UN calls for closure of Guantanamo.
Nothing in the report is a surprise, as all of it has already been reported. What's so laughable is the way that the US government tells bare-faced lies about what is going on in that camp.
Ah yes, every single person at Guantanamo is a member of al-Qaida. This is the new excuse for when any prisoners, either in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo or one of the CIA's secret prisons allege that they've been tortured or abused. It's a great conceit in that it will wash with a lot of people, and that most of all, it's probably true that recruits to the organisations linked in some way to al-Qaida are told to say that they've been abused if they are captured. By tarring all the prisoners with the same brush the US administration manages to make it look like the morally superior one; us abuse prisoners? It's these guys that want to kill all of us! The Pentagon spokesman on the other hand is half using the art of sophistry. They most likely are getting excellent medical care - medical care in which feeding tubes are shoved down their nose in order to keep their prize specimens alive when they'd rather die than live with the conditions they face in their cells. In Northern Ireland we let the hunger strikers die and make their point. In Cuba, the US just wants to further these bad peoples' (George Bush's words) misery and trap them forever.
There's something incredibly sadistic about Guantanamo, and it's not going to be broken by the UN, especially in its currently moribund unreformed state.
A White House spokesman said it was an al-Qaida tactic to complain of abuse, while the Pentagon does not comment on UN matters. But a Pentagon official yesterday insisted there had been no attempts to break a hunger strike with punitive measures. "All detainees at Guantánamo are being treated humanely and are being provided with excellent medical care," he said.
Ah yes, every single person at Guantanamo is a member of al-Qaida. This is the new excuse for when any prisoners, either in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo or one of the CIA's secret prisons allege that they've been tortured or abused. It's a great conceit in that it will wash with a lot of people, and that most of all, it's probably true that recruits to the organisations linked in some way to al-Qaida are told to say that they've been abused if they are captured. By tarring all the prisoners with the same brush the US administration manages to make it look like the morally superior one; us abuse prisoners? It's these guys that want to kill all of us! The Pentagon spokesman on the other hand is half using the art of sophistry. They most likely are getting excellent medical care - medical care in which feeding tubes are shoved down their nose in order to keep their prize specimens alive when they'd rather die than live with the conditions they face in their cells. In Northern Ireland we let the hunger strikers die and make their point. In Cuba, the US just wants to further these bad peoples' (George Bush's words) misery and trap them forever.
There's something incredibly sadistic about Guantanamo, and it's not going to be broken by the UN, especially in its currently moribund unreformed state.
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