Children still held at Guantanamo: Pentagon

[rooboy]

The United States has held three child detainees at its military base in Guantanamo Bay for more than a year and the Pentagon said today it has no plans to move or free them, despite international pressure.

A defence official said doctors estimated the boys were 13-15 years old and were deemed "enemy combatants" along with about 660 prisoners being held at the base in Cuba after the US invasion in Afghanistan in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America.

"There has been lots of media speculation they were going to be moved out but that's all it has been, just speculation," the official told Reuters when asked if there were plans to move or release the teenage detainees any time soon.

A spokeswoman for the military task force holding the prisoners told Reuters last August that prison camp commander, Brig-Gen Geoffrey Miller, would recommend the three boys be sent home, and this was confirmed by Miller a month later.

The detentions without trial at Guantanamo Bay have drawn worldwide criticism from governments and human rights groups who have urged the United States to file charges against the prisoners and to send the children home to their families.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/01/16/1073878008032.html

[alfredo]

1. Has the death chamber been completed?

they are only keeping them there to extract info, not to punish them. Is the death chamber for them once they run out of useful info?

Will the kids be murdered too?

I still do not see how a person defending their own country be classified as enemy combatants? If anything, they are POW's.

[IndianaGreen]

16. What can you expect from a country that executes children and...

people that are mentally impaired? We wait until the children get old enough, and then we fry them. We give meds to the mentally impaired until they are lucid enough to be fried, and then we fry them.

Spend some spare time some day and browse through Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch websites and see all of the data they have accumulated on human rights abuses in our own country. Bush is not the only bad guy in this country.

[lovedems]

2. This is going to be a historical disaster. And the SOB who some call

president actually prides himself as a champion of human rights. He should be ashamed of himself.

[pinto]

5. kick, the "detainment" will be a stain on our history as it is on our

purported stance for the rule of law....it is very sad. Some of the people in custody probably have connection and involvement with al Qaeda, but this should have been presented by now and acted on in a transparent legal manner. Ideological overreaching and persistent paranoia has become a trademark, internationally, of this regime.

[bahrbearian]

6. He's showing Cuba how a Demockracy works.

[Say_What]

3. "enemy combatants" who despite their age were "very, very dangerous..."

This is the most dispicable thing I can think of--despite the calls for many months now for the release of these kids the government F*cks won't let them go. What kind of life will these kids have growing up in prison, unable to see their families, and not knowing what will happen to them? The US government is no better than the Nazis. and they do this sh*t in the name of *freedom and democracy*. The Land of Thief and the Home of the Slave, the good ol' USSA. :puke:

[ScholarSeeker]

4. How are 13 year olds a danger to national security??

[lebkuchen]

9. or octagenarians?

That's Cheney, sweeping up everything that doesn't matter.

[MasonJar]

7. There are so many hideous things done by the Bushevils that

it is impossible to counter them in any damaging manner. It is even hard to keep up with all of them; we should organize and take different turns in a substantial way. We must force the media to take notice. We need to start bringing up the worst offences over and over.

[IndianaGreen]

17. What's so different between this and what the US has done...

in places like Latin America under past Democratic and Republican Administrations? What do you think Plan Colombia is all about? If you think that it is about curtailing drug trafficking, think again!

Remember the soccer stadium that the Taliban used for executions in Kabul? More people were slaughtered in one month by the US-backed Pinochet coup at a soccer stadium in Santiago, Chile, than the Taliban murdered during their entire rule.

[madrchsod]

8. the guy i used to work with

said this about people like this- kill all of them so they don`t reproduce...ya, a northern illinios nazi...but isn`t this what the nazi`s did? at least for now, we know of no murders at the camp.

[demobandit]

10. Come on guys, did you forget about September 11th?

Those guys at Gitmo killed 3,000 of our fellow citizens including children. A kid can pick up a gun and kill someone. It happens every day. Look at Columbine. Those were kids and they sure as hell were not innocent. Some kids are bad, and they should be treated as threats. A gun can be a great equalizer.

[daleo]

11. It has never been established what these people did

As there have been no trials that we have been told about. Also, a 13 year old with a gun in Afghanistan is a far cry from being a danger to the citizens of New York City, or any city in North America.

Perhaps "The Pet Goat" had evidence against these children that we haven't been apprised of.

[thebigidea]

12. is that satire?

sounds like something I'd write as a joke.

[Danieljay]

14. you are mistaken..

I believe it was perpetrated by a majority of Saudi Arabians and an Egyptian or two, all of whom are now are presumed dead. American kids can pick up a gun and kill someone, and some American kids are bad, should they be treated as threats and rounded up and thrown in jail also, or do we just throw rights out the door when it comes to foriegners? Don't worry, with the new patriot act, we'll be rounding up Americans before long also.

[IndianaGreen]

18. The actual number was 2,752 killed at the WTC

None of the hijackers were from Afghanistan or from Iraq. Our invasion of Afghanistan was nothing more than a "feel good" war of revenge against the wrong people.

The war in Afghanistan is still going on. We are now in the same enviable position the Soviets found themselves when they were opposed by Afghan fundamentalists.

9/11 did not give our government a green light to smash the Bill of Rights and ignore international law. The actions of the American government since 9/11 has put the US on the same moral plane as Osama bin Laden. Congratulations! Bush has turned us into a rogue terrorist state!

[Lori Price CLG]

13. My answer to the U.S. Reichwing maggots running *this* show:

CLG_Revolution_Tactics

How much more are we supposed to endure?

Lori Price

[Kinkistyle]

15. No child left behind...

Throw them ALL into the brink. Girls, boys, donkeys. Less future "terra-ists".