no subject

[taimatsu]

Have just been watching news. Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay still active. 18 months on, hundreds of men still detained by the US without charge, without access to family or legal help, and without any idea when their situation might change. Can't believe US as a whole can style itself as some kind of heroic defender of civilised values when this kind of barbarism is going on. Conditions at camp seem to have improved since Camp X-ray, but reporters are not allowed to speak to inmates (reminds me of various bits from Mandela's 'Long Walk to Freedon' during his imprisonment on Robben Island) and Amnesty International has been categorically denied access.

Might have to join Amnesty and get letter-writing. I just can't *believe* this is *still* happenning.

Comments

[chrisvenus]

what is guntanamo bay then? I've no idea what you're on about...

[taimatsu]

Guantanamo Bay is in Cuba, in a US-controlled territory there. It is a prison camp containing prisoners captured during the war in Afghanistan. These people were not given 'prisoner-of-war' status which would give them certain rights anc protections. The US has classified them as something like 'unlawful enemy combatants' which means jack shit as far as I can tell and allows the US to keep these people outside civil court systems and therefore outside normal scrutiny and judicial processes. Amnesty and other human-rights organisations have been retitioning for these people to be given POW status, but no dice.

The US is planning to set up military tribunals to try some of thes people. These will have no accountablity, no appeal system, the right to dispense the deat penalty, and will be tied to the US government. This is hardly impartial justice.

The US sems to have decided these men are terrorists, violating the general principle of 'innocent until proven guilty'.

Grr.

[leathellin.livejournal.com]

POW status would mean that they would all have to have been released at the end of the War, which was delclared by Bush in a silly speech on a boat about a month ago.
The US has also recently designated a Qatari terrorist suspect an 'unlawful combatant' and dropped civil charges against him transferring him to a military brig to be dealt with by the military.
Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24535-2003Jun23.html?referrer=email)

[rejs.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid this doesn't surprise me at all. This is after all a nation which likes to slaughter some of its civilians each year (with particular emphasis on those who are impoverished and nonwhite, but without too much regard as to whether they might be innocent). It's happy for some key voters to be disenfranchised so that the right guy wins an election. Its idea of global responsibility involves invading far-away countries which pose it little threat and meddling in their affairs, while paying scant attention to the harm its excessive consumption might do to the environment. It's quite happy to stamp on its citizens' rights in the name of The War Against Terror (hello, NSA spooks)... [continued p.94]

I really don't see what can be done to make the USA change its ways. International opinion doesn't appear to have much effect. The world is in general too dependent on American trade for any boycott to be effective. I'm not convinced enough of its own citizens are sufficiently outraged to do anything. Plenty seem to see nothing wrong.

Apologies, this seems to have turned into a rant.

[purrthecat.livejournal.com]

I'm not convinced enough of its own citizens are sufficiently outraged to do anything. Plenty seem to see nothing wrong.

And THAT is the scariest bit to me! They will believe ANYTHING told to them. And the 'patriotic' thing really disturbs me. If you're not flag-waving and Bush-praising, you're automatically an ungrateful, possible terrorist un-American bastard. It's scarey.
I had hoped that the tragedy of the Two Towers would have woken them up. No dice. The blinkers just got pulled tighter. :(

[rejs.livejournal.com]

This song (http://www.anysonglyrics.com/lyrics/d/darrylworley/haveyouforgotten.htm) was on the radio and TV a lot when I was out there, which seems pretty much to sum up the "patriotism" thing. The video naturally includes lots of gratuitous 9/11 footage.

[damerell.livejournal.com]

It is not accurate to say that they have no idea when their situation might change. The US has stated a clear intention to set up a death row, in order than these people can be tried by military tribunals and killed without ever interacting with US civilian law. Charming, isn't it?