This is a US torture camp

[spindrifter]

Vikram Dodd
Friday January 12, 2007
The Guardian

It would be the ideal spot for a beachside birthday party. Surrounded by a turquoise sea, palm trees and white sand, the US detention camp at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba was five years old yesterday. Tony Blair calls it an "anomaly", but the evidence is overwhelming. Camp Delta, which still houses 470 men never convicted of any crime, is a torture camp. That should be the starting point of any debate about what is acceptable in the west's fight with Islamist extremists. More than 750 men have passed through the camp, with nearly half being released. Many prisoners, past and present, have given consistent and repeated testimony of serious abuses and ill treatment. There is also significant evidence from US officials and government documents of widespread abuse at the camp.

The British detainees known as the Tipton Three allege they were repeatedly beaten, shackled in painful positions for long periods and subjected to sleep deprivation. They were also subjected to strobe lighting, loud music and extremes of hot and cold - all meant to break them psychologically. Other detainees have suffered beatings, sexual assaults and death threats. At least one man has been "water boarded" - tied to a board and placed under water so that he had the sensation of drowning.

According to the Red Cross, the regime at Guantánamo causes psychological suffering that has driven inmates mad, with scores of suicide attempts and three inmates killing themselves last year.

Even US officials are shocked. Last week FBI documents revealed that an inmate's head had been wrapped in tape for quoting from the Qur'an. Another was humiliated for his religious beliefs and "baptised" by a soldier posing as a Catholic priest. The documents show FBI agents saw 26 instances of abuse in their time at Guantánamo. The FBI is highly sceptical about alleged confessions gained by its military colleagues. A May 2004 FBI memo branded intelligence gained from "special techniques" as "suspect at best". Indeed, one of the Tipton Three confessed to being in a video shot at an Afghan terror camp alongside Osama bin Laden - in fact, at the time he was working in an electronics store in the Midlands.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1988677,00.html

[saigon68]

1. This is a War Crime like Dachau

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. This is a shameful waste of money and a humanitarian embarrassment

more idiocy courtesy of dubbya.

[Jcrowley]

3. K&R n/t

[Disturbed]

4. While Ms Sheehan is in Cuba she should also

condemn the treatment of Cuban prison conditions. The Red Cross has never been allowed in them. It would be a right and fair thing for her to do.

[Jcrowley]

5. That's where she's going

The 12-person delegation organized by Code Pink also includes U.S. "peace mom" Cindy Sheehan whose son was killed in the war in Iraq; Adele Welty whose firefighter son was killed on 9/11; retired U.S. colonel and diplomat Ann Wright who resigned over the invasion of Iraq; and legal director of the U.S. Center for Constitutional Rights Bill Goodman who has taken the cases of Guantanamo detainees to the U.S. Supreme Court.

On Thursday, the group will walk to the gates of the Guantanamo prison from the Cuban side. They had petitioned for access to the prison itself but were denied.

Protests are also planned outside the U.S. military's Southern Command in Miami, outside the Capitol in Washington, DC, and at international capitol buildings worldwide.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0109-03.htm

If you've ever met her you'll know she's quite clear.