Torture? No way!
After the Abu Ghraib scandal broke out, Pentagon officials claimed there were "isolated" incidents and proceeded to court martial Lindy England and the other soldiers in the pictures. This was the right course to follow, except that none of the higher ups were held accountable for the incidents. Rumsfeld ofcourse denied any knowledge of these incidents and has been in denial ever since.
A couple of days back, Red Cross released a report which said that methods being used on detainees at Guantanamo Bay were "tantamount to torture".It was the first time that the Red Cross, which has been conducting visits to Guantánamo since January 2002,had made such a strong assertion. The reportwent on to say that methods used for interrogation included "humiliating acts, solitary confinement, temperature extremes, use of forced positions." This has been one of the strongest criticism on detainee treatment at Guantanamo Bay and comes in the wake of revelations made by British former detainees after their release and a court ruling that the tribunals used for trying detainees were unconstitutional.
The Pentagon's response was as expected- they brushed off the Red Cross' complaints on Guantanamo , just as they had done with Abu Ghraib in the past. Rumsfeld, still in denial, refused to accept the charges and his spokesperson said, the Red Cross had "their point of view," which was not shared by the Bush administration. Fair enough- but, the Red Cross' point of view is reflected in the Geneva Conventions and in American law.
Accountability and responsibility have definitely not been the strong suits of this administration. If this were true Rumsfeld would definitely not be in office after the mess in Iraq and the Abu Ghraib scandal. The general who set up the system at Guantánamo has now been promoted to take charge of prisons in Iraq. If you thought Ashcroft was bad, think again - Alberto Gonzales, the new Attorney General nominee is one of the architects of the administration's prisoner policy. Gonzales has gone on record saying that the the standards of the Geneva convention are "outdated". Given these facts, we can expect the White House, the Pentagon and the Justice Department to continue to remain in denial and not address the abuse.
Its very distressing that an administration which was elected because of "moral values" and "ethics" continues to support totally immoral and unethical practices, literally in its own backyard. Its even more distressing to note that, while these issues get international media coverage, they are covered only by the "liberal" media in the US, systematically ignored by the right wing media stations that cover the red states.
posted by mightypen @ 1:21 PM
6 Comments:
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These prisoners are lucky once. Had they been free they would probably still be fighting the US forces in Afghanistan or Iraq or any other goddamned place in the world where Islam was in danger. Chances are, a missile fired from a US drone flying over thier heads would have blown their innards apart. At the least they are still alive and get meals 3 times a day (I am not sure if they get Halal meat - that will be a good torture tactic). I agree that they probably are overstressed, under rested with a constant fear of unknown but I am subjected to the same things on daily basis as a software engineer working crazy hours for my company. No one criticizes my company for violating labor laws. Hmm..I don’t know if they even exist for a Non Resident Alien like me.
As far as torture is concerned I don’t read too much into the ability of the American interrogators. After the detention and subsequent persecution of the Japanese immigrants during the WW-II, the state police in this country have no real experience in mass interrogation of people having a shared sense of belief. They excel in investigating juicy prime time events like “Monica Lewinsky” case but when it comes with dealing with smelly, battle hardened religious zealots many offices were found wanting in their level of skill and motivation. Also the fact that you have to work behind the scene with no tabloid reporters chasing you makes the interrogators job particularly unrewarding. Especially when you know that you will never get a million dollar signing bonus for a badly written after the fact book.
On the other hand spotting a great business opportunity, Remesfeld, on his recent trip to Egypt was shown their state of art ‘Truth detection and Indoctrination” facilities by the Egypt’s almost democratically elected president Hosni Mubark. So impressed was Rumsfeld that he immediately ordered outsourcing the Guantanamo Bays’s most difficult prisoners to Cairo- with a small note recommending his personal favorite ‘mice in a head sock in an upside down head’ technique. Authorities in Egypt expect this to be a multiple year, multi million-dollar assignment. So upbeat is the mood in Cairo that the property prices around Cairo central jail have already tripled since the MOU was signed.
Taking a clue our own Lalu Prasad Yadav has already sent a delegation to the Pentagon presenting Bihar’s core competency in this area. I have heard through grapevine that Pappu Yadav, lodged in Berur jail in Patna, is showing a lot of interest in this project. One of his childhood dreams was to become CEO of world’s biggest PIO (Prisoner Interrogation Outsourcing) company.
Move over Narayan Murthy - Pappu Yadav his here.
And you are almost stifling this possibility!
You should rent "Stalag 17"; you could use a good laugh. :-P
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