UN Gitmo Report is More of the Same
For a fascinating (if depressing) look at how the UN proposes to reform its Human Rights Commission, recently so critical of Guantanamo, start your morning off at the Wall Street Journal…
|
||||||
UN Gitmo Report is More of the SameFor a fascinating (if depressing) look at how the UN proposes to reform its Human Rights Commission, recently so critical of Guantanamo, start your morning off at the Wall Street Journal… 4 comments to UN Gitmo Report is More of the SameLeave a Reply |
||||||
|
Copyright © 2012 Informed Speculation - All Rights Reserved |
||||||
Calling the UN report “more of the same” or a “rehashing” (as the Journal does) is not relevant. Gitmo is an abomination, and it ought to be the object of outrage until those who are within its walls receive due process. Are you suggesting that people ought to just forget about it?
This much is certain: hundreds of people are being held without being charged with anything. Some were picked up on the battlefield in Afghanistan, in a war which ended several years ago. Others were handed over by warlords and tribal chiefs who collected bounties. Although the Bush administration claims they are enemy combatants, they are not given the rights accorded to POW’s by the Geneva conventions. If any of them are terrorists, any information they could conceivably have became obsolete years ago. American demands that the Middle East adopt democracy are belied by the administration’s contempt for due process when it suits them to do so.
So if (as the Journal whines) the UN Commission didn’t also point out that Syria has human rights abuses: who cares? I would like to think that we have a moral standing above that of Syria. (Since we’ve sent people to Syria to be tortured — such as the Canadian whose suit against the US was dismissed last week — I’m not so sure).
In all likelihood, the prisoners at Gitmo will continue to rot there as long as the Bush administration is in power, as it is inconceivable (to me, anyway) that they will admit making a mistake in incarcerting them. While you may prefer to sweep everything under the rug, I think that there should be a lot more of the same until Gitmo and Abu Ghraib become nothing more than shameful memories.
peter, what happened at Abu Ghraib IS disgraceful – and people were punished (maybe not enough people, but some were). The specifics of the report on Guantanamo are ludicrous – it is alleged that it is a place of torture, but that is emphatically denied by Under Secretary of State Karen Hughes:
Hughes said the U.N. report was written by people who did not visit Guantanamo.
Detainees in Guantanamo are served three daily meals that are in line with their local customs, their native languages are used, they have the right to pray five times a day in keeping with Islamic teachings, play sports and read, she said.
Now, you may say that Karen Hughes is just a flack for the Administration – but the authors of the report are not experts on conditions there, either, as they refused an invitation to visit (because they were not allowed to visit prisoners alone, I believe).
Regardless, there can be and are legitimate criticisms of Guantanamo – but to conflate it with the apparently real torture practiced at Abu Ghraib is mistaken, by all indications…
Let’s not leave out the fact that the lawmakers who were all over Guantanamo (including my very own Dickie Durbin) went on a fact – finding misson there not long ago, and were allowed free and unfettered access to the facilities.
And what were their findings? A few expressed mild concerns about due process, etc. – but other than that…not a discouraging word was heard.
Now…why would that be? Once again, it’s time to put up or shut up for the carpers who never fail to have a handy sound bite ready for the cameras, but seem to have no cojones to actually do something about their screechings.
The fact that the UN Commission declined the opportunity to go to Gitmo because they could not interview prisoners alone is not inconsequential. If I were a prisoner, I would not want to be interviewed with my captor. (This is similar to interviewing Iraqi nuclear scientists during Hussein’s rule – do you think they would spill the beans?). The Commission should not have gone there – without unfettered access, their report would be a whitewash. The fact that the administration refused to allow access to the prisoners indicates to me that they have something to hide – not that there is something wrong with the UN Commission.
Also I didn’t mean to infer that the Gitmo prisoners are being tortured – we don’t know this (and I wouldn’t expect the full truth from Karen Hughes, who is, after all, a PR person) – rather, it is the idea of being held in detention indefinitely without being charged which is abhorrent.