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Liebral Media at it Again. No way Bush or Cheney would ever allow torture to
take place. Why free Iraq and bring peace in the name of God to just turn
around and torture people. The only way the Americans have 'tortured'
Muslims is if they consider living under a democracy torture.
US acknowledges torture at Guantanamo and Iraq, Afghanistan: UN source Fri
Jun 24, 9:23 AM ET
GENEVA (AFP) - Washington has for the first time acknowledged to the
United Nations that prisoners have been tortured at US detention centres in
Guantanamo Bay, as well as Afghanistan and Iraq, a UN source said.
The acknowledgement was made in a report submitted to the UN Committee
against Torture, said a member of the ten-person panel, speaking on on
condition of anonymity.
"They are no longer trying to duck this, and have respected their obligation
to inform the UN," the Committee member told AFP.
"They they will have to explain themselves (to the Committee). Nothing
should be kept in the dark."
UN sources said it was the first time the world body has received such a
frank statement on torture from US authorities.
The Committee, which monitors respect for the Convention against Torture and
Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, is gathering
information from the US ahead of hearings in May 2006.
Signatories of the convention are expected to submit to scrutiny of their
implementation of the 1984 convention and to provide information to the
Committee.
The document from Washington will not be formally made public until the
hearings.
"They haven't avoided anything in their answers, whether concerning
prisoners in Iraq, in Afghanistan or Guantanamo, and other accusations of
mistreatment and of torture," the Committee member said.
"They said it was a question of isolated cases, that there was nothing
systematic and that the guilty were in the process of being punished."
The US report said that those involved were low-ranking members of the
military and that their acts were not approved by their superiors, the
member added.
The US has faced criticism from UN human rights experts and international
groups for mistreatment of detainees -- some of whom died in custody -- in
Afghanistan and Iraq, particularly during last year's prisoner abuse scandal
surrounding the Abu Ghraib facility there.
Scores of US military personnel have been investigated, and several tried
and convicted, for abuse of people detained during the US-led campaign
against Islamic terrorist groups.
At the Guantanamo Bay naval base, a US toehold in Cuba where around 520
suspects of some 40 nationalities are held, allegations of torture have
combined with other claims of human rights breaches.
The US has faced widespread criticism for keeping the Guantanamo detainees
in a "legal black hole," notably for its refusal to grant them prisoner of
war status and allegedly sluggish moves to charge or try them.
Washington's report to the Committee reaffirms the US position that the
Guantanamo detainees are classed as "enemy combatants," and therefore do not
benefit from the POW status set out in the Geneva Conventions, the Committee
member said.
Four UN human rights experts on Thursday slammed the United States for
stalling on a request to allow visits to terrorism suspects held at the
Guantanamo Bay naval base, and said they planned to carry out an indirect
probe of conditions there.
Liebral Media at it Again. No way Bush or Cheney would ever allow torture to
take place. Why free Iraq and bring peace in the name of God to just turn
around and torture people. The only way the Americans have 'tortured'
Muslims is if they consider living under a democracy torture.
US acknowledges torture at Guantanamo and Iraq, Afghanistan: UN source Fri
Jun 24, 9:23 AM ET
GENEVA (AFP) - Washington has for the first time acknowledged to the
United Nations that prisoners have been tortured at US detention centres in
Guantanamo Bay, as well as Afghanistan and Iraq, a UN source said.
The acknowledgement was made in a report submitted to the UN Committee
against Torture, said a member of the ten-person panel, speaking on on
condition of anonymity.
"They are no longer trying to duck this, and have respected their obligation
to inform the UN," the Committee member told AFP.
"They they will have to explain themselves (to the Committee). Nothing
should be kept in the dark."
UN sources said it was the first time the world body has received such a
frank statement on torture from US authorities.
The Committee, which monitors respect for the Convention against Torture and
Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, is gathering
information from the US ahead of hearings in May 2006.
Signatories of the convention are expected to submit to scrutiny of their
implementation of the 1984 convention and to provide information to the
Committee.
The document from Washington will not be formally made public until the
hearings.
"They haven't avoided anything in their answers, whether concerning
prisoners in Iraq, in Afghanistan or Guantanamo, and other accusations of
mistreatment and of torture," the Committee member said.
"They said it was a question of isolated cases, that there was nothing
systematic and that the guilty were in the process of being punished."
The US report said that those involved were low-ranking members of the
military and that their acts were not approved by their superiors, the
member added.
The US has faced criticism from UN human rights experts and international
groups for mistreatment of detainees -- some of whom died in custody -- in
Afghanistan and Iraq, particularly during last year's prisoner abuse scandal
surrounding the Abu Ghraib facility there.
Scores of US military personnel have been investigated, and several tried
and convicted, for abuse of people detained during the US-led campaign
against Islamic terrorist groups.
At the Guantanamo Bay naval base, a US toehold in Cuba where around 520
suspects of some 40 nationalities are held, allegations of torture have
combined with other claims of human rights breaches.
The US has faced widespread criticism for keeping the Guantanamo detainees
in a "legal black hole," notably for its refusal to grant them prisoner of
war status and allegedly sluggish moves to charge or try them.
Washington's report to the Committee reaffirms the US position that the
Guantanamo detainees are classed as "enemy combatants," and therefore do not
benefit from the POW status set out in the Geneva Conventions, the Committee
member said.
Four UN human rights experts on Thursday slammed the United States for
stalling on a request to allow visits to terrorism suspects held at the
Guantanamo Bay naval base, and said they planned to carry out an indirect
probe of conditions there.
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