U.N. experts say they have reliable accounts of torture at Guantanamo

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http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0623UNgitmo23-ON.html

U.N. experts say they have reliable accounts of torture at Guantanamo

Associated Press
Jun. 23, 2005 06:35 AM

GENEVA - U.N. human rights experts said Thursday they have reliable accounts of detainees being tortured at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The experts also said Washington had not responded to their latest request to check on the conditions of terror suspects at the facility in eastern Cuba. That request was made in April.

U.S. officials so far have allowed only the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit Guantanamo detainees. The U.N. human rights investigators have been trying to visit since 2002.

The ICRC keeps its findings confidential, reporting them solely to the detaining power, although some of the reports have been leaked by what the ICRC says were third parties.

The U.N. experts would be expected to make a public report.

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1. ironic that this comes out after Durbin's apology...

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2. Hey this is "old news". So have the Red Cross and Amnesty

Everyone knows this and most people could give a rat's ass. Better to be "strong and wrong." What's worse is that Durbin used the word "Nazi." He referred to torture techniques as similar to the Nazi's, so that means he thinks all of our volunteer troops risking their lives are evil Nazi's don't you follow? And by extension all Democrats are anti-American, get it? Don't you know that if you do not completely defer to the President in choosing whatever method he wants in order to keep us safe, you're guilty of sedition and possibly treason punishable by death? :sarcasm:

I'm getting so frustrated. Last night I was flipping the channels and caught a bit of Hal Lindsey on TBN. How many millions of Americans watch that channel and agree with those kind of ignorant views? I keep trying to remind myself that in every generation there is an segment of the American polity with authoritarian and paranoid views and they will never go away and it's the job of people like me to stand up to them. It's just hard because it seems like they're winning. The debate is framed by the ridiculous standard of whether or not what is happening is as bad as the Nazi's. Those who are mostly disinterested in politics think that such a comparison is ridiculous at face value. They think "Ok, * might be a dumbass, but a Nazi? Come on." Once again, * ironically benefits from the "soft bigotry of low expectations" he so often decries from the bully pulpit.

For the record, I don't think * is as bad as a Nazi, but what's sad is that laying out the case why he isn't takes alot more effort than it should. The fact that his administration has serious, perhaps unprecedented authoritarian tendencies and a cavalier disregard for the human cost of war should be bad enough for those who value freedom and social justice to be outraged. Silly me. I thought that was all of us in this country.