UN concludes US uses torture at Guantanamo

[mburbank]

Report: US Is Abusing Captives
By Maggie Farley
The Los Angeles Times

A UN inquiry says the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, which at times amounts to torture, violates international law.

New York - A draft United Nations report on the detainees at Guantanamo Bay concludes that the US treatment of them violates their rights to physical and mental health and, in some cases, constitutes torture.




Someone ought to tell John Mccain the President is breaking his law.

[Chojin]

When is the UN finally going to attack us ;<

[Kulturkampf]

It is too bad that we are doing this. Trials should be given.

But fuck the UN. They didn't act against Iraq for gross human rights violations, so fuck them.

[davinxtk]

Originally Posted by Kulturkampf

It is too bad that we are doing this. Trials should be given.

What an unimpassioned, terse response. 'Trials should be given.' Jesus, man, don't you understand that you can't just court martial the prison guards and call the problem solved? They're taking orders from someone, who's taking orders from someone, who's taking orders from someone who long ago gave the go-ahead to torture inmates. This is corruption, not poor behavior. God damnit you are so myopic it borders on offensive.

But fuck the UN. They didn't act against Iraq for gross human rights violations, so fuck them.

I do however have to agree that the UN long ago undermined their own authority. I don't see a world leader taking them too seriously too soon.

[Dole]

There are shitloads of countries that haven't been acted on by anyone for 'gross human rights violations'.

[Sirhamalot]

Funny most of the so called torture is no more severe than what one has to go through in boot camp. Face it the UN is a bureaucratic mess of an organization that is hell bent on making us look bad. My question is why do we (American tax payers) continue to fund it?

[Sethomas]

What taxes do you pay?

[Sirhamalot]

Originally Posted by Sethomas

What taxes do you pay?

FITW

[Dole]

Funny most of the so called torture is no more severe than what one has to go through in boot camp.

Force feeding? often handcuffed/blindfolded for most of the day?

[mburbank]

How about spending several months in an open air cage? They did that to you in bootcamp? How about being interred without charge, removed from your life and kept even after your captors acknowledge that you are totally innocent of all charges, as in the case of five chinese residents of Gunatnamo? They do that to you in bootcamp?

Oh, here's another thing, Bootcamp? Voluntary. You get paid for it. And sometimes you even know when you're leaving.

What kind of sub human piece of crap says something like that? I wish to christ someone would waterboard your ass right now.

[Geggy]

Maybe they just want to join the fraternity.

[Sirhamalot]

Originally Posted by mburbank

How about spending several months in an open air cage? They did that to you in bootcamp? How about being interred without charge, removed from your life and kept even after your captors acknowledge that you are totally innocent of all charges, as in the case of five chinese residents of Gunatnamo? They do that to you in bootcamp?

Oh, here's another thing, Bootcamp? Voluntary. You get paid for it. And sometimes you even know when you're leaving.

What kind of sub human piece of crap says something like that? I wish to christ someone would waterboard your ass right now.

Obviously you are not reading my response to the topic correctly or you know nothing of the actual situation there. I will spell it out for you slowly... The "torture" that the inmates incur include the following grabbed from drudge.com: "More Muscular Strategies: Al-Qahtani's resilience under pressure in the fall of 2002 led top officials at Gitmo to petition Washington for more muscular "counter resistance strategies." On Dec. 2, Rumsfeld approved 16 of 19 stronger coercive methods. Now the interrogators could use stress strategies like standing for prolonged periods, isolation for as long as 30 days, removal of clothing, forced shaving of facial hair, playing on "individual phobias" (such as dogs) and "mild, non-injurious physical contact such as grabbing, poking in the chest with the finger and light pushing." According to the log, al-Qahtani experienced several of those over the next five weeks. The techniques Rumsfeld balked at included "use of a wet towel or dripping water to induce the misperception of suffocation." "Our Armed Forces are trained," a Pentagon memo on the changes read, "to a standard of interrogation that reflects a tradition of restraint." Nevertheless, the log shows that interrogators poured bottles of water on al-Qahtani's head when he refused to drink. Interrogators called this game "Drink Water or Wear It."

Dripping Water or Playing Christina Aguilera Music: After the new measures are approved, the mood in al-Qahtani's interrogation booth changes dramatically. The interrogation sessions lengthen. The quizzing now starts at midnight, and when Detainee 063 dozes off, interrogators rouse him by dripping water on his head or playing Christina Aguilera music. According to the log, his handlers at one point perform a puppet show "satirizing the detainee's involvement with al-Qaeda." He is taken to a new interrogation booth, which is decorated with pictures of 9/11 victims, American flags and red lights. He has to stand for the playing of the U.S. national anthem. His head and beard are shaved. He is returned to his original interrogation booth. A picture of a 9/11 victim is taped to his trousers. Al-Qahtani repeats that he will "not talk until he is interrogated the proper way." At 7 a.m. on Dec. 4, after a 12-hour, all-night session, he is put to bed for a four-hour nap, TIME reports.

Invasion of Space by Female: Over the next few days, al-Qahtani is subjected to a drill known as Invasion of Space by a Female, and he becomes especially agitated by the close physical presence of a woman. Then, around 2 p.m. on Dec. 6, comes another small breakthrough. He asks his handlers for some paper. "I will tell the truth," he says. "I am doing this to get out of here." He finally explains how he got to Afghanistan in the first place and how he met with bin Laden. In return, the interrogators honor requests from him to have a blanket and to turn off the air conditioner. Soon enough, the pressure ratchets up again. Various strategies of intimidation are employed anew. The log reveals that a dog is present, but no details are given beyond a hazy reference to a disagreement between the military police and the dog handler. Agitated, al-Qahtani takes back the story he told the day before about meeting bin Laden, TIME reports.

A 24-Hour Time Out: But a much more serious problem develops on Dec. 7: a medical corpsman reports that al-Qahtani is becoming seriously dehydrated, the result of his refusal to take water regularly. He is given an IV drip, and a doctor is summoned. An unprecedented 24-hour time out is called, but even as al-Qahtani is put under a doctor's care, music is played to "prevent detainee from sleeping." Nine hours later, a medical corpsman checks al-Qahtani's pulse and finds it "unusually slow." An electrocardiogram is administered by a doctor, and after al-Qahtani is transferred to a hospital, a CT scan is performed. A second doctor is consulted. Al-Qahtani's heartbeat is regular but slow: 35 beats a minute. He is placed in isolation and hooked up to a heart monitor, TIME reports.

Has Big Story to Tell: Over the next month, the interrogators experiment with other tactics. They strip-search him and briefly make him stand nude. They tell him to bark like a dog and growl at pictures of terrorists. They hang pictures of scantily clad women around his neck. A female interrogator so annoys al-Qahtani that he tells his captors he wants to commit suicide and asks for a crayon to write a will. At one stage, an Arabic-speaking serviceman, posing as a fellow detainee, is brought to Camp X-Ray for a short stay in an effort to gain al-Qahtani's confidence. The log reports that al-Qahtani makes several comments to interrogators that imply he has a big story to tell, but interrogators report that he seems either too scared or simply unwilling, to tell it. On Jan. 10, 2003, al-Qahtani says he knows nothing of terrorists but volunteers to return to the gulf states and act as a double agent for the U.S. in exchange for his freedom. Five days later, Rumsfeld's harsher measures are revoked after military lawyers in Washington raised questions about their use and efficacy, TIME reports."


Ok so were not forced to listen to Christina Aguilera, also you're only strip searched if you go to CCU or the brig. Which brings me to my point you ignorant fuck, THESE PEOPLE ARE TERRORISTS not POWs. You can find the article at this link: http://www.drudgereport.com/flash2ti.htm

[Kulturkampf]

Originally Posted by davinxtk

What an unimpassioned, terse response. 'Trials should be given.' Jesus, man, don't you understand that you can't just court martial the prison guards and call the problem solved? They're taking orders from someone, who's taking orders from someone, who's taking orders from someone who long ago gave the go-ahead to torture inmates. This is corruption, not poor behavior. God damnit you are so myopic it borders on offensive.

I do however have to agree that the UN long ago undermined their own authority. I don't see a world leader taking them too seriously too soon.

I believe that the whole system needs to be revamped and how people should behave should be clearly outlined; it shouldn't be tolerated that we still are not sure what we can and cannot do during interrogation.

Court martials hve been ineffective because even people directly responsible for the deaths of inmates have been let off with literally months in a prison; in Bagram, Afghanistan where two inmates were murdered and others constantly tortured, the largest sentence of everyone was five months and only one officer was put on trial.

The system is so broken that ... I am pissed off royally.

This is not a liberal-conservative issue, but rather a human rights issue.

[mburbank]

Sir Pantsalot;

thanks for 'spelling it out real slowly for me! Since the speed at which you spelled can't really come through in a post, I took the initiative to read your post real slowly to get bthe effect you intended. I also gave you a kind of nasal girls voice and I pit in big pauses where I imagined you using an asthma inhaler. I hope you don't mind.

I was also very impressed when you used the Drudge report as a source. You're right, I am an ignorant fuck. I didn't even realize how trustworthy a journalist Matt Drudge was until you sourced him. And he sourced TIME! Boy, I'm not ure I'd even know how to do that, let alone select speciffic snippets tht supported my point whileleaving everything else out. That guy should work for Dick Chenney! I here he's short at least one cherry picker since Scooter got indicted.

I also want to thank you for pointng out that everyone who's been at Guantanamo are terrorists, because I thought the people we'd released after more than two years and said weren't terrorists and sent back to their home countries where they were immediately releaed weren't terrorists, but I'm glad you cleared it up for me. Or maybe you meant THOSE guys weren't terrorists, si it was okay to keep them in cges with no rights at all until we figured it out. Also the five chinese citizens we admit are totally innocent but we're keeping at guantanamo because China won't take them back and we don't want to set the precedent of granting asylum to peope we've wrongfully imprisoned for years with no rights, so even though they are innocent we intend to keep tham at Guantanamo. I guess our admitting their innocence is a clever ruse to keep othr terrorists from knowing about the terrorists we have.

I'd source all the shit human rights watch has concluded, and amnesty international and the red cross and now the UN, and I'd source even more stuff if the US would let anyone see the prisoners and not just speak to the people they've already let go because they decided they weren't terrorists who've been very poor sports and alleged they were tortured. I guess they're really angry about having been kept at Gunatanamo even though it turns out they were innocent and just got sold to us by Afghan warlords for cash. But what's the point? Really smart trustworthy fellas with a track record for scrupulous honesty like Donald Rumsfeld and Matt Drudge who have no agenda like those persnicitty human rights organizations.

It turns out if we'd given these people any rights at all, we wouldn't KNOW f they were terrorists, because they'd be innocent until proven guilty. If we'd even given them the benefit of the Geneva convention, we couldn't treat them the way they deserve to be treated for being terrorists. It was pretty damn shrewd to just decide they were all terrorists, even though we've let a lot of people leave their because it turns out they weren't. Everyone who's there now is a terrorist for sure. Heck, if they threw you in their it would be because you were a terrorist! We'd know because they'd tell us! ou don't need oversight when the person in a cage is a terrorist, all you need to know is someone told you they were. NONE of these people are unlucky bastards who just got caught up in a dragnet or sold to us. Except for the ones we already said are. And those chinese guys. But none of the others. And if the innocent ones had to stand up for a long time, or be naked in a cage or listen to Christina Augilera, well I'm sure thir families understand and so do they. No hard feelings. Thank God nothing else happened to them. sure, they say they were beaten and force fed through tubes and that female soldiers stripped down to their undies and smeared mentsral blood on them while tey were strapped to a chair, but they're just liars. Donald Rumsfled says so. And he has no reason to lie! The fact that if he is lieing he'd be guilty of war crimes is not the sort of thing that makes a person lie.

So thank you for spelling it out all slow for me, and for talking like a brain damaged pre teen girl, and huffing on an inhaler. I am now far the wiser, and my ignorance went all away when I clicked on that link to teh Drudge report you gave me. Until next time, stay the course, becuase we're winning the war on terror!

[homoperfect]

I think the events are unfortunate. The problem of gitmo are not so easily solved by trials nor does the entire higharchy generally hold responsibility either. I believe the UN is a great institution but it doesn't work as well as I'd like it. It would help if we'd give the UN a decent chance and abide by the constitution. Considering we are a leading nation and have a significant role with in the Un we should abide by the international laws. If nothing more, abide by the laws we voted for. I think an investigation, not nessisary by americans, to find out the specifics of the Incident, then take action accordingly. I think it is nessisary to act to show that these tortures will not be tolerated. The current president sided with muslims in europe who are protesting over a cartoon. he is also allowing the UAE to hold six major US ports. this is being done for many reasons, but one is for Muslim relations. I think if Muslim relations is such an important issue thenn he should deal with gitmo accordingly.