From the very outset, Guantanamo Bay has been set up to detain people who had fallen into the vast outstretched web of capture created by the Bush Administration and implemented by the soldiers in the field. There appears to be almost no set procedure in place at any time that the soldiers could use to make a meaningful and qualified assessment of the person in question. Many times the soldiers had to accept the word of a total stranger. The fact that rewards were given to those who brought in suspected terrorists only further muddy the process.
Once these suspects arrived at Gitmo, they were stripped of almost all connections with the outside world. It is obvious from the earliest records from Gitmo that torture was authorized as per John Yoo’s torture memo and other documents, that the torture was approved in the oval office with VP Dick Cheney, Sec. of State Donald Rumsfeld, NSA Chief Condoleeza Rice, and President George Bush present, and that it was carried out, not only at Gitmo but at Abu Ghraib as well.
The Bush Administration led a searing attack of these detainees in the news media across the country. Both military and non-military personnel in the various parts of the Executive pounded a nonstop drum of epithets aimed at convincing the American public that those being detained were, to use Rumsfeld’s words, “the worst of the worst.” In poll after poll, Americans showed that they not only willingly bought the administration’s story, hook, line and sinker, but that they were quite willing to trash the United States Constitution if its interpretation was other than what the Bush administration was claiming.
Detainees at Gitmo have waited for up to 7 years to speak to any legal attorney about their case. At the same time, many were never officially accused of any crime, never given an end date to their detention, and never allowed to speak to anyone outside the camp about their case.
So as the end of this unfortunate project of torture and abuse by the US military with the full agreement from the executive and legislative branches of our government approaches, what is the final bottom line result? After over 7 years of governmental assurance that those being held at Guantanamo Bay are, “the worst of the worst,” that they needed to be tortured in order to properly extract actionable intelligence to be sent back to the front lines, and that they had no POW rights, no humanitarian rights, and fell outside the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights which is supposed to govern all human beings on planet Earth, what has the US government provided to the world about their latest and greatest techniques to stop these evil imps from ever continuing their satanic ways in public again?
Since October 7, 2001, when the current war in Afghanistan began, 775 detainees have been brought to Guantánamo. Of these, approximately 420 have been released without charge. As of January 2009, approximately 245 detainees remain.
Three have been convicted of various charges:
* David Hicks was found guilty under retrospective legislation introduced in 2006 of providing material support to terrorists in 2001
* Salim Hamdan took a job as chauffeur driving Osama bin Laden.
* Ali al-Bahlul made a video celebrating the attack on the USS Cole (DDG-67).
Of those still incarcerated, U.S. officials said they intend to eventually put 60 to 80 on trial and free the rest.[10]
After 7 years, countless epithets about the most evil of people, after repeated practices of torture, indefinite periods of isolation, the loss of even the most minimal rights as guaranteed by the DHR, the “worst of the worst” turned out to be only 3 people who were ever convicted to date. One was convicted for providing material that a seventh grader could easily get a hold of, another was convicted of being a personal taxi driver, and the third was convicted of making a film about an attack. Absolutely no one has been convicted of killing anyone, convicted of torturing anyone, nor convicted of harming anyone in the slightest. The “worst of the worst” turn out to be people who carried some papers, a driver’s license, car, and a camcorder. The rest of these evil people are back in the public once again able to continue as before, but with one major difference. They were illegally, unlawfully, and erroneously kidnapped, detained, tortured and abused for up to seven years of their life by the government of the only super power on planet Earth.
There is no truer demonstration of the oft-cited refrain that the ultimate demise of the US will come from within, not without. If the horrors at Gitmo are any indication that demise will probably come sooner rather than later.
BAD IMAGE - file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/HP_ADM%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msohtml1/07/clip_image002.jpg (must exist and begin with http)
[1] http://beyond.euskalaretoa.com/belief/YaBB.pl?num=1239952795/0#0
[2] http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/time/timetbl2d.htm
[3] http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/teller.htm
[4] http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/time/timetbl2d.htm
[5] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Enemy_combatant
[6] Idem
[7] http://www.truthout.org/article/william-fisher-the-worst-worst
[8] http://www.nationaljournal.com/members/polltrack/2006/issues/06terrorism.htm
Jim Ryun and Chris Chocola quotes from:
http://www.brainyquote.com/
[9] http://www.pubrecord.org/torture/6-bushs-torture-quote-undercuts-denial.html
[10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp
Once these suspects arrived at Gitmo, they were stripped of almost all connections with the outside world. It is obvious from the earliest records from Gitmo that torture was authorized as per John Yoo’s torture memo and other documents, that the torture was approved in the oval office with VP Dick Cheney, Sec. of State Donald Rumsfeld, NSA Chief Condoleeza Rice, and President George Bush present, and that it was carried out, not only at Gitmo but at Abu Ghraib as well.
The Bush Administration led a searing attack of these detainees in the news media across the country. Both military and non-military personnel in the various parts of the Executive pounded a nonstop drum of epithets aimed at convincing the American public that those being detained were, to use Rumsfeld’s words, “the worst of the worst.” In poll after poll, Americans showed that they not only willingly bought the administration’s story, hook, line and sinker, but that they were quite willing to trash the United States Constitution if its interpretation was other than what the Bush administration was claiming.
Detainees at Gitmo have waited for up to 7 years to speak to any legal attorney about their case. At the same time, many were never officially accused of any crime, never given an end date to their detention, and never allowed to speak to anyone outside the camp about their case.
Since October 7, 2001, when the current war in Afghanistan began, 775 detainees have been brought to Guantánamo. Of these, approximately 420 have been released without charge. As of January 2009, approximately 245 detainees remain.
Three have been convicted of various charges:
* David Hicks was found guilty under retrospective legislation introduced in 2006 of providing material support to terrorists in 2001
* Salim Hamdan took a job as chauffeur driving Osama bin Laden.
* Ali al-Bahlul made a video celebrating the attack on the USS Cole (DDG-67).
Of those still incarcerated, U.S. officials said they intend to eventually put 60 to 80 on trial and free the rest.[10]
After 7 years, countless epithets about the most evil of people, after repeated practices of torture, indefinite periods of isolation, the loss of even the most minimal rights as guaranteed by the DHR, the “worst of the worst” turned out to be only 3 people who were ever convicted to date. One was convicted for providing material that a seventh grader could easily get a hold of, another was convicted of being a personal taxi driver, and the third was convicted of making a film about an attack. Absolutely no one has been convicted of killing anyone, convicted of torturing anyone, nor convicted of harming anyone in the slightest. The “worst of the worst” turn out to be people who carried some papers, a driver’s license, car, and a camcorder. The rest of these evil people are back in the public once again able to continue as before, but with one major difference. They were illegally, unlawfully, and erroneously kidnapped, detained, tortured and abused for up to seven years of their life by the government of the only super power on planet Earth.
There is no truer demonstration of the oft-cited refrain that the ultimate demise of the US will come from within, not without. If the horrors at Gitmo are any indication that demise will probably come sooner rather than later.
BAD IMAGE - file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/HP_ADM%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msohtml1/07/clip_image002.jpg (must exist and begin with http)
[1] http://beyond.euskalaretoa.com/belief/YaBB.pl?num=1239952795/0#0
[2] http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/time/timetbl2d.htm
[3] http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/teller.htm
[4] http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/time/timetbl2d.htm
[5] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Enemy_combatant
[6] Idem
[7] http://www.truthout.org/article/william-fisher-the-worst-worst
[8] http://www.nationaljournal.com/members/polltrack/2006/issues/06terrorism.htm
Jim Ryun and Chris Chocola quotes from:
http://www.brainyquote.com/
[9] http://www.pubrecord.org/torture/6-bushs-torture-quote-undercuts-denial.html
[10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp
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