Amnesty: U.S. running 'archipelago' of secret prisons

[Guest guest]

" Lori Price " <lrprice

U.S. running 'archipelago' of secret prisons: Amnesty

 

 

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News Update from Citizens for Legitimate Government

06 June 2005

 

 

U.S. running 'archipelago' of secret prisons: Amnesty --The U.S. government is

operating an " archipelago " of prisons around the world, many of them secret

camps into which people are being " literally disappeared, " a top Amnesty

International official said Sunday.

 

 

 

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/05/amnesty.detainee/

 

Rights group leader says U.S. has secret jails

Top GOP senator says Gitmo hearings might be appropriate

 

Monday, June 6, 2005 Posted: 3:35 AM EDT (0735 GMT)

 

 

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The chief of Amnesty International USA alleged

Sunday that the Guantanamo Bay detention camp is part of a worldwide

network of U.S. jails, some of them secret, where prisoners are

mistreated and even killed.

 

William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty's Washington-based

branch, speaking on " Fox News Sunday, " defended the human rights

group's recent criticism of U.S. treatment of detainees at the naval

base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

 

" The U.S. is maintaining an archipelago of prisons around the world,

many of them secret prisons, into which people are being literally

disappeared, held in indefinite, incommunicado detention without

access to lawyers or a judicial system or to their families, " Schulz said.

 

" And in some cases, at least, we know they are being mistreated,

abused, tortured and even killed. "

 

Schulz's comments were the latest in a volley of incriminations and

denials between Amnesty and the White House.

 

London, England-based Amnesty International's report, released May 25,

cited " growing evidence of U.S. war crimes " and labeled the U.S.

detention facility at Guantanamo Bay as " the gulag of our times. "

(Full story)

 

U.S. officials responded with outrage. Defense Secretary Donald

Rumsfeld rebuffed such a comparison, saying a gulag was where the

Soviets " kept millions in forced labor concentration camps. " (Full story)

 

President Bush said the comparison was " absurd " and Vice President

Dick Cheney said he was offended by Amnesty's assertions. (Full story)

 

Schulz also answered questions about previous remarks in which he

labeled Rumsfeld and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as " alleged

high-level architects of torture. "

 

" Any nation that is party to the Geneva Conventions ... is obligated

under international law to investigate those who are alleged to be

involved with the formulation of a policy of torture or with its

carrying out, " Schulz said.

 

He went on: " The United States should be the one that should

investigate those who are alleged at least to be architects of

torture, not just the foot solders who may have inflicted the torture

directly, but those who authorized it or encouraged it or provided

rationales for it. "

Senators weigh in

 

A high-ranking Republican senator said Sunday that hearings on abuse

allegations at Guantanamo Bay might be appropriate, and a top

Democratic senator suggested closing down the prison.

 

" Look, it's very difficult to run a perfect prison, " Majority Whip

Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said on CNN's " Late Edition. "

 

" But we have an open country. We have hearings on a whole lot of

different subjects. We might well have hearings on this. "

 

Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the ranking Democrat on the Senate

Foreign Relations Committee, said he thinks the Guantanamo Bay prison

imperils the nation and should cease operating.

 

" This has become the greatest propaganda tool that exists for

recruiting of terrorists around the world, and it is unnecessary to be

in that position, " Biden said on ABC's " This Week. "

 

He called for an independent commission to review operations at

Guantanamo and other U.S. military-run prisons and make

recommendations to Congress.

 

" But the end result is, I think we should end up shutting it down, "

Biden said.

 

McConnell, the Senate's No. 2 Republican, objected to some of the

language used by critics of the prison -- particularly Amnesty's gulag

comparison.

 

" There is no country in the world that has stood for human rights more

than the United States, " McConnell said.

 

" Does that mean that a given soldier in a given situation may have

made mistakes? I think some were made at Abu Ghraib, maybe some were

made in Guantanamo. Our people are not perfect. "

 

Other human rights groups have criticized activities at Guantanamo

Bay, a station the United States has leased from Cuba since 1903.

 

In a 2004 report, the Red Cross called the psychological and physical

coercion used at Guantanamo Bay " tantamount to torture. "

 

Human Rights Watch said U.S. interrogators had inflicted religious

humiliation on Muslim detainees, a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

 

The U.S. military issued a report Friday that detailed four incidents

where camp personnel mishandled the Quran at Guantanamo Bay, which

holds about 540 detainees. (Full story)

 

The report concluded that inmates -- not U.S. military personnel as

previous reports claimed -- tried to flush the book down a toilet. The

report was issued by Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, commander of the detention

center.

 

The incidents included guards kicking a detainee's Quran; a guard

stepping on a detainee's Quran; a guard's urine going through an air

vent and splashing a detainee and his holy book; and a guard water

balloon fight causing two detainees' Qurans to get wet.

 

In a fifth confirmed incident, it could not be determined whether a

guard or a detainee wrote a two-word obscenity in a detainee's Quran.

 

White House press secretary Scott McClellan insisted Saturday the

incidents were " isolated " and did not reflect the behavior of the

majority of soldiers.

 

The investigation was prompted by a Newsweek article citing unnamed

sources who claimed U.S. personnel had flushed a Quran down a toilet

in an attempt at intimidation. Newsweek later retracted the story.

(Full story)

 

 

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CLG Newsletter editor: Lori Price, General Manager. 2005, Citizens

For Legitimate Government ® All rights reserved. CLG Founder and Chair is

Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D.