Free the Guantanamo Bay Political Prisoners!

Read well with an open humane mind!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060217/ts_afp/usattacksunguantanamorights_060217022058;_ylt=ArWoENhtY7_f1qe8MmYkXAIZO7gF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5bGVna3NhBHNlYwNzc3JlbA--
US rejects calls to shut Guantanamo: Feb. 16, 2006

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States has angrily rejected calls by UN human rights monitors to close the Guantanamo detention camp calling their report "a discredit" to the world body.

But UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said that "sooner or later" the controversial camp will have to be shut down -- stepping up pressure on the US administration.

European lawmakers also urged Washington to close the camp in the wake of the UN rights monitors' report, and a senior British cabinet member also said the controversial detention center should now be shuttered.

The report by five independent experts acting as monitors for the UN Human Rights Commission said the US government should close Guantanamo "without further delay".

The 54-page document strongly condemned the treatment of the 500 detainees at the Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base in Cuba.

It pointed to cases of "excessive violence" during transportation of detainees and force feeding of hunger strikers. These "must be assessed as amounting to torture", the report said.

The investigators said the US military acted as judge, prosecutor and defence in the special trials at the base.

They said the US authorities should "expeditiously bring all Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial" under international law, "or release them without further delay".

The White House quickly hit back at the investigators, criticising them for writing the report without having been to Guantanamo.

The experts cancelled a planned visit to the camp last year because the United States refused to give them free access to all prisoners.

They based their report on US government answers to a questionnaire, plus interviews with former inmates in Britain, France and Spain, and lawyers for some detainees.

"The United Nations should be making serious investigations across the world, and there are many instances in which they do when it comes to human rights. This was not one of them," said spokesman Scott McClellan.

"And I think it's a discredit to the UN when a team like this goes about rushing to report something when they haven't even looked into the facts, all they've done is look at the allegations," he told reporters.

"We know that these are dangerous terrorists being kept at Guantanamo Bay," he said. "I think that what we are seeing is a rehash of allegations that have been made by lawyers representing some of these detainees."

McClellan said Al-Qaeda detainees were "trained to provide false information," including allegations of torture.

UN chief Annan added to the controversy when he said: "I think sooner or later there will be a need to close Guantanamo.

"It will be up to the (US) government to decide hopefully to do it as soon as possible."

Annan said "There's a lot in the report and I cannot say I necessarily agree with everything (in it).

"But the basic point that one cannot detain individuals in perpetuity and that charges have to be brought against them and (they must) be given a chance to explain themselves and (be) prosecuted, charged or released."

In an interview with the BBC, British cabinet member, Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain, said: "I would prefer it was closed, yes."

Asked if it was the British government's view that Guantanamo should be closed, the minister replied: "That's what I think", adding that he believed British Prime Minister Tony Blair also agreed with him.

Guantanamo was opened in early 2002 to detain prisoners picked up in Afghanistan and other countries in the "war on terror" launched after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Only 10 of the detainees have been formally charged.

A US State Department official, who requested anonymity, reiterated Washington's position that it considered the inmates were held "in full compliance with international law and obligations."

A number of detainees have tried to challenge their detention in US courts.

The US Supreme Court will on Friday consider the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni former driver for Osama bin Laden, who has questioned the legality of his detention and his trial by a special military tribunal at Guantanamo.

Some of the military tribunals hearing war crimes charges against inmates have been suspended because of such legal challenges. But US military authorities are still pressing some cases.

The next hearings are due to start at the end of the month.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/un_guantanamo;_ylt=Ap2uI3H.6RHJNpLCQ50jBdas0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ --
U.N. Report Urges Gitmo Shutdown:
Thursday, February 16, 2006
By SAM CAGE, Associated Press Writer

GENEVA - The United States should shut down the prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay and either release all detainees being held there or bring them to trial, the United Nations said in a report released Thursday.

The report, summarizing an investigation by five U.N. experts, called on the U.S. government "to close down the Guantanamo Bay detention center and to refrain from any practice amounting to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment."

The report's findings were based on interviews with former detainees, public documents, media reports, lawyers and a questionnaire filled out by the U.S. government.

The United States is holding about 500 men at the U.S. naval base on the southeastern tip of Cuba. The detainees are accused of having links to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime or the al-Qaida terror group, though only 10 have been charged since the detention camp opened in January 2001.

In a response included at the end of the report, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. offices in Geneva said investigators had taken little account of evidence against the abuse allegations provided by the United States and rejected an invitation to visit Guantanamo.

"It is particularly unfortunate that the special rapporteurs rejected the invitation and that their unedited report does not reflect the direct, personal knowledge that this visit would have provided," ambassador Kevin Moley wrote.

The five U.N. experts had sought invitations from the United States to visit Guantanamo since 2002. Three were invited last year, but refused to go in November after being told they could not interview detainees.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has been allowed to visit Guantanamo's detainees, but the organization keeps its findings confidential, reporting them solely to U.S. authorities. Some reports have been leaked by what the organization calls third parties.

Although the investigators did not visit Guantanamo, they said photographic evidence and the testimonies of former prisoners showed detainees were shackled, chained, hooded and forced to wear earphones and goggles. They said prisoners were beaten if they resisted.

"Such treatment amounts to torture," the report said.

Some interrogation techniques — particularly the use of dogs, exposure to extreme temperatures, sleep deprivation for several consecutive days and prolonged isolation — caused extreme suffering, the report said.

It also concluded that the particular status of Guantanamo Bay under the international lease agreement between the United States and Cuba did not limit Washington's obligations under international human rights law toward those detained there.

Many of the allegations have been made before, but the document represented the first inquiry launched by the 53-nation U.N. Human Rights Commission, the world body's top rights watchdog.

The five investigators, who come from Argentina, Austria, New Zealand, Algeria and Pakistan, were appointed by the commission to the three-year project. They worked independently and received no payment, though the U.N. covered expenses.

The U.S., which is a member of the commission, has criticized the body itself for including members with poor human rights records.
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http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/02/16/un.guantanamo/index.html

U.N.: Guantanamo detainees should be freed or tried
Report authors didn't accept invitation to visit facility
Thursday, February 16, 2006

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- The U.S. government should release all suspected terrorists it's holding at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or try them, the United Nations said Thursday.

Although the authors of the U.N. report declined to visit the military facility to gather information, they did base some of their conclusions on interviews with former detainees and attorneys. The United States has designated detainees as enemy combatants.

The 54-page report also recommends closing the jail "without further delay." (Watch clips of dramatic new film about Gitmo detainees -- 2:23)

As of last October, about 520 people were being detained at Guantanamo, said the report from U.N. Commission on Human Rights, based in Geneva, Switzerland.

It singled out "all special interrogation techniques authorized by the Department of Defense," urging they be revoked immediately.

And it called for the U.S. government not to send detainees to countries where there are "substantial grounds for believing" they might be tortured, a process called extraordinary rendition.

Every detainee must be given the right to complain about his treatment and have any complaints dealt with "promptly and, if requested, confidentially," it said.

And any allegations of "torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" must be investigated by an independent authority and those involved -- "up to the highest level of military and political command" -- must be brought to justice, the report said.

Those victims of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment should be compensated by the U.S. government, it continued.

Further, people who work in the camp's detention facilities should be trained to respect human-rights standards for the treatment of prisoners, including their right to freedom of religion, the report said.

Also, authorities must not be allowed to force-feed "any detainee who is capable of forming a rational judgment and is aware of the consequences of refusing food," the report said.

In response, Ambassador Kevin Edward Moley, permanent representative of the United States to the United Nations in Geneva, said it was "particularly unfortunate" that the report's authors had rejected an invitation to visit the facility "and that their unedited report does not reflect the direct, personal knowledge that this visit would have provided."

But the report's authors said they declined the invitation because it stipulated they would not have been allowed to interview the detainees privately.

The report was based on interviews with former detainees, lawyers, public documents, media reports and a questionnaire filled out by the U.S. government.

It found that interrogation techniques authorized by the Department of Defense, "particularly if used simultaneously, amount to degrading treatment in violation of ... the Convention against Torture."

For example, indefinite periods of detention and prolonged solitary confinement amount to torture, the report said.

And it noted a "profound deterioration" in the mental health of many being held on the island. In 2003, more than 350 acts of self-harm were reported, along with individual and mass suicide attempts and hunger strikes, it said.

Health professionals criticized
It singled out health professionals for criticism, noting that some appear to have been "complicit in abusive treatment of detainees detrimental to their health."

It added that some interrogation techniques "are aimed at offending the religious feelings of detainees," a conclusion it deemed "of particular concern."

"The war on terror, as such, does not constitute an armed conflict for the purposes of the applicability of international humanitarian law," it said.

Anyone held on Guantanamo should be able to challenge the legality of their detention before a judicial body and to be released if the legal basis for their continued detention is found lacking, the report said.

"This right is currently being violated," it added.

"The executive branch of the United States government operates as judge, prosecutor and defense counsel of the Guantanamo Bay detainees."

Courts consider detainee rights: Legal battles in the United States continue over what rights are allowed for enemy combatants.

The United States has defended the use of the facility to hold enemy combatants without charges for as long as the U.S. war on terrorism may last.

The Bush administration contends that enemy combatants are not entitled to the usual rights of prisoners of war set out in the Geneva Conventions.

In 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Guantanamo detainees have a right to challenge their imprisonment in non-military courts but left it to lower courts to handle individual appeals.

Copyright 2006 CNN.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060217/ap_on_re_mi_ea/un_guantanamo
Annan Says U.S. Should Close Gitmo Prison:
February 16, 2006, 6:35 PM
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday said the United States should close the prison at Guantanamo Bay for terror suspects as soon as possible, backing a key conclusion of a U.N.-appointed independent panel.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan rejected the call to shut the camp, saying the military treats all detainees humanely and "these are dangerous terrorists that we're talking about."

The panel's report, released Thursday in Geneva, said the United States must close the detention facility "without further delay" because it is effectively a torture camp where prisoners have no access to justice.

Annan told reporters he didn't necessarily agree with everything in the report, but "the basic premise, that we need to be careful to have a balance between effective action against terrorism and individual liberties and civil rights, I think is valid."

He said he supported the panel's opposition to people being held "in perpetuity" without being prosecuted in a public court. This is "something that is common under every legal system," he said.

"I think sooner or later there will be a need to close the Guantanamo (camp), and I think it will be up to the government to decide, and hopefully to do it as soon as is possible," the secretary-general told reporters.

The 54-page report summarizing an investigation by five U.N. experts, accused the United States of practices that "amount to torture" and demanded detainees be allowed a fair trial or be freed. The panel, which had sought access to Guantanamo Bay since 2002, refused a U.S. offer for three experts to visit the camp in November after being told they could not interview detainees.

Annan said the report by a U.N.-appointed independent panel was not a U.N. report but one by individual experts. "So we should see it in that light," he said.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the report will be presented to the U.N. Commission of Human Rights, which appointed the panel, when it convenes on March 13 in Geneva.

Manfred Nowak, the U.N. investigator for torture who was one of the panel's experts, told The Associated Press in Geneva that the detainees at Guantanamo "should be released or brought before an independent court."

"That should not be done in Guantanamo Bay, but before ordinary U.S. courts, or courts in their countries of origin or perhaps an international tribunal," he said.

The United States should allow "a full and independent investigation" at Guantanamo and also give the United Nations access to other detention centers, including secret ones, in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, Nowak said by telephone from his office in Vienna, Austria.

"We want to have all information about secret places of detention because whenever there is a secret place of detention, there is also a higher risk that people are subjected to torture," he said.

The United States is holding about 490 men at the military detention center. They are accused of links to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime or to al-Qaida, but only a handful have been charged.

The U.N. investigators said photographic evidence — corroborated by testimony of former prisoners — showed detainees shackled, chained and hooded. Prisoners were beaten, stripped and shaved if they resisted, they said.

The report's findings were based on interviews with former detainees, public documents, media reports, lawyers and questions answered by the U.S. government, which detailed the number of prisoners held but did not give their names or the status of charges against them.

Some of the interrogation techniques — particularly the use of dogs, exposure to extreme temperatures, sleep deprivation and prolonged isolation — caused extreme suffering, the report said.

"Such treatment amounts to torture, as it inflicts severe pain or suffering on the victims for the purpose of intimidation and/or punishment," the report said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross is the only independent monitoring body allowed to visit Guantanamo's detainees, but it reports its findings solely to U.S. authorities.

Legislators and journalists have been allowed in on guided tours but few are permitted to see interrogations.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the U.N. report "clearly suffers from their unwillingness to take us up on our offer to go down to Guantanamo to observe first-hand the operations."

McClellan, the White House spokesman, echoed Whitman, saying "it's a discredit to the U.N. when a team like this goes about rushing to report something when they haven't even looked into the facts. All they have done is look at the allegations."

Although his statement did not address specific allegations, the Pentagon has acknowledged 10 cases of abuse or mistreatment at Guantanamo, including a female interrogator climbing onto a detainee's lap and a detainee whose knees were bruised from being forced to kneel repeatedly.

In Strasbourg, France, the European Parliament condemned the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo and renewed its calls for the detention center to be closed.

Human rights activists also supported the investigators' findings.

Amnesty International said the report was only the "tip of the iceberg."

"The United States also operates detention facilities at Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere in Iraq and has been implicated in the use of secret detention facilities in other countries," an Amnesty statement said.

Many of the allegations in the report have been made before. But the document represented the first inquiry launched by the 53-nation U.N. Human Rights Commission, the world body's top rights watchdog.
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Associated Press correspondents Sam Cage and Alexander G. Higgins in Geneva, Jan Sliva in Strasbourg, France, and Jennifer Loven in Washington contributed to this report.
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Video: Abu Ghraib - The Sequel
By Olivia Rousset
Broadcast By SBS - Australia - Dateline -02/15/06
These are the photos the American Government doesn't want you to see. While researching a story on guards at Abu Ghraib, I obtained a copy of the unreleased photographs and videos. Taken at the same time as the photos released in 2004 and often of the same abuses, this is the first time they have been shown to the public.

Click here to watch the video
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11944.htm

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New Images: Iraq: Horrific New Torture Pictures Released
MORE photographs have been leaked of Iraqi citizens tortured by US soldiers at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad.

Warning!
These pictures should only be viewed by a mature AUDIENCE
Click here to view:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11923.htm
===
The Abu Ghraib files:
Never-published photos, and an internal Army report, show more Iraqi prisoner abuse -- evidence the government is fighting to hide
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/02/16/abu_ghraib/
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Abuse photos authentic: Pentagon:The Pentagon has confirmed the authenticity of a set of photographs of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib that were aired for the first time on Wednesday by Australian television, a defence official said.
http://www.dawn.com/2006/02/16/top6.htm
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Comment: The continued imprisonment of the Guantanamo Bay so-called detainees is a great historical crime of the U.S. Government, proof of its true evil fascist nature and adds to the extremely bad karma on the U.S.A. and all those who let these kinds of great crimes go on without protest in the name of the American people, thus, apathetic Americans are serving as accomplices to evil. Who knows what horrors have already occurred there that could be as bad or even worse than Abu Ghraid? What of all the semi-secret prisons Europe?

Main Entry: de·tain
Pronunciation: di-'tAn, dE-
Function: transitive verb
Etymology: Middle English deteynen, from Middle French detenir, modification of Latin detinEre, from de- + tenEre to hold -- more at THIN
1 : to hold or keep in or as if in custody
2 obsolete : to keep back (as something due) : WITHHOLD
3 : to restrain especially from proceeding : STOP
synonym see KEEP, DELAY
- de·tain·ment /-m&nt/ noun

Main Entry: de·tain·ee
Pronunciation: di-"tA-'nE, "dE-
Function: noun
: a person held in custody especially for political reasons
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http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/01/us011102.htm

U.S.: Geneva Conventions Apply to Guantanamo Detainees:
New York, January 11, 2002 -- Human Rights Watch questioned Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld´s statement today that captured fighters from Afghanistan shipped to Cuba were “unlawful combatants” not entitled to protection under the Geneva Conventions. Human Rights Watch also criticized the reported use of chain-link cages to confine the detainees.

"The Secretary seems unaware of the requirements of international humanitarian law. As a party to the Geneva Conventions, the United States is required to treat every detained combatant humanely, including unlawful combatants. The United States may not pick and choose among them to decide who is entitled to decent treatment."
Jamie Fellner ~ Director of Human Rights Watch´s U.S. Program

Be sure that the fascist U.S. Government is concerned about all the horror stories that are sure to come out if the Guantanamo Bay political prisoners are released. Do not wonder why the millions of Muslims and/or Middle Easterners have deep seated resentments, if not true hatred, for Amerika and the continued apathy of Amerikans! If any of them have valid charges against them then why have they not been charged after all these years? Free the Guantanamo Bay Political Prisoners!

John 8:32 “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Combat Amerikan Fascism!
Peter S. Lopez ~aka Peta
HELP Field Coordinator
Sacramento, California, USA
Email: sacranative@yahoo.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humane-Rights-Agenda/
http://humane-rights-agenda.blogspot.com/
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HRA Blog URL:
http://humane-rights-agenda.blogspot.com/2006/02/free-guantanamo-bay-political.html