-02-17 2:55:06 AM |
| #1 Because obviously, there aren't enough human beings dying in various horrible ways anywhere else on the globe to warrant the attention of the ICRC. Sheesh. |
| Posted by: Asedwich 2005-02-17 1:29:30 AM |