Obama takes early action on Guantanamo

[spring-peeper]

glad there was some coverage of the other prisons and rendition etc, pity none of the contractors will be jailed.

does this mean the only do this in really dark black operations now. instead of just black operations

or it goes even deeper underground.

My concerns go to what is going to happen with Omar Khadr.

 

[Jeff Robinson]

This is a really positive development. I must admit that Obama has on this issue acted in a swift and decisive manner far beyond that which I had anticipated. Everybody knew that Gitmo was going to go whoever won the election, but Obama's silence during his campaign on the question of the CIA's rendition program and secret jails made me very skeptical about his commitment to ending the Bush regimes shameful embrace of torture.

However there are still serious concerns:

Reprieve is concerned by the administration’s plans to consider more “aggressive interrogation methods”, which we believe are inhuman and ineffective.

Faulty intelligence obtained by such methods led to major errors by the Bush administration, with tragic consequences, most clearly in the Iraq war.

We therefore call on Obama to explicitly outlaw “no-touch” techniques such as music torture, and thus to draw a clear line under the Bush administration’s failed intelligence strategy.

We further urge full transparency and accountability with regard to the torture administered during the Bush years, in order to learn from these mistakes.

Finally, we remind President Obama and world leaders of the torture victims trapped in Guantanamo, with no country of refuge confirmed. Reprieve client Binyam Mohamed – who suffered a razorblade to the penis – is on hunger strike and desperate for release.

We urge world leaders to end the suffering of torture victims like Binyam by offering them a place of refuge.

ON SECRET PRISONS

Reprieve applauds Obama’s order to shut down the CIA’s “secret prisons” around the world.

However, we are concerned that the CIA may retain the ability to pass ‘suspects’ to other agencies for detention and torture on the ground.

Reprieve urges President Obama to further ensure that the CIA - and US military - are not complicit in human rights violations by international third parties.

http://www.reprieve.org.uk/Press_Reprieve_welcomes_President_Obamas_executive_orders_on_torture.htm

 

[extra dry]

some one told me that 'what will they (the US) do with all the people in there,

1> USA don't want them
2> Their own countries don't want (some of) them back

So I think a few will just disappear on a night helicopter ride over the Caribbean....:{

 

[butchersapron]

That's the last thing that's going to happen to people with names, faces and records.

This is a worrying sign that he's well up on what needs to be done - a largely symbolic/cosmetic move every now and then to cover up the massive raids on peoples pensions etc to bail out the super-rich. The inmates are now going to be kept in the US, where as we know, no torture ever takes place, and speedy trial is assured. Just ask those locked up without charge for the last 7 years plus

 

[scifisam]

Glancing at newspapers in the shops today, their pictures and headlines made it look as though Obama had officially closed Guantanamo. So I'm disappointed that this isn't the case, although my more realistic self admits that no President is able to, or should be able to, enact such big changes that quickly. It's good that he's got started, at least.

Like the former voice of reason says:

People are complaining that it's gonna take him a few months to stop a war and close down an international prison camp

even if he is as good as people seem to think he couldn't do that, and it's a good thing that the president can't do massive things like that in a couple of weeks

@extra dry - some neutral countries might give those poor bastards a home.

 

[DotCommunist]

Maybe he could have intervened and got the being force-fed al jazz journo who sadly shared a name with a genuine baddie released.

That incarceration is fucking despicable. May his jailers watch there children waste and die, before they themselves die in piss, shit and shame.

 

[scifisam]

Maybe he could have intervened and got the being force-fed al jazz journo who sadly shared a name with a genuine baddie released.

That incarceration is fucking despicable. May his jailers watch there children waste and die, before they themselves die in piss, shit and shame.

Top marks for hyperbole. Failing marks for wishing horrible deaths on children who haven't done anything. Minus 3 marks for misuse of 'there.'

 

[DotCommunist]

Top marks for hyperbole. Failing marks for wishing horrible deaths on children who haven't done anything. Minus 3 marks for misuse of 'there.'

Guantanomoe (sp) just releases the rage genie in me

 

[Orang Utan]

Guantanomoe (sp) just releases the rage genie in me

Bet you were pissed as well

 

[Jeff Robinson]

Just received this from Amnesty International:

'As for our common defence, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.' President Barack Obama, 20 January 2009.

A refreshing statement from the new president, and it would seem, one that is backed up by action.

We set out a list of human rights challenges <http://obama100days.amnesty.org/checklist.html> for his first 100 days in office. On each of these days we'll be highlighting a way that you can help.

Follow us on Twitter for our 100 ways to help <http://twitter.com/amnestyuk>

We're only days into his presidency and the human rights victories are stacking up. First the announcement that military trials at Guantánamo will be suspended, then executive orders that will close the detention centre within a year and ban harsh interrogation techniques like waterboarding.

These announcements represent hard-won victories for Amnesty activists and Human Rights campaigners everywhere. Everyone who has campaigned on these issues should be proud of what their tireless efforts have achieved.

As our video <http://obama100days.amnesty.org/> suggests, there are still some people with unrealistic expectations for Obama's first 100 days in office. So we've given the president a helping hand - by drawing up a checklist of tasks that are a little more achievable.

If you haven't already done so, please add your voice to our worldwide petition,
<http://obama100days.amnesty.org/petition.html> to ensure the new president meets all of Amnesty International's human rights challenges.

While there is still a long way to go, and plenty of boxes on our checklist that need to be ticked, for now let's take a moment to celebrate. What a difference a week can make.

Sincerely,

Amnesty International UK
Protect The Human

PS - For all the latest news and views on our 100 days campaign, visit www.ProtectTheHuman.com <http://www.protectthehuman.com>

 

[Azrael]

Where does executing 18 people by remote control plane fit into Amnesty's "100 days of human rights"?

Even the most wretched procedure at Guantanamo afforded the prisoner more due process than those children recieved.

 

[butchersapron]

Well, we're making good progress on this aren't we? There's now a whopping great 13 less prisoners in Guantanamo. And what's this reported in the Washington Post over the weekend - Lord Obama planning to bypass the elected legislature and impose an executive order allowing him to detain without charge the remaining 229 prisoners indefintely in the US -the reason being, of course, that actual trials would immediately collapse (see the Abdul Rahim al Janko case) and freeing them in the US would be politically devestating:

Obama administration officials, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, are crafting language for an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations.

There's a lovely bit of utterly cyncial spin in that article from the white housed advisers as well:

"Civil liberties groups have encouraged the administration, that if a prolonged detention system were to be sought, to do it through executive order," the official said.

 

[Azrael]

Well, we're making good progress on this aren't we? There's now a whopping great 13 less prisoners in Guantanamo. And what's this reported in the Washington Post over the weekend - Lord Obama planning to bypass the elected legislature and impose an executive order allowing him to detain without charge the remaining 229 prisoners indefintely in the US -the reason being, of course, that actual trials would immediately collapse (see the Abdul Rahim al Janko case) and freeing them in the US would be politically devestating:

This link says Mr al Janko was released because "on the preponderance of the evidence", he's not a terrorist. So far as I know the standard needed to bring charges in a US criminal court, probable cause, is lower (better than even odds aren't needed). So there's a decent chance more alleged terrorists could be brought to the USA and tried. So far as I know there's been no problem with those already shipped over and indicted in federal court.

However hard it is politically for Pres. Obama, I'm not sympathetic. If he doesn't want the burdens of power he shouldn't take its rewards. A system of extra-judicial detention on the US mainland is even worse than Guantanamo, and betrays everything Mr Obama says he stands for.

 

[dylans]

Can they turn Guantanamo into a retirement home for the Bush administration?

How about they just give it back to Cuba?

 

[Tooter]

Just finished reading Murat Kurnaz's book 'five years of my life'

Absolutely outraged at the things in that book...everyone in charge and the soldiers should be rounded up and charged with crimes against humanity...

I think that even if Guantanamo bay closed its inhabitants would be split up and moved to other places or somewhere away from prying eyes...very dark forces are at work.

 

[butchersapron]

Just to add to my post up the thread - Lord Obama's legal reps argued in the Senate Armed Services Committee this week that

"We should all assume that, for purposes of national security and the protection of the American people, there will be at the end of this review a category of people that we in the administration believe must be retained for reasons of public safety and national security," Johnson told Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C. "And they're not necessarily people that we'll prosecute."

“The question of what happens if there’s an acquittal is an interesting question—we talk about that often within the administration. If, for some reason, he’s not convicted for a lengthy prison sentence, then, as a matter of legal authority, I think it’s our view that we would have the ability to detain that person.”

In brief then, he wants to retain the right to detain people indefinitely, even those acquiitted - but they're more likely simply to detain these people for ever than actually bring them to any sort of trial.

 

[Azrael]

In brief then, he wants to retain the right to detain people indefinitely, even those acquiitted - but they're more likely simply to detain these people for ever than actually bring them to any sort of trial.

Which is again even worse than Mr Bush's off-shore gulag, in that it subverts the domestic justice system instead of avoiding it, and will doubtless be used against people arrested on US soil. It's but a short step until it's used on US citizens accused of terrorism.

If Mr Obama goes through with this despicable scheme he's spitting at his natural support base. Carry on like this Mr President and concerns about re-election will become moot.