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Guantanamo Bay: A Blot on Humanity: Even Hitler
Did not Treat Prisoners so
Horribly
by Buut Shikan (Idol Breaker)
At least 16 prisoners at the
U.S.
concentration camp in Guantanamo are
reported to have attempted suicide during the
last year. The U.S., other than
reporting the attempts, has not permitted any
investigation into the alleged
attempted suicides. The human rights situation in
the camp seems to be tragic
and in blatant violation of international and
Islamic law. Islamic people
never attempt suicide. What could have happened
to bring things to such a
pass.
Let's begin with what the U.S. has revealed of
its interrogation techniques.
The U.S. admits that it uses:
1. Sleep deprivation.
2. open-ended solitary confinement.
3. Flashing lights and/or extremely bright
lights.
4. Keeping a person standing up till he collapses
and them forcing him to
stay standing.
5. Threats of immediate or impending execution.
6. Constant reminders that there is no hope or
future for the captive.
7. Deprivation of medical attention.
Hopelessness is created by the U.S. not
permitting relatives, journalists or
attorneys to meet the prisoners. From the few
releases we have seen
(including an 80 year old Pakistani) there is a
high probability that most of
the prisoners are not combatants but simply
Islamic people who were helping
the people of Afghanistan when the Northern
Alliance/Karzai groupings sold
them to the U.S. as "al-Qaida" and "Taliban."
Judging from what happens in U.S. prisons on the
mainland, the following
procedures are destructive for Islamic prisoners
and which are routinely used
by the U.S.:
1. Strip searches on almost a daily basis.
2. Depersonalization of the prisoner through the
use of a number instead of a
name.
In the case of the Guantanamo Bay prisoners,
their Islamic personalities were
deliberately targeted. For months, they were kept
hooded and dragged on
chains when taken to the bathroom. To start off
their beards were shaved.
Later, they were given a government "imam" who
taught them that being rebels
against America
("terrorists"),
they had gone
against Islam.
[As historian David Irving pointed out, Hitler
did not treat his prisoners as
badly as the U.S. has done with its Islamic
prisoners. In fact, as my own
reading shows, American and British pilots who
were shot down by the Germans
after bombing population centers were permitted
to wear their uniforms and were never treated
thus.]
Amnesty International
has pointed out that
the U.S.'s disorientation
techniques, which do not leave a mark on the
body, are TORTURE. Thus the U.S.
does practice torture.
The world must take notice of the crimes
against humanity being
committed at Guantanamo Bay. Write to the U.S.
embassy in your country and
urge the U.S. to bring the prisoners to trial or
let them go. Within the U.S.
write to the Attorney General.
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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL'S POSITION ON U.S. USE OF
TORTURE
US officials claim that they use only
"acceptable techniques" for interrogation,
including sleep and light
deprivation and the temporary withholding of
food, water, access to sunlight
and medical attention, allegedly even for a
prisoner who had been shot.
"The tactics US officials openly admit to
constitute cruel, inhuman and
degrading treatment or torture. These statements
by US officials are an
admission of complicity in torture," said Dr.
William F. Schulz, Executive
Director of Amnesty International USA.
"Furthermore, transfer of prisoners
to the custody of other countries where they are
likely to be tortured is
also a violation of international law. President
Bush should issue a public,
unequivocal statement rejecting all forms of
torture by US officials and
their foreign allies, just as his father did in
1992. US and international
law are clear and absolute: torture is
unacceptable regardless of the
rationale or threat."
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WHY ARE MUSLIMS SILENT ABOUT THE TRAGEDY OF
GUANTANAMO BAY?
[Most Muslim 'leaders' in America are in the
government's pocket. Here are a
few lines from a powerful poem Sis. Karen English
wrote to try and awaken the
deeply asleep Imam W.D. Muhammad of
Muslim Journal
in which she describes the
condition of the Islamic prisoners:
"Our uncles in Guantanamo Bay……
Did you see them on the television?
Shuffling along with their ankles shackled?
Arms handcuffed behind them?
Faces hooded?
Being pulled along on chains like dogs?
They're confined in jails built from shipping containers
The International Red Cross and Amnesty International
Say they are held in contravention of The Geneva Convention,
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights The US Constitution
What do you say?"
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2003-03-13 Thu 09:44ct