UN denounces torture at Guantanamo, official calls for closure

From Monsters and Critics:

A United Nations investigator has called for the closure of the US prison for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay as the United Nations Thursday released a searing, detailed report of abuses and torture that occur there.

Manfred Nowak, one of the human rights reporters who carried out the investigation, made the call for closure in an interview published Thursday by Der Standard newspaper in Vienna,

'The Pentagon has authorized certain interrogation methods in Guantanamo, which in their combination are qualified by international organizations as torture, or at least inhuman treatment,' he said, citing use of extreme temperatures, or long detention in isolation.

The human rights investigative report, released Thursday in Geneva and made available in New York, charges that the United States has been acting as judge, prosecutor and defense counsel at the US Naval base at Guantanamo bay in Cuba, where about 520 terror suspects have been held since 2002.

Earlier this week, Washington rebuffed a draft of the report, calling it flawed and one-sided because the investigators refused to visit the facility. The US also said some of the practices condemned in the report, such as forced feeding, were allowable under international law

Forced feeding? You know, to me that sounds like cruel and unusual punishment. Why is this allowable in a U. S. run facility. Remember "All men are created equal"? remember "inalienable rights"? Why do they not deserve human rights?

Is it because they're terrorists? If they were terrorists we would be able to prove it and they would have been convicted and placed in jails by now. They are not even getting the right of counsel, which we provide to illegal aliens. Why are these people so much worse than normal people?

Is it because they are brown? When WAS the last time we attacked a country of white people? 1944. Since then we have ritualistically bombed poor, third world, and dark skinned nations.

George Carlin said is best:

Especially if your country is full of brown people. Oh, we like that, don't we? That's our hobby now. But it's also our new job in the world: bombing brown people. Iraq, Panama, Grenada, Libya. You got some brown people in your country? Tell 'em to watch the fuck out, or we'll goddamn bomb them!

Well, who were the last white people you can remember that we bombed? In fact, can you remember any white people we ever bombed? The Germans! That's it! Those are the only ones. And that was only because they were tryin' to cut in on our action. They wanted to dominate the world.

Bullshit! That's our job. That's our fuckin' job.

Can it actually be a racist thing?

The UN reporters were given permission by the Pentagon to visit Guantanamo last November, but not to interview the detainees. The reporters turned down the visit because the visit would have contravened UN principles of human rights investigations.

The report detailed interrogation techniques that met the definition of torture under international conventions, including submitting detainees to conditions and positions of powerlessness to extract information.

It cited 'plentiful evidence' that US policies applied at Guantanamo led to serious mental health problems.

It particularly denounced the use of excessive violence against the detainees. Photographs obtained by the reporters show the detainees were shackled, chained, hooded, forced to wear earphones and goggles.

'They also showed beating, kicking, punching, but also stripping and forced shaving' of detainees who resisted, the report said.

The reporters charged that the US lacks the legal basis to detain the suspects and uses torture and excessive violence, including force-feeding of hunger strikers, against them.

It cited 'reliable indications' showing violations of the right to freedom of religion or belief at the controversial sprawling detention center opened after September 11.

'It is of particular concern that some of these violations have even been authorized by the authorities,' the 54-page report said in its conclusion.

The entire article can be found here:
UN denounces torture at Guantanamo, official calls for closure

Technorati tags: Guantanamo, UN, Washington, News, Human Rights, Bush