Related to post 108 of this thread:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6508779.stm
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Gates urges closure of Guantanamo</b>Â
Mr Gates said the Guantanamo prison had become "tainted"
The US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, has said that Congress should look for ways to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba.
He said the military trials of terror suspects at the prison lack credibility because they have been tainted by the harsh treatment of detainees.
But he said that some detainees who have vowed to attack the US should never be released from custody.
The US has started the military trials of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay.
Mr Gates told a House of Representatives committee that "my own view is that because of things that happened earlier at Guantanamo there is a taint about it." <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Gee, ya think?
It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to insist closing places of torture, but I suppose US government is not even in that category. Last I heard, Bush was still reading Dr Seuss... Gates is rather slow too if it took so long for him to come to this opinion.
Meanwhile, some others are not in the least repentant of christo torture by US govt:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Rumsfeld torture suit dismissed</b>Â
[Image caption:]Donald Rumsfeld apologised for abuse at Abu Ghraib
(Translation of Rumsfeld's position: "I'm sorry for the torture. That doesn't mean we won't do it again. Of course we will. And then we'll be sorry again - to save face of our pro-human rights reputation")
A US court has dismissed a lawsuit against former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld over claims prisoners were tortured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The court accepted that the nine men who sued had been tortured - and detailed the torture in its ruling.
But Judge Thomas Hogan ruled the five Iraqis and four Afghans did not have US constitutional rights, and also that Mr Rumsfeld was immune from such suits. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Good old US. See me waving a virtual American flag. 'Democracy', 'human rights', it's all there. "The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave." The man who wrote that would have cried about the mockery the US govt has made of his words. I think many others should be crying besides.
"the five Iraqis and four Afghans did not have US constitutional rights" - reminds me of 'some humans are more equal than others', paraphrasing George Orwell. So too the statement: "Mr Rumsfeld was immune from such suits". Yeah, some people have a Licence to Torture, and immunity from repercussions. (Rumsfeld is not rushed to a Hague tribunal unlike a particular Yugoslavian leader...)
Human rights - for the most part limited only to human (and religious) rights of christos - is just something America expects from other governments.
Torture terrorists then. Just don't go around claiming you are a proponent of human rights and lecturing others after that. Hypocrites.
Or don't torture and you can go around preaching.
But you can't have the cake and eat it too.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6508779.stm
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Gates urges closure of Guantanamo</b>Â
Mr Gates said the Guantanamo prison had become "tainted"
The US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, has said that Congress should look for ways to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba.
He said the military trials of terror suspects at the prison lack credibility because they have been tainted by the harsh treatment of detainees.
But he said that some detainees who have vowed to attack the US should never be released from custody.
The US has started the military trials of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay.
Mr Gates told a House of Representatives committee that "my own view is that because of things that happened earlier at Guantanamo there is a taint about it." <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Gee, ya think?
It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to insist closing places of torture, but I suppose US government is not even in that category. Last I heard, Bush was still reading Dr Seuss... Gates is rather slow too if it took so long for him to come to this opinion.
Meanwhile, some others are not in the least repentant of christo torture by US govt:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Rumsfeld torture suit dismissed</b>Â
[Image caption:]Donald Rumsfeld apologised for abuse at Abu Ghraib
(Translation of Rumsfeld's position: "I'm sorry for the torture. That doesn't mean we won't do it again. Of course we will. And then we'll be sorry again - to save face of our pro-human rights reputation")
A US court has dismissed a lawsuit against former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld over claims prisoners were tortured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The court accepted that the nine men who sued had been tortured - and detailed the torture in its ruling.
But Judge Thomas Hogan ruled the five Iraqis and four Afghans did not have US constitutional rights, and also that Mr Rumsfeld was immune from such suits. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Good old US. See me waving a virtual American flag. 'Democracy', 'human rights', it's all there. "The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave." The man who wrote that would have cried about the mockery the US govt has made of his words. I think many others should be crying besides.
"the five Iraqis and four Afghans did not have US constitutional rights" - reminds me of 'some humans are more equal than others', paraphrasing George Orwell. So too the statement: "Mr Rumsfeld was immune from such suits". Yeah, some people have a Licence to Torture, and immunity from repercussions. (Rumsfeld is not rushed to a Hague tribunal unlike a particular Yugoslavian leader...)
Human rights - for the most part limited only to human (and religious) rights of christos - is just something America expects from other governments.
Torture terrorists then. Just don't go around claiming you are a proponent of human rights and lecturing others after that. Hypocrites.
Or don't torture and you can go around preaching.
But you can't have the cake and eat it too.