London — Amnesty International branded the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay a human rights failure Wednesday, releasing a 308-page report that offers stinging criticism of the United States and its detention centres around the world.
As a superpower, the United States has shirked its responsibility to set the bar for human rights protections and has instead created a new lexicon for abuse and torture, Amnesty Secretary-General Irene Khan said for the London-based group's annual report launch.
“The United States . . . sets the tone for governmental behaviour worldwide,” Ms. Khan said.
“Attempts to dilute the absolute ban on torture through new policies and quasi-management speak, such as 'environmental manipulation, stress positions and sensory manipulation,' was one of the most damaging assaults on global values.”
The U.S. government says it continues to be a leader in human rights, treating detainees humanely and investigating all claims of abuse, according to Navy Lieutenant Commander Joe Carpenter, a spokesman for the Department of Defence. He had not seen the report and declined comment on it.
At least 10 cases of abuse or mistreatment have been documented and investigated at Guantanamo. There are several other cases that are pending.
“During the year, released detainees alleged that they had been tortured or ill-treated while in U.S. custody in Afghanistan and Guantanamo. Evidence also emerged that others, including Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and the International Committee of the Red Cross, had found that such abuses had been committed against detainees,” the report said.
The Geneva-based ICRC is the only independent group to have access to the Guantanamo detainees. Amnesty has been refused access to the prison camp, although it was allowed to watch the pretrial hearings for the military commissions.From the Globe and Mail.
3 comments:
Who needs to see the camp? Don't you know liberals just know these things and you just have to accept it! That's what our Dems in the Senate want too. Good post.
of course, you have to question why you americans have a camp in cuba at all. why you feel the need to send your prisoners there for questioning/torture rather than a base on your own soil.
The answer is because we can and it pisses off the looney tunes of the world who only know how to criticze and whine.
Why not incarcerate terrorists on an island far away from our populace? That by the way is a rhetorical question.
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