Amnesty International & Hypocrisy

The Most Offensive Defence is A Spun Offence.

Published on June 8, 2005 By kingbee In Politics

gulag.

amazing that one small word can be so powerful or evoke such a horrific response.

i first became familiar with the concept while reading 'one day in the life of ivan denisovich' by alexander solzhenitsyn when i was still in grade school (clearly my recreational reading tastes were a bit precocious as well as extreme). for a week during the summer between 7th and 8th grade, i shivered in the heat and humidity of late july in da motah city as ivan and i--convict slave laborers--endured the frozen extremes of siberia and the brutally inhumane excesses of a pitiless totalitarian state that had nullified our lives.

why were we there? for how long would we remain? there was no way of knowing. worst of all, no one--least of all our former families and friends-- except those who kept us here and our fellow slaves knew for sure we even existed.

amnesty international's international report, released on may 25, 2005, characterizes as a gulag the facility at guantanamo, cuba where the us holds some of those captured in its war on terrorism. not surprisingly, the current administration refutes that designation. according to bush, it's an obvious case of disassembly (which he defines as lying).

not surprisingly, there are more than a few ju bloggers who are outraged by the amnesty international report.

the war on terror is an honorable endeavor being waged against those who hate us and are willing to go to any length to destroy us because--as our president has proclaimed--they hate freedom.

finally amnesty international has revealed its true agenda and shown it hates us and our freedom as well.

how could we have been so foolish as to believe that an organization which has, for years, despised the freedom enjoyed in north korea, china, vietnam, algeria, myanmar, the maldives, turkey, morroco, today's russia, the former soviet union and its eastern european colonies, chile (under pinochet), argentina, cuba, the sudan and dozens of other bastion of freedom countries wouldn't eventually add us to the list.?

fortunately we have plenty of examples on which to base our response---thanks to those nations for which this whole thing is old hat.

before we go there, let's clear something up. guantanamo isn't a network of slave labor camps in the wilds of siberia into which millions of our own citizens disappear, most never to return. hell, it's not even cold there.

on the other hand, perhaps amnesty international meant it figuratively. after all, there are 500 people who've been locked up in gitmo for nearly 3 years without ever having been charged with any crime. as far as they know, it could be another 20 years before they'll have a day in court. their families have no clue as to their status. no one except the force that's detaining them knows whether they're well or ill or alive.

nawwww. that couldn't be it.

ai has a lotta nerve. after all, didn't the president pledge in his 2nd inaugural address that the us was dedicated to spreading democracy and freedom. aren't we spending billions and putting our military into harm's way to do just that in iraq? if you can't trust our government, who can you trust?

(who better to answer that question than those of you who join heston in announcing that they'll have to pry your gun outta your cold dead hands. but then again, amnesty international doesn't own any guns huh?)

so anyway we're busy spreading freedom and democracy not only by deed but by example--certainly there's no better advertisement than good example--and all amnesty international can do is criticize us.

no wonder cheney took offense and won't take ai seriously. he's a flexible guy and just because he, the president and rumsfeld used to take them seriously enough to cite them multiple times in white house position papers on hussein's iraq Link (In August 2001 Amnesty International released a report entitled Iraq -- Systematic Torture of Political Prisoners, which detailed the systematic and routine use of torture against suspected political opponents and, occasionally, other prisoners. Amnesty International also reports "Detainees have also been threatened with bringing in a female relative, especially the wife or the mother, and raping her in front of the detainee. Some of these threats have been carried out." ) , don't mean he cant change his mind. or maybe his mind is the same but amnesty international is different. ( i can hear him singing along with joe walsh...'everybody's so different, i'm still the same.' )

fact is, amnesty international provided a good deal of the source material used by bush, cheney and rumsfeld to justify their planned invasion of iraq. so having ai slam em now must really not bother them a bit because the organization just doesn't have any credibility

not that everything ai had to say about america was bad. they approved the supreme court ruling that requires a court hearing for prisoners of the 'war on terror'. big deal huh?

the final straw has to be ai's outrageous demands that the us stop secretly holding prisoners incommunicado (ghost prisoners), permit the international red cross access to all prisoners, ensure due process for all prisoners, implement an independent investigation of all allegations of torture and prosecute all who cause detainees to be brutalized or tortured while in the custody of the us.

if that sounds familiar, it's probably cuz those damn amnesty international freedom-haters stole it directly from past presidents who demanded the soviet union do the same thing at their gulags.

if all of this pisses you off, you're not alone.

i'm pissed off too. pissed off really badly that my country has engaged in the type of thing for which we used to condemn rogue states like north korea and the soviet union. pissed off that my president says he wants to promote democracy and freedom throughout the world while eroding the essentials of democracy and freedom at home. pissed off that such blatant hypocrisy is ignored and--even worse--approved by those who claim to be the most stalwart advocates of the rule of law and our constitution.

one final note: in another thread, one commentor said he was dismayed because amnesty international had diminished the horror of the gulag in its report. after all, there's no comparison. this same commentor claims to be a student of history. not a very good student in my opinion or he'd remember that gulags--like rome--aren't built in a day. once you lay the first stone, the next one is a little easier.

Comments (Page 4)

Dr Guy

on Jun 09, 2005

Please Vune answer the question. And you will note that I never said you beat your wife.

The Original Vune

on Jun 09, 2005

Please Vune answer the question.

Another post, yet still no answers from Vune

Please repeat the question

The Original Vune

on Jun 09, 2005

And you will note that I never said you beat your wife.

I was about to but then I reminded myself of what you said earlier

So if I claim you beat your wife, and that I have video tapes, but just cannot show you, that is evidence?

When did you stop beating your wife BTW?

bakerstreet

on Jun 09, 2005

"Please repeat the question "

?? Why? You have a scrollbar like the rest of us. I just assumed you were ignoring post #41.

There's no logic to your stance, Vune. Allegations aren't proof. If this was accepted practice, then we could get access to any secret facility just by making an accusation that wrongdoing is being committed there.\

Want to see what is at Area 51? Just make the claim that we are experimenting on POWs there. Then the US will be forced to open the doors to International overseers and show everyone that they aren't. That really makes sense to you?

The Original Vune

on Jun 09, 2005

Want to see what is at Area 51? Just make the claim that we are experimenting on POWs there. Then the US will be forced to open the doors to International overseers and show everyone that they aren't. That really makes sense to you?

Does detaining men in somewhere akin to a concentration camp under the juristicion of the US make sense to you?

The Original Vune

on Jun 09, 2005

Please Vune answer the question.

The answer is 42.............now just have to figure out the question!

The Original Vune

on Jun 09, 2005

Please Vune answer the question.

The answer is 42.....now just have to work out the question!

drmiler

on Jun 09, 2005

the detainees have it a lot better than most criminal prisoners

Where is your proof for this? If we are playing the "statements must be backed up by proof" game

How about we start with this one.

Guantanamo Detainees Receiving 'First-Rate' Medical Care
By Kathleen T. Rhem
American Forces Press Service

NAVAL STATION GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Feb. 18, 2005 -- In every case, enemy combatants held here receive medical care that is "as good as or better than anything we would offer our own soldiers, sailors, airmen or Marines,". the general in charge of the U.S. detention facility here said.

Detainees at Navy Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, receive the same high-quality medical care available to U.S. servicemembers, the detention facility commander said, including surgery in this operating room at the detainee hospital. Photo by Staff Sgt. Stephen Lewald, USA
(Click photo for screen-resolution image); high- resolution image available.

Army Brig Gen. Jay Hood, commander of Joint task Force Guantanamo, said medical personnel at the detainee hospital here have helped detainees recover from "some very significant war wounds."

Active-duty U.S. Navy medical personnel care for detainees as both inpatients and outpatients from a dedicated facility at Camp Delta, the main detainee- holding facility here. Most routine medical care is administered by corpsmen who visit each cellblock every two days or whenever a detainee requests care.

More serious health concerns among detainees are treated at the small, state- of-the-art medical facility dedicated to their care. A senior administrator at the facility called it "equivalent to a community acute-care hospital."

The facility is equipped with 19 inpatient beds (and can expand to 28), a physical-therapy area, pharmacy, radiology department, central sterilization area, and a single-bed operating room. More complex surgeries can be performed at the base naval hospital, which also is equipped with an intensive-care wing.

The detainee hospital also features an isolation room to prevent infectious diseases from spreading. So far, however, this room has only been used when ruling out diseases. For instance, an official explained, one detainee stayed in the isolation room when doctors thought he might have an active case of tuberculosis. The detainee was removed from the room when cell cultures disproved that preliminary diagnosis. To date, no detainees at Guantanamo Bay have been diagnosed with active tuberculosis or other infectious diseases, the official said.

As in every other part of Camp Delta, security is a constant concern. A dedicated force of Army military police officers is assigned to guard detainees receiving treatment in the hospital.

The Navy medical personnel who treat the detainees pride themselves on the quality of care they provide, said Capt. Barry Barendse, a Navy nurse and the deputy command surgeon for JTF Guantanamo. "The standard of care here is the best possible standard of care (the detainees) could get," he said.

Barendse said humane treatment is "second-nature" for medical personnel.

"It's not that we like hanging around the bad guys," he said. "The thing about it is that the job we do for a living is a very humane one, and we just keep that mindset."

And the detainees' actions or attitudes do nothing to deter the staff from their dedication to providing high-quality care. The captain explained that detainees have told staff members "they would kill them if they had the chance and go after the rest of their family if they could." And still, the standard of care never wavers, he said.

Today detainees held here form a generally healthy population. They've received immunizations most of them never would have had available to them in their home countries, Hood said.

Some detainees have been provided life-changing care, Barendse said. He cited prosthetic limbs and removal of cancerous tumors as examples of the level of care provided to detainees. "Some of them have even told us that they're very happy we're taking care of them," he said. "We've given them new life, some of them we really have."

Psychological care also is available here for detainees who need it or request it. Barendse noted that most Americans "have the luxury" of seeking psychiatric care if they need it; that's usually not an option in the countries most of these detainees come from.

Psychiatric care for the detainees, like any other medical care provided to them, is important because it's the right thing to do and "because of the possibility they may not be in this prison the rest of their lives," Barendse said. "If they were sick when they got here or they're sick while they're here, we still want to get them well, so wherever and whatever they're going to do can be done in a normal state."

And then this one:

Detainees Living in Varied Conditions at Guantanamo
By Kathleen T. Rhem
American Forces Press Service

NAVAL BASE GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Feb. 16, 2005 -- The detainee population at the U.S. naval base here is a diverse group. The roughly 545 detainees hail from some 40 countries and speak at least 17 different languages.

The entrance to Camp 1 in Guantanamo Bay's Camp Delta. The base's detention camps are numbered based on the order in which they were built, not their order of precedence or level of security. Photo by Kathleen T. Rhem
(Click photo for screen-resolution image); high-resolution image available.

But nearly as diverse as the individuals themselves are the conditions in which they're held.

Since U.S. officials began holding enemy combatants here in January 2002, an elaborate system to manage those detainees in a humane manner, protect guards and maximize intelligence has evolved here.

Today, prisoners are divided into four levels, based on how well they comply with camp rules, explained a senior Navy petty officer serving here.

Navy Master Chief Petty Officer Tracy Padmore, an aviation maintenance technician from Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Fla., explained that detainees are placed in levels based solely on how well they cooperate with guards' instructions. "(The levels) have nothing to do with what a detainee's (intelligence) value is or what he might say or do in an interrogation booth," he said.

"Humane" and "consistent" seem to be watchwords for members of the joint task force here. Anyone working with detainees uses these words right off the bat when describing what they do. Guards and officers at Guantanamo consistently appear genuinely offended when asked about allegations in the civilian media about detainee abuses at Guantanamo Bay.

"I'm not here to say we're all perfect," Padmore said. "But these young men and women carry out their duties in a highly professional manner." He added that when minor infractions of the rules by guards have occurred, they've been punished swiftly.

"Detainees here at Guantanamo are treated in a humane manner at all times by the security folks and the intelligence folks who work with them," Army Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo, said.

He said all JTF members are strongly focused on their mission, "the safe, secure, humane custody of the detainees under our charge."

Hood explained that information collected since the detainees have been held here has helped officials learn how best to handle the detainees' continued detention and to design suitable facilities.

Level 1 detainees wear white "uniforms" and share living spaces with other detainees. At the other end of the spectrum, Level 4 detainees wear orange, hospital scrub-type outfits and have fewer privileges.

Padmore, who is assigned to Joint Task Force Guantanamo based on prior corrections experience, described a typical Level 1 detainee as "compliant and willing to follow camp rules." Whereas, Level 4 detainees generally "have a litany of offenses," from threatening other detainees or guards to hurling bodily fluids at guards or refusing to come out of the cell when ordered.

To a certain extent, the level a detainee is placed in determines where he is housed, as well. Most Level 1 detainees are afforded extra privileges in Camp 4. (Camps are numbered based on the order in which they were built, not their order of precedence or level of security.)

Gone are the days of concrete slabs and open-air chain-link enclosures in Camp X-Ray. Hood explained that Camp X-Ray was a hastily built structure to deal with a rapidly changing situation in the war on terrorism and that the facilities there were never meant to be used for long-term detention. Engineers began construction on Camp Delta, which replaced Camp X-Ray in April 2002, shortly after detainees began arriving here, he said.

In Camp 4, part of Camp Delta, detainees live in 10-man bays with nearly all- day access to exercise yards and other recreational privileges.

Sgt. 1st Class Todd Rundle, an Army Reserve military police officer, explained that Camp 4 is Camp Delta's only medium-security facility. Doors in the camp are normally opened with keys, but a mechanical override can be controlled from inside the centrally located "Liberty Tower," the camp's command post, in an emergency.

Detainees generally are allowed out in exercise yards attached to their living bays seven to nine hours a day. Exercise yards include picnic tables under cover and ping-pong tables. Detainees also have access to a central soccer area and volleyball court.

Rundle said the large amount of outdoor time is a huge incentive for detainees to want to be transferred to Camp 4, which is based on good behavior. "The increased incentive of the additional time out here, that's a big thing for detainees to be able to come out for that duration of time over the course of every single day of the week," he said.

Part of the rationale behind the living arrangements at Camp 4 is to rebuild detainees' social skills, "which might have been lost over time," Rundle said. Detainees are provided games -- chess, checkers and playing cards are the most requested items -- and are responsible for keeping their own living areas clean.

They also eat meals together within their cellblocks. Food-service personnel bring the food, always culturally sensitive, and detainees apportion it among themselves at mealtime. Padmore said a guard always supervises so "Detainee A is not getting three plates while Detainee B gets none."

Books and other reading material are available during periodic visits from a designated librarian. A security official explained Agatha Christie books in Arabic are very popular and that camp officials are working to get copies of the Harry Potter books in Arabic.

Also in Camp 4, detainees are issued a full roll of toilet paper each week. In other camps detainees have to ask guards to apportion toilet paper when they need it. Padmore said many people take toilet paper for granted and that the detainees in Camp 4 value having their own supplies.

Other privileges unique to Camp 4 include electric fans in the bays, ice water available around the clock, plastic tubs with lids for the detainees to store their personal items, and the white uniforms. White is a more culturally respected color and also serves as an incentive to detainees in other camps.

"It's almost like a status symbol," he said. "Detainees come past and see detainees from Camp 4 playing volleyball, playing soccer or in white uniforms. The hope is that other detainees will play by the rulebook and aspire to get to Camp 4 to get those privileges afforded to them."

Not too far away, in Camp 1, some detainees are just one step away from being moved to Camp 4. They wear tan uniforms and are afforded such comfort items as prayer rugs and canvas sneakers. Many of these detainees are being considered for transfer to Camp 4, Rundle said.

Detainees in Camp 1 are housed in individual cells with a toilet and sink in each cell. The have 30 minutes in one of two exercise yards at the end of each cellblock twice a week, Padmore explained. Showers are allowed in outdoor shower stalls after exercise periods.

There are 10 cellblocks with 48 cells each, but guards generally don't fully populate the cellblocks to minimize the guard-to-detainee ratio.

Movement into and within the camp is funneled through "sally ports," entrances and passageways with two gates. One gate must be closed before the next can be opened. Military police officers man each sally port from inside.

Each detainee gets basic items such as a "finger toothbrush" -- short and stubby so it can't be used as a weapon -- toothpaste, soap, shampoo, plastic flip flops, and cotton underwear, shorts, pants and a shirt.

Guards are not allowed to remove basic items, but comfort items can be taken away for behavior infractions. Comfort items can include such simple things as Styrofoam cups and caps to the water bottles.

Some seemingly innocent items are kept from detainees to prevent them from harassing guards. For instance, sport tops on water bottles can make it easier for detainees to shoot bodily fluids onto guards, Padmore said.

The most recently completed detention facility, Camp 5, is a state-of-the-art prison that many states would envy. The $16 million facility, completed in May 2004, is composed of four wings of 12 to 14 individual cells each.

The two-story maximum-security detention and interrogation facility can hold up to 100 people and houses Level 4 detainees and those deemed to be the most valuable intelligence assets. The camp is run from a raised, glass-enclosed centralized control center that sits in the middle of the facility, giving the MPs a clear line of sight into both stories of each wing. Army National Guard Maj. Todd Berger called the control room "the nerve center of the camp."

Berger, who in civilian life is a state trooper in New Jersey, explained that all detainee movement in Camp 5 is monitored and controlled through touch- screen computers in the control center.

Thick steel airlock doors clang shut with a hiss and an echo as guards move through the cellblocks. In Camp 5, media and other visitors are not permitted to tour occupied cellblocks. The modern facility features some cells equipped with overhanging sinks and grab bars on the toilets for detainees with a physical disability and 10-foot-by-20-foot outdoor exercise yards that detainees generally have access to for an hour every day.

Camp rules are posted in four languages -- Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, and Pashto -- in the exercise yards in each of the camps. Recently, the enclosed bulletin boards have also featured posters with information about the Afghan elections. "It talks about the fact that 10 million Afghanis freely elected their own government," Rundle said. "So it's a bit of news from home … for a chunk of the detainee population here."

Cultural sensitivity is consistently practiced in each of the camps. Respect for Islam is evident in many of the policies. For instance, in each cell in Camp 1, a Koran is stored hanging in a surgical mask from the cell wall. The purpose of the surgical mask is to hold the Muslim holy book "in a place of reverence," Padmore said.

In each cell block a painted arrow points toward Mecca, Saudi Arabia, so the detainees know which way to face during their daily prayers. During Ramadan, detainees were allowed to break their daily fast with water and dates at the appropriate time, and prayer calls are broadcast over loudspeakers five times a day.

Regardless of his assigned level or camp, no detainee is considered to be more or less dangerous than another. "I can't say who's dangerous and who's not," Padmore said. "I consider them all dangerous people because they're here."

The above quotes came from here: Link
The list just goes on and on. Here's what it's like in most prisons in the US.

Prison conditions
Research paper English III 13 March 03 Environment in the Slammer In the movies prisons are depicted two ways. They are either grossly overcrowded, or a clean utopia where criminals go for a break or vacation. Although the public does not want prison to be a pleasant experience, they also do not want it to be agonizing torture. Amnesty International has launched a worldwide campaign against the United States. They accuse America's prison system of "persistent and widespread patterns of human rights violations" (CNN.com). Amnesty International (AI) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preservation of human rights. AI investigates human rights violations all over the world and brings their findings to the public. Of the twenty-five human rights violations in AI's report, they cited ten dealing with infractions in America's prison system (Beaudoin 14).
America's prisons are in a downward spiral. They were once a place for rehabilitation, a place where inmates were strongly encouraged to continue their education. But now due to the increased population and a stronger emphasis on punishment rather than rehabilitation, abuse of prisoners and a filthy living environment is beginning to be the norm (Bender 92).

Now I have backed up my assertions....can "you" do the same? I don't think you can.

ericseba

on Jun 09, 2005

Vune, this post originated by someone who was pissed off about hipocrisy and the lack of due process for these detainees. You have slowly but surely turned it into an abuse scandal. Regardless of the links you have come up with, the biggest issue at Gitmo is the legal status of the detainees. But when you can't win the legal status arguement, you go for the let's investigate allegations of abuse card.

The beginning of finding out what is going on in the camp, and proof either way beyond doubt, is surely a start to an answer.

Actually, you as an accuser, have the sole burden of proof; or have we changed the legal system? You see the guards at Gitmo are innocent until proven guilty unless you want to lower yourself to the level of Bush. You liberals twist around in whatever direction you need to be in order to make the arguement of the hour. Wait a minute Vune, is your real identity John Kerry?

I will repeat myself here. I have no proof either way as to the conditions at Gitmo. My arguement all along has been kingbee's original statement that these guys have been denied due process. We CANNOT give these guys due process. We will not find them guilty of any crime other than hating Americans and wanting us dead. Some of us are just willing to be the ones to say that they must be held if for no other reason than to keep American lives safe. As Bush said, they are enemy combatants, they are guilty of no crime punishable under our justice system. Our justice system is designed for thieves, rapists, murderers, etc... It is not designed for a guy who has been taught by his church since birth that Americans are evil devils who must die. In fact he has been taught that if dies taking a few Americans with him, he will be met in paradise by his 70 virgins. These are people who believe that Allah has declared that we must die. I AM ASKING FOR AN ANSWER TO THAT PROBLEM VUNE!! I really don't give a crap about your bleeding heart liberal babble about tight handcuffs, loud music, beatings and Koran desecration and let's just go to court. HOW HOW HOW is our president to protect us from those sort of fanatics?

I am not questioning Bush's tactics because I have know better alternative. Does it make me sick to my stomach what is happening? YES!! Do I have a better solution? NO!! Therefore I won't cry about his methods until I can offer up a better solution. You and your damn day in court BS is enough to make me physically ill. The idea that you can put a fanatic in a courtroom where some ACLU hotshot will have him back on the street in five minutes is perposterous. That's your answer? Well your answer sucks. Your answer fails to address the real issure of how we protect ourselves from radical Muslims. YOU SIMPLY CAN'T ANSWER IT. You have no answer other than some BS "2 rights don't make a wrong" cliche.

The Original Vune

on Jun 09, 2005

Have you ever heard of the word "propaganda"?

The Original Vune

on Jun 09, 2005

Anyway, I have to head on, can't sit around here all day sparring with you right w(h)ingers!

I remain to be convinced. I hope that you are right and these guys are being given first rate care, having lives saved and living it up on extended vacation in sunny Cuba but I doubt it

The Original Vune

on Jun 09, 2005

Actually, you as an accuser, have the sole burden of proof; or have we changed the legal system?

I don't think I am the only accuser. I also don't think I'll be allowed the access to a high security establishment when even most of the prisoners lawers aren't

Dr Guy

on Jun 09, 2005

was about to but then I reminded myself of what you said earlier

Note the 'If I claim......". I never claimed. I asked a question. As you can see, it is not the question you wanted, but any answer you give either must be eye witness testimony, or the guilty proclaiming their innocence. That is the trap you fell into.

The Original Vune

on Jun 09, 2005

The trap that you fell into was the one where you thought "i'll be really clever and basically call him a wife beater, then, when he takes offence and raises he issue I will cliam that I never claimed, so therefore he cannot claim that I claimed. Mwohahaha! .....I am clever"

Dr Guy

on Jun 09, 2005

Does detaining men in somewhere akin to a concentration camp under the juristicion of the US make sense to you?

You apparently have no conception of a concentration camp. That is not only insulting to the american soldiers, but to the millions so condemned by Hitler. You should be more careful of who you insult in the future.

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