UN to US: Close Down Guantanamo
Jim Kouri, CPP
February 13, 2006
The United Nations is demanding the immediate closing of America's Guantanamo Bay detention center. The UN is also calling for the prosecution of officers and politicians "up to the highest level" who are accused of torturing detainees, according to a report in a British newspaper, The Telegraph, that the UN Human Rights Commission will release a biting report against the United States.
However, most of the evidence used by the UN is hearsay -- statements by lawyers representing some of the detainees or by American Civil Liberties Union lawyers just creating mischief. Also, the UN investigators and writers of the report slamming the US declined to visit Guantanamo Bay when an invitation was extended to them, according to my own sources.
The UN Human Rights Commission report urges the Bush Administration to put the more than 500 detainees on trial or release them. One must remember that the commission has included representatives from Libya, Iran, Sudan, Cuba and other brutal dictatorships.
The report says that the Bush administration should make certain that all allegations of torture are investigated by US criminal courts, and that "all perpetrators up to the highest level of military and political command are brought to justice." Allegations of torture and abuse at military installations are investigated by the military. Civilian criminal courts lack jurisdiction in these cases.
In spite of the UN insinuations that no investigations are conducted, the US military has indeed investigated and prosecuted officers and enlisted men and women. Recently, the Pentagon turned over more that 80,000 pages of reports and documentation of their investigative and corrective actions to the American Civil Liberties Union.
"This is just another organization bent on hampering the US war effort by what ever means necessary," says a former intelligence officer and police chief who's an expert in interrogation techniques.
"The ACLU, the UN Human Rights people, the left-wing of the Democrat Party and the Republican liberals -- they're all the same," he complained.
The report is expected to aggravate the already existing discord between the US and the UN over the Iraq war, as well as what it perceives as cruel treatment of prisoners in the war on terrorism.
Washington officials, including more moderate Democrats, characterized the expected UN report as "a hatchet job" when they were informed of the report's contents by The Telegraph.
"This shows precisely what is wrong with the United Nations today," a senior official told The Telegraph on Sunday.
"These people are supposed to be undertaking a serious investigation of the facts relating to Guantanamo. Instead, they deliver a report with a bunch of old allegations from lawyers representing released detainees that are so generalized that you cannot even tell what they are talking about. When the UN produces an unprofessional hatchet job like this it discredits the whole organization."
The Bush administration has made it's own demands calling for the UN's wholesale reform, and the Human Commission report is likely to lead to demands from Congress for a freeze on Washington's annual donations. Also, the United Nations continues to drag its feet on the Oil-for-Food scandal and the allegations of abuse, rape and sodomy perpetrated by UN peacekeepers in Africa and other locations.
The authors of the report say they question the right of America to classify the detainees as "enemy combatants" and argue that the "war on terror" is no justification for holding them indefinitely without charge.
The report is also deeply critical of the US over recent disclosures that some of the detainees have been subjected to force-feeding when they have gone on hunger strike.
The authors argue that force-feeding is akin to torture, and demands that "the authorities in Guantanamo Bay do not force-feed any detainee who is capable of forming a rational judgment and is aware of the consequences of refusing food," reports The Telegraph.
But US officials refuted the suggestion that force-feeding is torture, arguing that they had a duty under international law to protect the lives of the detainees.
"We have a duty to prevent people killing themselves," said an official, "and we are proud of the fact that none of the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay has died since it opened."
The detention center, located on the Marine base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was created to hold Al-Qaeda fighters captured during the 2001 war in Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban. Over 750 detainees have been processed at the detention facility since it opened.
After interrogation by US intelligence officers, some have been released and others returned to their country of origin. Because the Al-Qaeda fighters do not wear uniforms and have no allegiance to any government they are not covered by the Geneva Conventions.
And while there is insufficient evidence to charge most of the 520 detainees with war crimes, the US insists on the right to detain them to prevent them returning to the battlefield to carry out further attacks against the coalition.
The Pentagon has documented at least 12 cases where released Guantanamo detainees have resumed attacks against the coalition troops or returned to terrorist camps or cells in other countries.
US officials have already stated that they intend to return detainees to their home countries, assuming those countries are prepared to receive them and that they will ensure that these detainees will not be subjected to torture on their return.
American officials say they are furious at the way the investigation was conducted, especially the evidence that the four investigators who compiled the report have used to reach their conclusions.
Although Washington invited the group to visit Guantanamo at the end of last year to inspect the facility, the UN investigators rejected the invitation.
"They were offered the same access as congressmen responsible for overseeing the facility, but they declined to take up the offer," said a government official. "And then they complain that they had no access to doctors or guards -- all of which they were offered."
The Bush administration also challenges whether it is the responsibility of a body such as the UN Human Rights Commission to investigate Guantanamo. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the internationally recognized body responsible for monitoring detention facilities, visits Guantanamo on a monthly basis.
"They're all on the same page the ACLU, the UN, the American left -- all on the same page: stop the Americans," said the former military intelligence officer.
David Holcberg of Capitalism Magazine put it this way: America's continuing participation in the United Nations, an organization that protects and serves as a forum for the bloodiest dictatorships and terrorist regimes in the world, is a sanction of evil that runs contrary to America's self-interest. If the United States has any respect left for human rights, it should follow the example of its delegation to the Human Rights Commission and walk out of the United Nations. The US delegation for the UN Human Rights Commission packed up and left when Cuba was given a seat on the commission. They did the same when the Sudan -- with a history of genocide -- also was a commission member.
However, most of the evidence used by the UN is hearsay -- statements by lawyers representing some of the detainees or by American Civil Liberties Union lawyers just creating mischief. Also, the UN investigators and writers of the report slamming the US declined to visit Guantanamo Bay when an invitation was extended to them, according to my own sources.
The UN Human Rights Commission report urges the Bush Administration to put the more than 500 detainees on trial or release them. One must remember that the commission has included representatives from Libya, Iran, Sudan, Cuba and other brutal dictatorships.
The report says that the Bush administration should make certain that all allegations of torture are investigated by US criminal courts, and that "all perpetrators up to the highest level of military and political command are brought to justice." Allegations of torture and abuse at military installations are investigated by the military. Civilian criminal courts lack jurisdiction in these cases.
In spite of the UN insinuations that no investigations are conducted, the US military has indeed investigated and prosecuted officers and enlisted men and women. Recently, the Pentagon turned over more that 80,000 pages of reports and documentation of their investigative and corrective actions to the American Civil Liberties Union.
"This is just another organization bent on hampering the US war effort by what ever means necessary," says a former intelligence officer and police chief who's an expert in interrogation techniques.
"The ACLU, the UN Human Rights people, the left-wing of the Democrat Party and the Republican liberals -- they're all the same," he complained.
The report is expected to aggravate the already existing discord between the US and the UN over the Iraq war, as well as what it perceives as cruel treatment of prisoners in the war on terrorism.
Washington officials, including more moderate Democrats, characterized the expected UN report as "a hatchet job" when they were informed of the report's contents by The Telegraph.
"This shows precisely what is wrong with the United Nations today," a senior official told The Telegraph on Sunday.
"These people are supposed to be undertaking a serious investigation of the facts relating to Guantanamo. Instead, they deliver a report with a bunch of old allegations from lawyers representing released detainees that are so generalized that you cannot even tell what they are talking about. When the UN produces an unprofessional hatchet job like this it discredits the whole organization."
The Bush administration has made it's own demands calling for the UN's wholesale reform, and the Human Commission report is likely to lead to demands from Congress for a freeze on Washington's annual donations. Also, the United Nations continues to drag its feet on the Oil-for-Food scandal and the allegations of abuse, rape and sodomy perpetrated by UN peacekeepers in Africa and other locations.
The authors of the report say they question the right of America to classify the detainees as "enemy combatants" and argue that the "war on terror" is no justification for holding them indefinitely without charge.
The report is also deeply critical of the US over recent disclosures that some of the detainees have been subjected to force-feeding when they have gone on hunger strike.
The authors argue that force-feeding is akin to torture, and demands that "the authorities in Guantanamo Bay do not force-feed any detainee who is capable of forming a rational judgment and is aware of the consequences of refusing food," reports The Telegraph.
But US officials refuted the suggestion that force-feeding is torture, arguing that they had a duty under international law to protect the lives of the detainees.
"We have a duty to prevent people killing themselves," said an official, "and we are proud of the fact that none of the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay has died since it opened."
The detention center, located on the Marine base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was created to hold Al-Qaeda fighters captured during the 2001 war in Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban. Over 750 detainees have been processed at the detention facility since it opened.
After interrogation by US intelligence officers, some have been released and others returned to their country of origin. Because the Al-Qaeda fighters do not wear uniforms and have no allegiance to any government they are not covered by the Geneva Conventions.
And while there is insufficient evidence to charge most of the 520 detainees with war crimes, the US insists on the right to detain them to prevent them returning to the battlefield to carry out further attacks against the coalition.
The Pentagon has documented at least 12 cases where released Guantanamo detainees have resumed attacks against the coalition troops or returned to terrorist camps or cells in other countries.
US officials have already stated that they intend to return detainees to their home countries, assuming those countries are prepared to receive them and that they will ensure that these detainees will not be subjected to torture on their return.
American officials say they are furious at the way the investigation was conducted, especially the evidence that the four investigators who compiled the report have used to reach their conclusions.
Although Washington invited the group to visit Guantanamo at the end of last year to inspect the facility, the UN investigators rejected the invitation.
"They were offered the same access as congressmen responsible for overseeing the facility, but they declined to take up the offer," said a government official. "And then they complain that they had no access to doctors or guards -- all of which they were offered."
The Bush administration also challenges whether it is the responsibility of a body such as the UN Human Rights Commission to investigate Guantanamo. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the internationally recognized body responsible for monitoring detention facilities, visits Guantanamo on a monthly basis.
"They're all on the same page the ACLU, the UN, the American left -- all on the same page: stop the Americans," said the former military intelligence officer.
David Holcberg of Capitalism Magazine put it this way: America's continuing participation in the United Nations, an organization that protects and serves as a forum for the bloodiest dictatorships and terrorist regimes in the world, is a sanction of evil that runs contrary to America's self-interest. If the United States has any respect left for human rights, it should follow the example of its delegation to the Human Rights Commission and walk out of the United Nations. The US delegation for the UN Human Rights Commission packed up and left when Cuba was given a seat on the commission. They did the same when the Sudan -- with a history of genocide -- also was a commission member.
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