We don't torture, we're a civilised nation...
Lawyer claims Hicks, Habib tortured at Guantanamo Bay
"People sometimes argue about the definition of torture, what they are doing clearly comes within the definition of torture under the international convention, but they are engaging in what amounts to torture in the medieval sense of the phrase".
"Interrogation" apparently includes:
- having rubber bullets fired at them
- forced to kneel in the sun until they collapse
- putting him into the crucifix position in the sun
- belting the bottom of their feet
All of this overlooked if not condoned by the Australian Government. Isn't it comforting to know that we look after our own? The "War on Terror" has diminished not only our rights but our collective humanity.
Of course its not just the Aussies getting the treatment... this is not an isolated case of allegations of Human rights abuses by the American government.
"Weeks go by without serious newspapers investigating or commenting on human rights abuses by the American government. At home and abroad, hundreds, maybe thousands, of men are being held in camps and prisons by the military, by the CIA and by the justice department, incommunicado, without legal representation or hope of release, there to endure prolonged and terrifying interrogation."
Where the Camp X-ray "interrogators" reach the limits of their capacity to extract information, the American practice is to hand over "recalcitrant prisoners to be tortured by compliant regimes in Jordan, Morocco and particularly Egypt, where beating, drowning and even electric shock treatment are used. "
In the name of freedom? Come off it. This is now a society where you can be held without trial indefinitely, tortured, threatened with execution, all without protest from our government or intervention from the legal system.
And in case you may still be wondering about the "justice" of this war, then contemplate this document, released 2 October 2003 from the US government at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/fr-cont.html, which redesignates, effective October 2, 2003, certain organizations as foreign terrorist organizations. The list includes 38 "terror" outfits from the state of..... Israel. No they are not Palestinian.
Update: More details of US Methods emerge
Briton held as terror suspect says CIA threatened torture
"The account also challenges US denials of the use of torture or the threat of torture on terrorist suspects, thousands of whom have been detained and interrogated across the world."
"Mr Rawi, 38, said:
- CIA agents twice threatened him with torture if he did not cooperate;
- Subjected to sleep deprivation, with lights permanently kept on in his cell;
- Threatened him with beating and rape;"
"We don't torture/ We're a civilised nation..." Lyrics: "Armagh" by The Au Pairs, 1980.
Item posted by AutoEditor at 12:06 pm ::
