Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Posted by Sickboy at 4:50 PM
US Denies Torture of Detainees at Guantanamo
By David Gollust
Washington
23 May 2006
The United States Tuesday rejected charges by Amnesty International of torture at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It also chided the London-based rights group for failing to assist in the war crimes prosecution of Saddam Hussein.

The Bush administration is again denying charges of mistreatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, while reiterating its desire to close the controversial facility as soon as it is practical.

The comments came in response to Amnesty International's annual report released Tuesday which faulted world powers, particularly the United States, for allegedly setting aside human rights concerns in pursuing the war against terrorism.

At a news briefing, State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack rejected Amnesty charges that the indefinite detention of terrorism suspects at Guantanamo amounted to cruel and inhuman treatment, or that torture was practiced there.

Interesting but again what the hell else are we going to do? Admit it?

24 comments:

dad-e~O said...

What's the golden rule Eric? not the one about who has teh gold makes the rules. The one that says Treat others the way we would want to be treated.
I have a fundamental problem with telling others they can't do something if we do it to them, not to mention the fact we claim to be "One Nation Under God" but turn around and ignore the teachings of the bible time and time again. and this under god thing seems to be more and more previlant lately.

I don't have an answer to your question, but I know that I wouldn't want anyone to torture my family and friends.

8:03 PM CDT
Sickboy said...

you are right on. I wouldnt want my love ones tortured either. Are we doing what is claimed? I would hope we are not. Is there a chance though...sure.

8:12 PM CDT
Scott said...

It is disappointing that we act as a nation above God, with the excuse that we are at war... so much for setting the good example as God's country. Or maybe the god we set example by is actually a god of hatred, fear, and vengeance?

I don’t mean to over generalize, but Pete has a point. With "pro Christian leadership" in power. Why does it seem they (our current leaders) are only half the Christians they could be? Maybe we (as in all of us and including our leaders) are incapable of living sin free?

I don’t have any answers, but this whole state of affairs we live in, is part of what motivates me to post as I did the other night.

8:32 PM CDT
Scott said...

Also, I am really working hard not to take shit to seriously. Realy I mean it.

8:34 PM CDT
Sickboy said...

Im glad I got you guys talking, thats all I try to do here and yes, taking all of this too seriously is bad for the soul, be it sin free or not!

8:36 PM CDT
dad-e~O said...

I fukin' love you frank

9:34 PM CDT
steve butt said...

their are some that say that the "christian" church that survived the dark ages is actually ruled by the very evil that we are supposed to worry about. there is a very valid point that the height of power for the catholic church is called the dark ages by the rest of the world.

11:58 PM CDT
Martin said...

Ok, before I start I just want to make it clear that I do not support torturing people. This is not a practice that the US should be involved in. That said let's see what Amnesty Int'l alleges the US is doing. the article alluded that the torture was keeping alleged terrorists and combatants indefinitely. Not branding them with hot irons, not electrocuting their genitals, not dissolving them in acid, all of which were practices of the Hussein regime incidentally.
Also, let us not forget the incident involving Lindey England and her cohorts. they were found guitly of abuse of prisoners and punished. I believe at least one of the soldiers is spending time at the crossbar hotel courtesy of Uncle Sam. The US punished it's own soldiers for abusing enemy combatants.
Again, I'm not a proponent of torture. I just think we need to define what torture is, and recognize that the US has taken some action to discipline those who would act in a way not befitting a professional US soldier.

1:43 AM CDT
Martin said...

Upon re-rereading my post I feel compelled to point out something else. If there is no proof that the detainees are involved in action against US or allied forces or in some way rendering aid to it's enemies, they should be released. This article did not specify whether Amnesty Intl said that innocent people were being held, only that people were being held indefinitely. I'm not an apologist, I'm not a dittohead, I don't like the way things are going but I just wanted to respond to what I believe is just a politically motivated attack against this administration by Amnesty Intl.

1:56 AM CDT
Sickboy said...

YOU GO MIKE, right on!!!!

6:08 AM CDT
Scott said...

Thank goodness for Franko

6:10 AM CDT
Sickboy said...

Frank, I still love you.

Mike, those are very good points you bring up. While I also dont really support torture, I think that Amnesty is a bunch of left winged yahoos that will do or say anything to make the US look bad.

6:20 AM CDT
dad-e~O said...

"Left wing Yahoo's" may be the new qoute of the day,
but I'm pretty fond of:
"there is a very valid point that the height of power for the catholic church is called the dark ages by the rest of the world" well put Steve.
And Frank, I'm surprised you didn't also make a "Golden Showers" joke.
Mike, your points are good too, I would consider listing to Green Day torture, while Jake loves it....

12:08 PM CDT
Martin said...

The dark ages, I think, was named more so for the dissapearence of engineering knowledge, cohesive infrastructure and classical education susequent to the fall of the Roman Empire. The Romans had hot and cold running water, indoor plumbing and other engineering marvels. That knowledge was lost along with the slave labor that was used to build it and the quality of life plummeted. In western Europe the only large institution left was the Church. See what happens when you live w/ a history teacher?

1:11 PM CDT
Sickboy said...

Christ, first we get super educated Mark M. here and now we have Mr. Martin schooling us all.

Can we say Eric feels mighty unedumakated?

6:57 PM CDT
dad-e~O said...

any one wanna know about wine?

thanks Maureen.

7:50 PM CDT
Sickboy said...

I blame Mo also.

7:56 PM CDT
Mark M said...

I heard someone type my name. ...What, you think I sit around all day refreshing the blog in my browser in case someone posts something good? Well... OK, maybe I do. Please don't tell my boss.

Damn... It looks like I've come late to this discussion. All I'll say is that Amnesty International has documented many cases of abuse aside from "indefinite detention." The administration has been able to deny that torture takes place only by excluding all but the most severe forms of abuse as being "torture". I think it is revealing that McCormack chooses to comment only on Amnesty's weakest charge. Even though indefinite detention does not IMO qualify as being torture, it is unjust and violates the principle of habeas corpus (executive or ruler having to answer to an independent authority to justify holding a person prisoner) that has been around for centuries.

Oh yeah... One more thing. The news article is from Voice of America... run by the U.S. government. Anytime I hear something from VOA, I ask: Is it the truth, or just the government line?

9:33 PM CDT
Martin said...

I haven't read the AI report, so I could just comment on the article itself. I was also unaware of the source of the news article. the fact that it is from VOA does bring the objectivity of this into question. If there were more serious allegations, and I don't doubt there were, then this article seems to have conveniently glossed over them.
BTW, Mark M, I checked out your blog. Very nice. I liked it a lot.

11:49 PM CDT
dad-e~O said...

what the fuck is VOA?
we need a newspaper?

1:35 AM CDT
dad-e~O said...

true story,
Tif like to check out the OMI blog too. She just read that there were 22 commemts on this post, and commented. "22 comments! you guy are gonna beat this one to death..... no pun in inteaded"
I'm still giggling.

8:04 AM CDT
Scott said...

It would be sweet if Tiff and some of the other lurking females gave us some us some comments as well.

8:45 AM CDT
Sickboy said...

yes this thread had taken the cake as far as the number of posts go. I would also love it if some of the lurkers we know posted to this blog, it would be nice and open up some more conversations....

so, ladies, get with it, register a name and POST!!!

9:53 AM CDT
Martin said...

Haha, beat it to death. That's funny.

10:13 AM CDT

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