Guantanamo Bay: Shame on you, United States

[Michaelangelica]

Just you and me reason (?)

 

A reluctant Guantanamo Bay jailer, who found himself working in that "legal black hole" at age 19, tells his shocking story.

 

The video to your right is a brief but telling testimony given by Chris Arendt at the Winter Soldier Hearings in Washington, D.C., on March 15. Arendt, out of options, joined the military at age 17 and soon found himself guarding detainees at the U.S. prison facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

 

Historian Andy Worthington, author of the Guantanamo Files, estimates that a maximum of around 50 of the 774 people who have spent time in "Gitmo" were hardened terrorists. U.S. forces in Afghanistan -- where many, but by no means all of the detainees were captured -- essentially had no routine in place to distinguish between hard-core anti-American terrorists and the legion of people unfortunate to be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

How to Become a Concentration Camp Guard Without Even Trying | War on Iraq: A Soldier Speaks | AlterNet

[DougF]

Michaelangelica

Just you and me reason (?)

No you are not alone,

I am still here, but I don't know what to say about this,

is there no accountability for anyone. :hyper:

[InfiniteNow]

No you are not alone,

I am still here, but I don't know what to say about this,

is there no accountability for anyone. :hihi:

 

Of course there is. We award medals and pardons to those who do the worst! :naughty:

[InfiniteNow]

"How far can you go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without?"

~Dwight D. Eisenhower

 

 

A great piece on 60 Minutes tonight. Go here, click play (~13m):

 

CBS News Video - Top Stories and Video News Clips at CBSNews.com

 

 

 

When did we begin travelling on the wrong path as a nation? :)

[Michaelangelica]

"How far can you go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without?"

~Dwight D. Eisenhower

That really sums up the whole issue doesn't it.

[Michaelangelica]

Jailed for Protesting Gitmo: 34 Convicted for Demonstrations Outside Supreme Court

Jailed for Protesting Gitmo: 34 Convicted for Demonstrations Outside Supreme Court | Rights and Liberties | AlterNet

From

Why Has the British Government Forsaken Gitmo Prisoner Binyam Mohamed?

By Clive Stafford Smith, Independent UK

As the Pentagon prepares to prosecute Binyam Mohamed in a lawless military tribunal, his own government is MIA. Read more »

 

 

Gitmo in Disarray, But Pentagon Moves Full Speed Ahead with Military Commissions

By Andy Worthington, Andy Worthington's Blog

With four more prisoners charged last week, the Bush administration seems intent on trying as many Guantánamo detainees as possible before November. Read more »

 

 

 

"A Kinder, Gentler Torture": My Client at Guantánamo

By H. Candace Gorman, In These Times

The American people either don't care about torture -- or else they don't want to hear about it. Read more »

 

America's Cruel and Unusual Culture: Why Do We Execute the Mentally Handicapped?

By Liliana Segura, AlterNet

A Supreme Court ruling recently gave states the green light to resume executions; two of the first three executed prisoners were mentally disabled. Read more »

 

 

Raytheon's Pain Ray: Coming to a Protest Near You?

By Michael Dickinson, CounterPunch

How long before the "Holy Grail of crowd control" is used to quell domestic dissent? Read more »

 

Iraqi Facing Deportation from Britain to Baghdad:

 

Iraqi Facing Deportation from Britain to Baghdad: "I Will be Dead Within Days"

By Robert Verkaik, Independent UK

Zyad al-Saadon has lived in Britain for 35 years. Now, the British government want to deport him to Baghdad. Read more »

 

Human Rights Report Blasts

 

Human Rights Report Blasts "Hollowness of U.S. Administration's Call for Democracy Abroad"

By Sanjay Suri, IPS News

From police tasers to Gitmo, a recent report by Amnesty International takes the United States to task on human rights. Read more »

 

This cell toured Australia via Amnesty

Guantanamo Cell Tour

[Michaelangelica]

Shite hitting the fan?

I am glad I will not be the next President of the USA.

What a mess everywhere to clean up!

Justices Rule Terror Suspects Can Appeal in Civilian Courts

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/washington/13scotus.html?hp

Detention Camp Remains, but Not Its Legal Rationale

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/washington/13gitmo.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

 

Mukasey Says Guantanamo Military Trials Will Proceed

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Guantanamo-Mukasey.html

McCain and Obama Split on Justices’ Guantánamo Ruling

http://www.nytimes.com/glogin?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/us/politics/13candidates.html&OQ=_rQ3D1&OP=1f77e160Q2FUQ7ELQ2BUMG-pbGG@Q27UQ27nnNUnjUqeU6pUoGkD@D-pUqe-8,MDM8@LpQ26f@ik

[Thunderbird]

Shite hitting the fan? :lol:

:hihi::shade:

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

Haven't heard much about these folks lately, Glad to see they're still out there:)

 

(One of the few groups I can honestly say I respect)

[Michaelangelica]

Haven't heard much about these folks lately, Glad to see they're still out there:)

 

(One of the few groups I can honestly say I respect)

Me too

I am a member (oz dept)

 

Yoko Ono just gave them one of Paul's songs and they have made about $250,000 out of it in just a few months!

[Theory5]

Quantanamo bay should be declared US soil and all its inhabitants should get the same treatment anyone living in the USA would get. (I think since it is a military installation its a bit different but still)

[Michaelangelica]

Quantanamo bay should be declared US soil

Cuba may have a few things to say about that especially as the States is about 40 years behind in the rent.

It seems to me that the USA has lost the "War on Terror". So far most Yanks seem to stupid to realise this. The terrorists have destroyed all the ideals that the US used to stand for (freedom, democracy, justice, etc).

In the process killing thousands of innocent civilians, and young soldiers, flushing $3 trillion down the lavatory, and irrecoverably damaging their international standing and reputation and perhaps even their economy.

 

How is the US going to let the thousands of "terrorists" in jails throughout the world out? It would be like setting a dozen angry hornets nests free.

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

So far most Yanks seem to stupid to realise this. The terrorists have destroyed all the ideals that the US used to stand for (freedom, democracy, justice, etc).

It ain't so much that we don't realise, But that we realise that there ain't a F###ing thing we can do about it...(but there an awful lot of Americans that fit your view of things as well....GOD I HATE THEM!!!)

[Michaelangelica]

It is just so sad DFINITLYDISTRUBD

 

So who do we turn to as a guiding light for humanitarian values now?

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

Canada of course!:phones:

Such nice people up there.

[Michaelangelica]

Judge Orders 17 Detainees at Guantánamo Freed

Article Tools Sponsored By

By WILLIAM GLABERSON

Published: October 7, 2008

 

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Bush administration to release 17 detainees at Guantánamo Bay by the end of the week, the first such ruling in nearly seven years of legal disputes over the administration’s detention policies.

Skip to next paragraph

Charles Dharapak/Associated Press

 

Judge Ricardo M. Urbina

Related

Evidence Faulted in Detainee Case (July 1, 2008)

Times Topics: Uighurs

 

The judge, Ricardo M. Urbina of Federal District Court, ordered that the 17 men be brought to his courtroom on Friday from the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where they have been held since 2002. He indicated that he would release the men, members of the restive Uighur Muslim minority in western China, into the care of supporters in the United States, initially in the Washington area.

 

“I think the moment has arrived for the court to shine the light of constitutionality on the reasons for detention,” Judge Urbina said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/washington/08detain.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[Kayra]

The terrorists have destroyed all the ideals that the US used to stand for (freedom, democracy, justice, etc).

 

The terrorists created a situation that tested American resolve to stick to their founding ideals. While I am getting a sense that the average American would have passed this test (this is a personal and unsupported sense) their leadership failed this test in almost every significant way.

 

How is the US going to let the thousands of "terrorists" in jails throughout the world out? It would be like setting a dozen angry hornets nests free.

 

The entire American justice system hinges on the belief that its society is better off suffering a dozen guilty men going free then to allow a single person to be unjustly incarcerated. A grand, and ultimately unachievable goal, but it is the striving to attain this that their system something to be envied.

 

Simply put, it was another test of character of the leadership of the country. The justice system understands this principle, and would have adhered to it. It has and is showing that it has the character to stick to it's guns regardless of the consequences because they actually understand the deeper and more dire consequences. The leadership knew of the justice systems driven need to stand on principle and so devised means to circumvent it.

 

A failure of character!

 

It is easy to sit here and judge, without providing a single suggestion for a solution, but the problem is that all energies were put into finding solutions that took the "easy" way out, instead of looking at creating laws that would allow the proper disposition of these types of people without obliterating those pesky basic founding principles of the country.