Heard about this yesterday...
Michael Ratner, from the Center for Constitutional Rights, outlines a new report on how three British detainees were tortured in U.S. detention.
The men said they were beaten, shackled, photographed naked and in one incident questioned at gunpoint while in US custody. The Red Cross said yesterday that the U.S. may have committed war crimes at Guantanamo Bay if reports of detainees being tortured at the military base are true. This according to a report in the Guardian of London. The comment by the Red Cross comes a day after three former detainees from Britain revealed they were the victims of systemic abuse at the hands of their US captors both in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay. A Red Cross spokesperson told the Guardian "Some of the abuses alleged by the detainees would indeed constitute inhuman treatment." And that "Inhuman treatment constitutes a grave breach of the third Geneva convention and these are often also described as war crimes."
The former detainees, Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal and Rhuhel Ahmed, released a 115-page report yesterday that claimed they were beaten, shackled, photographed naked and, in one incident, questioned at gunpoint while in US custody. The three young men are from Tipton, a poor neighborhood in the West Midlands of England with a small community of Pakistani and Bangladeshi people. All three were detained in Northern Afghanistan on November 28, 2001. In March of 2004, after 2 ½ years of being held in extreme conditions, they were released to the British government. They were never charged with any crime and were released shortly after they returned. The three men compiled the report of their experience with their attorney, British civil rights lawyer Gareth Pierce.
Following these latest reports on conditions at Guantanamo, a leader in Britain/s Liberal Democrats party called on the Foreign Office to launch an investigation into the treatement of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Meanwhile, U.S. Navy Secrtary Gordon England defended the military tribunals being held for Guantanamo detainees. The tribunals come in response to a Supreme Court ruling requiring that detainees have the ability to challenge their detentions. Five of the eight prisoners reviewed so far have refused to take part in the process. We're joined from our New York studio by human rights lawyer Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights and attorney for several Guantanamo detainees. He is the co-author of a new book called "Guantanamo: What the World Should Know."
The men said they were beaten, shackled, photographed naked and in one incident questioned at gunpoint while in US custody. The Red Cross said yesterday that the U.S. may have committed war crimes at Guantanamo Bay if reports of detainees being tortured at the military base are true. This according to a report in the Guardian of London. The comment by the Red Cross comes a day after three former detainees from Britain revealed they were the victims of systemic abuse at the hands of their US captors both in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay. A Red Cross spokesperson told the Guardian "Some of the abuses alleged by the detainees would indeed constitute inhuman treatment." And that "Inhuman treatment constitutes a grave breach of the third Geneva convention and these are often also described as war crimes."
The former detainees, Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal and Rhuhel Ahmed, released a 115-page report yesterday that claimed they were beaten, shackled, photographed naked and, in one incident, questioned at gunpoint while in US custody. The three young men are from Tipton, a poor neighborhood in the West Midlands of England with a small community of Pakistani and Bangladeshi people. All three were detained in Northern Afghanistan on November 28, 2001. In March of 2004, after 2 ½ years of being held in extreme conditions, they were released to the British government. They were never charged with any crime and were released shortly after they returned. The three men compiled the report of their experience with their attorney, British civil rights lawyer Gareth Pierce.
Following these latest reports on conditions at Guantanamo, a leader in Britain/s Liberal Democrats party called on the Foreign Office to launch an investigation into the treatement of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Meanwhile, U.S. Navy Secrtary Gordon England defended the military tribunals being held for Guantanamo detainees. The tribunals come in response to a Supreme Court ruling requiring that detainees have the ability to challenge their detentions. Five of the eight prisoners reviewed so far have refused to take part in the process. We're joined from our New York studio by human rights lawyer Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights and attorney for several Guantanamo detainees. He is the co-author of a new book called "Guantanamo: What the World Should Know."
posted by BLONDIE at 4:25 PM
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