A Global Gulag to Hide the War on Terror's Dirty Secrets

[RedEarth]

Published on Friday, January 14, 2005 by the Guardian/UK
A Global Gulag to Hide the War on Terror's Dirty Secrets
Bush is now thinking of building jails abroad to hold suspects for life

by Jonathan Steele

The promise of imminent release for four British detainees held at the notorious US prison at Guantánamo Bay is obviously welcome, but it is only a tiny exception in the surge of bad news from the Bush team on the human rights front. The first few days of the new year have produced two shocking exposures already.

One is the revelation that the administration sees the US not just as a self-appointed global policeman, but also as the world's prison warden. It is thinking of building jails in foreign countries, mainly ones with grim human rights records, to which it can secretly transfer detainees (unconvicted by any court) for the rest of their lives - a kind of global gulag beyond the scrutiny of the International Committee of the Red Cross, or any other independent observers or lawyers.

The other horror is the light shone on the views of Alberto Gonzales, the White House nominee to be the chief law officer, the attorney general. At his Senate confirmation hearings last week he was revealed to be a man who not only refuses to rule out torture under any circumstances but also, in his capacity as White House counsel over the past few years, chaired several meetings at which specific interrogation techniques were discussed. As Edward Kennedy pointed out, and Gonzales did not deny, they included the threat of burial alive and water-boarding, under which the detainee is strapped to a board, forcibly pushed under water, wrapped in a wet towel, and made to believe he could drown.

Since its establishment after 9/11, the US camp for foreigners at Guantánamo Bay has become a beacon of unfreedom, a kind of grisly competitor to the Statue of Liberty in the shopfront of authentic American images. The trickle of releases of prisoners from its cages has brought direct testimony of the horrors which go on there. So it is no wonder that the Bush administration would like to find less visible places to hold prisoners, and keep them there for ever so that they cannot tell the world.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0114-02.htm

[struggle4progress]

1. kick

[Voltaire99]

2. Another fine piece by Jonathan Steele. (n/t)

[UpInArms]

3. here's a poll

from USAToday regarding torture techniques:

http://www.usatoday.com//news/polls/tables/live/2005-01-10-poll.htm

excerpt:

A. Forcing prisoners to remain naked and chained in
uncomfortable positions in cold rooms for several hours
  	         Right 	Wrong No opinion 	
2005 Jan 7-9 	18 	79 	3 	

B. Having female interrogators make physical contact with
Muslim men during religious observances that prohibit such
contact
  	         Right   Wrong 	No opinion 	
2005 Jan 7-9 	12 	85 	3 	

C. Threatening to transfer prisoners to a country known for
using tortur 
  	         Right 	Wrong No opinion 	
2005 Jan 7-9 	35 	62 	3 	

D. Threatening prisoners with dogs
  	         Right 	Wrong No opinion 	
2005 Jan 7-9 	29 	69 	2 	

E. Strapping prisoners on boards and forcing their heads
underwater until they think they are drowning
  	         Right 	Wrong	No opinion 	
2005 Jan 7-9 	16 	82 	2 	

F. Depriving prisoners of sleep for several days
  	        Right 	Wrong No opinion 	
2005 Jan 7-9 	49 	48 	2 	
Results based on 528 national adults in Form B.

(edited so that the columns lined up better)

[JNelson6563]

4. America the Horrible

I'm sickened.