Gonzales defends conditions at Guantanamo

[kpete]

Gonzales defends conditions at Guantanamo
Tue Mar 7, 2006 9:17 AM ET


By Gideon Long

LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S. government's leading lawyer defended the Guantanamo Bay prison camp on Tuesday, saying detainees there were granted state-of-the-art health care, good food and "unprecedented legal protection".

Responding to complaints by the United Nations, human rights groups, religious leaders and some national governments, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said the camp was entirely lawful and essential to the protection of the United States.

"We operate Guantanamo because there's a necessity, a need, for the United States to detain enemy combatants somewhere," he said in a speech in London. "That was the genesis of Guantanamo. This need continues today."

Gonzales said all detainees at the camp in eastern Cuba were granted an assessment by U.S. authorities, a right of reply and a separate, formal hearing of their case before a three-member tribunal with a right to appeal.

"We are aware of no other nation in history that has afforded such protection for enemy combatants," he told the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).


http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-03-07T141737Z_01_L07484086_RTRUKOC_0_US-USA-GUANTANAMO-GONZALES.xml&archived=False

[Spazito]

1. "Unprecedented legal protection"?????

Well, I guess their legal protection is "unprecendented" seeing as they have absolutely NONE.


un·prec·e·dent·ed (ŭn-prĕs'ĭ-dĕntĭd)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

adjective
Having no previous example

[Hubert Flottz]

2. I'm glad he likes it there!

[Webster Green]

3. I hope Gonzo, the Torture Czar, gets sent there upon conviction...

...of war crimes.

See how he likes it then.

[Hubert Flottz]

4. "has afforded such protection for enemy combatants"

He means since the Viet Cong.

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. You know, I don't really care about the conditions at Guantanamo.

I object to the very EXISTANCE of Gurantanamo.

I don't care if they are eating steak 3 times a day - we have no business running a prison that exists outside the purview of both American and international law.

GUANTANAMO IS A WAR CRIME.