Comments on: Guantanamo: be the evil you want to see defeated

By: Naomi Cartledge

Naomi Cartledge — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

A most informative book called, “American Torture” shows the US use of torture from just after WW2 up until today. The difference now, is that the Bush Administration broke every rule there is in respect of the jailing of ‘suspects’, refusal to abide by Geneva Conventions, the refusal to abide by hapeas corpus principles; renditions of nationals to foreign jails; the use of British airspace to take these people to hell holes in Europe(with the permission of the then PM, Tony Blair). When these actions were coupled with Guantanamo Bay, Abu Graib & others, Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld & others took torture & imprisonment to an insidious level. At the same time, Bush ‘warned’ Iraq of its responsibilities under the Geneva Conventions.

Many innocent Iraqis, including women & children have been brutalized courtesy of the US. Australia, with the concurrence of Howard/Downer & others gave their support to such practices - lying about Mamdouh Habib’s rendition to Egypt- we were told that Downer/Ruddock did not know where he was.Evidence came to light later, that they certainly did know, and were quite happy for Habib to be brutalized by the Egyptians.
If there was any justice in the west, those responsible should be charged with war crimes - I doubt it will ever happen. We do now know many truths, of which I feel acute shame, distress and embarassment. The ‘West’ will not be able to spruik of the righteousness of their governments, until these horrific assaults on democracy, International Law, the Rule of Law and many other long held uttereances are defended by criminal actions against the perpetrators - Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Blair/Howard & those who carried out these atrocities! I understand, that all that changed at Abu Graib was the removal of cameras! Torture was still taking place under US direction! The FBI refused to work with these thugs! I need to be convinced that these practices have or will change!

By: John James

John James — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

The torture of prisoners is not acceptable but the definition of such needs to be set down clearly. I dont expect interrogation of prisoners to be a walk in the park especially when the lives of innocent civilians are at stake.
The practice of internment of suspected enemies and active combatants, without tria,l has ample and legitimate precedent and democracies and their administrations have every right to move to secure the lives of their citizens.
It is notable that the incoming American administration has made it clear that its foreign policy initiatives will not differ substantially from the Bush administration. They have even retained the Bush administration's Secretary of Defence, which says it all.
Guantanomo will remain open for considerable time. I suspect a long time, because of the danger posed by the majority of its inmates. They are a security nightmare and the Left are dreaming, as usual, if they are
thinking that governments will gladly repatriate these thugs.
The postings above reveal the usual orgasm of Left hatred for all things western, including democracy itself.
Why should the priniciples of the Geneva convention apply to combatants who violate every aspect of the convention. They disguise themselves as civilians, they target, deliberately, non combatants and they summarily execute, without trial, most of those captured, including UN aid workers. During World War 1 and 2, they would have been regarded as spies and summarily executed. They're lucky to be going home.

By: steve martin

steve martin — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

A nice piece on the above by Barbara Ehrenreich in The Nation at:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090309/ehrenreich?rel=hp_currently

By: James O'Neill

James O'Neill — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

“Medieval forces of terror”? Who are the real terrorists Mr Yusuf? Surely not the people defending their land (Iraq; Afghanistan et al) against the forces of aggression represented by the illegal invasions of their countries by the US and its allies, including Australia.
I suggest you read William Blum’s Killing Hope for the depressingly long list of countries bombed, invaded, undermined, interfered with and otherwise ill-treated by the US in the past 60+ years.
As any careful reading of the history of terorrism will show, the overwhelming majority of terrorist acts are state sponsored and heading the list by a very wide margin is the US.
Google Operation Condor for some insights into how the US sought to maintain regimes friendly to its world view in its neighbours to the south.
Consider the more than 1 million Iraqis dead from sanctions between the two Gulf Wars. Or consider the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian victims of Israeli aggression, aided, abetted and armed by the Americans. Or the millions killed in Indo-China between 1962 and 1975, again at the hands of the Americans and their alliles. Then ask yourself again, who are the real terrorists.

By: kavmanna

kavmanna — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

it is da Pashtuns who make up 99.9% of folk at guantanomo

most of them are there coz they were dubiously fingered as terror suspects to satisfy and get even in old tribal civic disputes or they were falsely fingered by officials who collected the "dob in a terrorist" bounty set by the Hamericans

they are not terrorists and their imprisonment is a disgrace