Rights Group Leader Says U.S. Has Secret Jails (Amnesty Hits Back Hard)

[Mark E. Smith]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The chief of Amnesty International USA alleged Sunday that the Guantanamo Bay detention camp is part of a worldwide network of U.S. jails, some of them secret, where prisoners are mistreated and even killed.

William Schulz, executive branch director of Amnesty's Washington-based branch, speaking on "Fox News Sunday," defended the group's recent criticism of U.S. treatment of detainees at the naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"The U.S. is maintaining an archipelago of prisons around the world, many of them secret prisons, into which people are being literally disappeared, held in indefinite, incommunicado detention without access to lawyers or a judicial system or to their families," Schulz said.

"And in some cases, at least, we know they are being mistreated, abused, tortured and even killed."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/05/amnesty.detainee/

[acmavm]

1. I have a sneaking suspicion that we've been doing this for a long time.

It's the skin color and nationality of the 'enemy' that changes.

[DLnyc]

6. Yes, but we used to work a lot harder at hiding it.

These guys have become so mesmerized by their own bullbleep that they think it's no big deal to torture and kill prisoners, hold people indefinintely without trial or even charges and then try to intimidate the press into cooperating in their half-hearted cover-up. But I do believe that large numbers of Americans, forgiving as they might be of certain crimes of BushCo, start feeling a little nauseated when ugly truths like these start to leak out.
I think the Bushies made a big mistake in trying to dismiss the Amnesty reports outright. If they had said something like "we take these allegations seriously and we are investigating" (instead of trying to smear Amnesty International) they would have an easier time later saying they were on the case all along. Now they look to be exposed as the torturers, liars and bullies that they are. Perhaps their arrogance is finally coming back to bite them in the ass.

[cthrumatrix]

26. expect a full blown report by our MEDIA......NOT

[Mark E. Smith]

2. Other links to this story ...

U.S. Running "Archipelago" of Secret Prisons
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=8&id=339445

U.S. Has Secret prisons - Amnesty
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=8528

66 more on Google

Wanna bet what tomorrow's big story is?

[Spiffarino]

12. And tomorrow's big story? You guessed it!

[LibertyorDeath]

18. Holy crap WTF is that. Come on at leas put a"Warning Graphic" caption

[Supersedeas]

28. the Corporate media must entertain to satisfy STOCKHOLDERS

[Mark E. Smith]

30. But you have to remember one thing ...

... while the Bushies might be able to quell their domestic problems over this story, at least to a certain extent, overseas nobody believes a single thing they have to say.

And it is the overseas story that is driving this issue. If it wasn't for the riots in Afghanistan over Guantanamo, very few would be paying attention.

Amnesty knows its audience.

[randr]

3. The School of the Americas

started under Bush the elder has led the way and trained any despot despicable enough to qualify.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

5. The School of the Americas goes back MUCH farther than Poppy....

...in fact, it was established by the Pentagon in 1946 in Panama:

Close the 'school of assassins!'
By Julia Lutsky, in People's Weekly World, 20 January 1996
<http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/40/018.html>

QUOTE:

1996 is the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia.

....snip....

The Pentagon established the school in Panama to promote "internal stability" in Latin America, having deemed such stability essential in the "battle against ... Communist subversion." Its real purpose soon became evident: to train local armies for the repression of movements of peasants and workers for relief from crushing poverty and exploitation. In 1984, under provisions of the Panama Canal Treaty, it was expelled to its present home at Fort Benning. At the time so many of its graduates had been implicated in human rights violations that a major Panamanian newspaper dubbed it, "School of assassins."

The school trains officers and men from Latin America and the Caribbean in counterinsurgency operations and guerrilla warfare, commando tactics, military intelligence and psychological warfare. Students also receive some human rights instruction. They are often given hypothetical situations to "act out" but this training may not always have the desired effect: "hen... soldiers go through the urban-combat exercises with blanks in their weapons, half the time the village priest (played by a U.S. Army chaplain) is killed or roughed up.

[ngGale]

22. Yep, The School of the Americas has been going on...

even before I was born. When I found out I thought, there are no good guys. Have there ever been? :dilemma:

[JNelson6563]

25. I've seen SOA defended here on DU

which I find amazing.

Julie

[indepat]

4. Four more year, four more years chant the multitude

[hector459]

7. Shouldn't Bush go on trial with Saddam? n/t

[Coexist]

8. I am interested in hearing the administration response to this

those who knew and kept the secret are as guilty as those who set them up. What kind of third-rate country are we?

[shadowknows69]

9. and that's why they'll simply deny it

Amnesty's claims are absurd. Our leader said so himself.

[DLnyc]

14. Dunno. Denial looks to be becoming difficult.

from
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=644264

...
A US judge has ordered the Bush administration to release more than 100 new photographs and videos of abused prisoners at Abu Ghraib, creating a fresh public relations nightmare for government officials as they seek to rebut accusations that the US is sponsoring torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond.
...

"These images may be ugly and shocking, but they depict how the torture was more than the actions of a few rogue soldiers," said ACLU director Anthony Romero. "The American public deserves to know what is being done in our name. Perhaps after these and other photos are forced into the light of day, the government will at long last appoint an outside special counsel to investigate the torture and abuse of detainees."

..----------------------

If Democrats had one half an ounce of brains, they would raise holy hell. Why?
1) The allegations are true (sickeningly so).
2) People DO care...Bush's numbers plumeted after Abu Graib, and are doing so again. See here, for example: http://www.pollingreport.com/BushJob.htm
5/7-9/04
app: 46
dis: 51

5/20-22/05 bush app. down (again) to 46
I'm not sure, but don't these dates correlate pretty closely with Abu Graib and Koran abuse, repsectively? (Personally, I think his approval should be about 0.3, but that's another story.)
3) This actually MATTERS. Why do they hate us? This might explain some things.

[tavalon]

21. There won't be a response

other than to label it "absurd".

First we need to impeach them, then we need to send them off to face war crimes.

[Mark E. Smith]

23. You're right

Just like Koran desecrations at Guantanamo have been sloughed off as isolated incidents by jail guards.

[icymist]

10. Wasn't it surprising when the article shifted to explaining Qua ran abuse?

Isn't it a surprise to read that 'the inmates' themselves flushed their Holy Book down the toilet? What fun to hear that guards at Gitmo have 'water balloon fights' while on duty! How stupid does this administration think we all are? And no thanks to CNN either!

[sweetheart]

11. Sorta explains the link between Archipelago and NYSE....

Seems torture and base criminality has gone mainstream.

[Nothing Without Hope]

13. Read about the kidnappings that get them there - EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION

I strongly recommend reading this thread and checking out the links in it. There is a LOT of information available, but it is mostly suppressed in this country. Stephen Grey, the author of this article and much else on this subject is a respected UK investigative journalist. Read the whole article and then check out the other info on this subject. OF COURSE there is a worldwide network of secret prisons.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1740193
Thread title: “MUST READ- French article on US TORTURE with interviews of ex-CIA agents”

(I called it a French article because this one appeared in a French journal - link is to English version.)

Compare that article with the misdirection and propaganda offered up a few days ago by the New York Times. Stephen Grey was a co-author, so they knew the truth, but the NYT portrayed this horrible practice as dashing and patriotic:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1821261#
Thread title: "CIA's EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION finally comes to the NY Times - sort of"

[bpilgrim]

15. the neoCONs are gonna need another big DISTRACTION

looks like our SHOCK-n-AWE is petering out and folks are coming to their sense and calling this regime out and i don't think they will handle this kinda of thing very well at all.

peace

[Disturbed]

16. Intl, Red Cross has reported similar issues.

Are the Red Cross reports absurd, as well?

The Bush Regime are War Criminals.

[LibertyorDeath]

19. "The Bush Regime are War Criminals."

and the MSM bends over backward 24\7 to protect these thugs from this
charge.

How much longer can the facade hold.

[thecai]

17. The Concentration Camps?

There are over 800 in America, from what I've researched over the years. You can view some of them on Globe Explorer, etc.
Mapquest used to offer the best aerial views, but they discontinued that feature.
I don't know how many are scattered all over the world...

[thecai]

20. This Is What We've Been Ranting About For YEARS

And they call us "conspiracy theory nutcases" while they cover-up and EXPAND.
Unite 2 Fight Against Injustice and Corruption!
End Fascism NOW!
REPEAL The P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Acts!

[Don_1967]

24. War Crimes

Since the start of this war I have read a lot about war crimes trial that would take place one day I thought it was just fantasy but now I think we must do this and do it soon Bush must be impeached!

[0007]

27. Check this out and draw your own conclusions

Torture in America’s prisons

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article8451.htm

[Barrett808]

29. Check out the Quick Vote: 66% say Amnesty "more accurate"

Who do you think is being more accurate over the U.S. detention of terror suspects?

Amnesty International 66% 37708 votes
The White House 34% 19602 votes

Total: 57310 votes

On the right side, about halfway down the page.