Congressmen: Guantanamo Conditions Improve

[maddezmom]

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - Progress has been made to improve conditions and protect detainees' rights at the U.S. prison for suspected terrorists, House Republicans and Democrats, including one who has advocated closing the facility, said Saturday.

~snip~

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, is one of many Democrats who have called for an independent commission to investigate abuse allegations and said the facility should close. She stopped short of changing her position after the visit, but acknowledged, "What we've seen here is evidence that we've made progress."


~snip~

A small press contingent joined House lawmakers on this weekend's trip. However, military escorts controlled how much journalists were able to see and hear. In an unclassified briefing, commanders stressed the "safe and humane custody and control of detainees" by troops.

On a tour of one camp occupied by detainees considered "high value" for providing intelligence, journalists saw no detainees but watched as troops passed meals through small cells on one block. Detainees were clearly upset at the sound of visitors, shouting non-English words and pounding on closed doors while journalists entered an interrogation room - empty except for a set of handcuffs, a folding chair, a small table and two padded office chairs.

more: http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/88-06252005-507257.html

Reading Harry Potter books during an interrogation, watching detainees playing soccer all after a nice meal: the same meal of chicken with orange sauce, rice and okra. :eyes: What a farce.

US acknowledges torture at Guantanamo and Iraq, Afghanistan: UN source
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050624/pl_afp/unustortureguantanamo_050624132300

Guantanamo doctors under attack
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4620073.stm

Anger as US hinders move to investigate Guantanamo abuse
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=694982005

ICRC raises Guantanamo conditions(w/GWB)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4267297.stm

Pentagon to release new abuse photos
The Abu Ghraib images will mask victims' identities
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/06/19/MNG0NDB1GU1.DTL&feed=rss.news

UK had advance alert of jail abuse
A report on torture on Iraqis at Abu Ghraib was circulated within the army
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1510003,00.html

[Jon_da_brockman]

1. Could if be? dare I dream?

Perhaps, dare I say it, FOUR types of fruit? Sounds positively marvelous.
:sarcasm:

[TahitiNut]

2. "Our gulags are better than their gulags."

We're the Hyatt of torture camps! If you're gonna lose your human rights, why not do so in comfort between torture sessions?

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[maddezmom]

5. of course no one got to speak with any of the detainees living in the lap

of luxury in the tropics....but it all looked great, so now we informed Gitmo is making progress. :banghead:

[Eric J in MN]

3. Since they're not allowed to talk to the prisoners, it's all a show (nt)

nt

[Disturbed]

4. Another PR photo Op.

It all BULLSHIT.

[mom cat]

7. Just another dog and pony show!

[maddezmom]

8. agree, since they've already admitted to torture

at Gitmo, Abu Ghaib and in Afghanistan. I suppose by this admin standards anything could be called progress. :mad:

[earthboundmisfit]

6. Hate to bring up the Concentration Camp similarities again, but -

Well, ya know ... :shrug:
From Rick Steves' "Sobering Sites of Nazi Europe"
~snip~
Just outside of Prague is Terezín concentration camp (Theresienstadt in German, www.pamatnik-terezin.cz ). This particularly insidious place was dolled up as a model camp for Red Cross inspection purposes. Inmates had their own newspaper, and the children put on cute plays. But after the camp passed its inspection, life returned to slave labor and death. Ponder the touching collection of Jewish children's art, also on display in the Pinkas Synagogue in Prague's Jewish Quarter.
~snip~

and this, from Moffett Library, UC Berkeley, Media Resource Center:
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/propaganda.html

The Fuehrer Gives a City to the Jews (Fuehrer schenkt den Juden eine Stadt)
This is the only film known to be made by the Nazis inside an operating concentration camp. This propaganda film was produced in 1944 to use to prove to the International Red Cross and the world that Jews were being well-treated in concentration camps. This film of a "model" camp is an elaborately staged hoax presenting a completely false picture of camp life. Upon completion, the director and most of the cast of prisoners were shipped to Auschwitz, with only a few surviving to attest to the falsity of the film. 1944. 26 min. Video/C 6682

[u2spirit]

9. At my workplace (Pepsi)

Everytime any one of the corporate jag offs comes for a tour we have the whole bottling and canning plant repainted. We move all the old stuff sitting on the floors into trailers and we bring in a bunch of temp workers to spitshine the place. On the day of the tour everyone is expected to wear their Sunday best and kiss ass, and this is just a soda plant, not a "prison". I am embarrased sometimes by our reps for being so gullible. If I was on a tour there, I would demand to see every square inch of the place.

[CityDem]

10. Reminds me of the movie Stalag 13

Old World War II movie about a Nazi prison camp. The day before a Red Cross inspection, the Nazi guards handed out new blankets, care packages, etc. Shortly after the Red Cross inspectors departed, all the blankets, etc. were confiscated. I am sure our guards at Gitmo were handing out candy and sparkling water before the members of congress and the press showed up. The minute this contingent left, the torture chambers were open for business.

[struggle4progress]

11. Take our Potemkin Village tour with your own personal handlers! eom

[Solly Mack]

12. America's own Paradise Ghetto

and later they can tell us how they were never fooled by the window dressing...

[Say_What]

13. Anyone naive enough to believe this load of sh*t

deserves whatever they get.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

14. Nothing to see here but a glorified dog-and-pony show.

[C_U_L8R]

15. May I Ask...

How Have They Proved That The Torture Has Stopped ???

What Are They Hiding In Guantanamo?

What Are They Doing There That Is So Illegal On US Soil?

When Will The Commander In Chief Be Impeached
and Prosecuted for Condoning Torture In Our Name?

[DarkAngel]

16. I guess the lap dances stopped

nt

[brooklynite]

17. Mmm, mmm, love that lemon chicken!

[Ravy]

18. We don't know what it is like down there... or what it WAS like, actually.

And the very fact that the Pentagon was forced to admit the abuse and perhaps made the conditions better is a reason for us to at least breath a bit of a sigh of relief... and to keep up the pressure.

I doubt that this was just a photo op. DUers and other progressives put the pressure on and it is apparently doing some good.

Granted there is a LONG way to go. Holding prisoners indefinitely without a trial date is wrong. But I think we should look on this as progress. Baby steps? Sure, but in the right direction.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

21. What do you think is going to happen after the congressmen go home?...

...Just curious.

[Ravy]

26. I don't really know, but the optimist in me says that

things will be better there than if there hadn't been any complaints or inspections to begin with.

[bemildred]

19. Gitmo Gulag increases gruel ration 10%,

lower voltages mandated for genital electrodes,
some prisoner may eventually be allowed due process.

[Igel]

20. "What we've seen here is evidence that we've made progress."

I just *love* embedded presuppositions.

BTW, what's the slope of the line through a single point?

[Up2Late]

22. 100% Grade A B*ll Sh*t! This is from today's Amnesty Int. Press Release

(I just posted it in full at this link: <http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1582199&mesg_id=1582199> and the original at the web site is at: <http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/document.do?id=80256DD400782B848025702A005951C9> )

USA: UN scrutiny essential in preventing torture and ill-treatment
Amnesty International stressed the need for the USA to open up its detention centres all over the world to independent UN experts, after they expressed "deep regret" at the USA's failure to facilitate a visit to its 'war on terror' detainees. The organization pointed out the importance of independent monitoring in preventing torture and ill-treatment.

"Not only is the USA failing to investigate itself fully, it is failing to allow external independent scrutiny by human rights experts," said Amnesty International. "Such scrutiny is essential. The less contact detainees have with the outside world, the greater the risks of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. As the independent experts have reminded the USA, no country is above international human rights law."

Amnesty International is calling for the US Congress to establish a commission to carry out a full independent investigation into US detention and interrogation policies and practices around the world. It should seek the advice of international experts such as the UN expert on Torture in order to ensure its effectiveness and the appearance of impartiality in the eyes of the world.

"Allowing UN experts full access is a vital part of ensuring the international credibility of such an investigation," said Amnesty International.

"Shunning international law and denying detainees basic human rights will not bring security to the USA. It is time for the USA to fully re-engage with the international community in upholding human rights rules which the USA was material in shaping."

Amnesty International is intensifying its work on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. It is launching a campaign against the use of torture and ill-treatment in the 'war on terror' on 26 June, International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, in recognition that such a focus is central to reasserting the global ban on such treatment.

[NYC Liberal]

23. Progress == we're able to cover up the torture more effectively now. n/t

[LightningFlash]

24. Anyone committing the torture needs to be put in jail.

I'm glad they are doing this effectively. And for gods sake wiretap the lines and catch Rumsfailed, throw him in jail and get this over with.

[Vinca]

25. Call me crazy, but if you were in charge of Gitmo and learned

a bunch of Congress members and the press were planning a weekend getaway, wouldn't you order the troops to magically transform it into a Sandals resort? Just wonderin'. (Now . . . pass me some lemon fish.)

[TankLV]

27. Dog And Pony Show.

If anybody believes that these people were shown the actual conditions and actually ate the actual food, etc., then I have a couple bridges and some swamp land to sell you, real cheap!

I just want to know what the fuck is wrong with our "representatives" - the DEMOCRATIC ones - we know that the repukes will try to sell us vomit as a new candy.

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE!

If I was a rep/senator, when on such a "tour", and we're being led around - I'd insist on goiog "over there" - anyplace but where they were leading us - and if they refused, you be your ass I would be yelling it at the top of my lungs till I died.

These people make me sick.