Saturday, May 20, 2006

Posted by Sickboy at 6:31 PM
Monitors of torture treaty rebuke US
Close Guantanamo, UN panel urges
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | May 20, 2006

WASHINGTON -- A United Nations anti-torture panel yesterday urged the United States to shut down its Guantanamo Bay detention camp, close any secret overseas CIA prisons, and halt the use of what it said are cruel and degrading interrogation techniques.

The recommendations by the UN Committee Against Torture amounted to the most sweeping rebuke yet of the detention and interrogation policies the Bush administration adopted after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The report was issued by a panel of human rights investigators at the UN who are charged with monitoring compliance with the Convention Against Torture.

And just how else are we supposed to get these bastards to talk? You cant reason with something that is unreasonable.

7 comments:

Mark M said...

Tippy... First, torture doesn't yield information; it yields compliance. So yeah, they'll talk if you torture them, but you wouldn't want to believe anything they say.

Second, you make an assumption that the guys in Guantanamo are "unreasonable bastards." Most of the detainees were brought over from Afghanistan on suspicion that they were members of the Taliban, and possibly al Qaeda. However, it now appears that many of them were innocent men handed over to American forces in exchange for a bounty. (Here's an article from MSNBC: link.)

Third, the UN Convention Against Torture, to which the U.S. is a party, states in Article 2: "No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture." So if you think it is acceptable to torture prisoners, just be aware that 140 other countries that are a party to the convention might have a problem with our violating it.

7:47 PM CDT
Sickboy said...

I had a feeling this would bring you out. Good to see you again Mark, where have ya been?

there are a lot (not all) of times where I will bring something up here on the blog just for the sake of arguement. I understand your posints and they are all very valid.

Its good to see you again.

7:55 PM CDT
dad-e~O said...

Mark, nice to see you back.
Eric, I would tend to agree that we do in fact need to get information from people in order to end a bad war.
My brother Rick made an interesting point the other day... Is the UN/EU the standard? just because the US belongs to the United nations does that mean that every single desion we make has to be in lock step with them? that'll make for a pretty un-interesting world.
There are pleanty of people who say get the US out of the UN. that being said:
Is it justifiable to use "Crule and unusual" punishment to get results. I think it would be appropriate to hold our international prisoners to the same standard we hold our domestic too. Justifiable cause, proof before punishment, that sort of thing.
How many times have you, Eric, been acused of something you may not have done because of your appearance.
Remember Leonard Pelteir. The same gov't that improperly imprisoned him, may just be improperly improsining people in Cuba.
I'm not sure what the answer is. I'm just a restaurant manager after all. but I'm confident that the story we hear every day isn't the whole tale.

8:02 PM CDT
Sickboy said...

I never thought to think about Peltier in this case and it really brings up a good point.

9:08 PM CDT
Sickboy said...

I just think that having all these people detained right now is a good idea. It is like when a police officer first arrives on a scene with multiple people; the first thing they would do would be to round everyone up until things can be figured out.

I am not saying all these people are wrong doers but you damn well know most of them hold a serious amount of hatred towards the US and some of them could be dangerous wi th those feelings.

I wish there was a better way to handle such a situation but I dont think that there is at this time; we have to have certain detainees talking.

9:40 PM CDT
Mark M said...

Good to be back, guys. I've been around, lurking a bit... just been busy preparing for a concert tomorrow evening with a community band I play in.

9:43 PM CDT
dad-e~O said...

D, arent you college educated, I think I visited you at NIU, your spelling is worse then mine.... looking forward to getting together.

8:06 AM CDT

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)