Guantánamo -- The American Gulag
Since January of 2002 the United States has imprisoned more than 700 boys and men from at least 42 countries at Guantánamo Naval Base on the eastern tip of Cuba. Called the "legal equivalent of outer space," the detention center has become the focus of international outrage.
On Friday, February 13, 2004, Donald Rumsfeld called the continued detention of the roughly 650 Guantanamo prisoners without charges or access to lawyers a "security necessity, and I might add it is also just plain common sense."
No regrets, no aologies about Arar deportation
The Canadian Press | 9/18/05 | Jim Brown | Rendition
The new U.S. ambassador to Canada is making no apologies for Maher Arar's deportation to Syria, arguing that it's better to be safe than sorry in the fight against international terrorism.
David Wilkins is also warning that other Canadians with dual citizenship could face a similar fate if they fall under suspicion.
"The United States is committed in its war against terror," Wilkins said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
UN Human Rights Group to Scrutinize US
Inter Press Service | 9/21/05 | Thalif Deen | Bush Administration
The U.N. Human Rights Committee, scheduled to meet in Geneva next month, has written to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) calling for any available evidence of human rights abuses by the United States -- particularly in the aftermath of its global war on terrorism.
The 18-member committee, comprising of independent human rights experts, will take up "issues of specific concerns relating to the effect of measures taken (by the administration of President George W. Bush) in the fight against terrorism following the events of 11 September 2001," the day the United States was subject to terrorist attacks.
U.S. Envoy out of line on Arar
Toronto Star | 9/22/05 | Lorne Waldman | RenditionU.S. Ambassador David Wilkins's statement that the U.S. makes no apologies for its treatment of Maher Arar, and that other Canadians could face a similar fate, is deeply disturbing.
Shrugging at Torture
Toronto Star | 9/22/05 | Editorial | RenditionBe warned. Canadian snowbirds who arouse suspicion in the United States may be bundled off to places like Syria, for torture and worse. And don't expect U.S. officials to lose sleep, apologize or compensate, if they goof.
Abu Ghraib: A Global Family Portrait
The Believer | 4/5/05 | Jana Prikyl | Abu GhraibIn a slum outside Rio de Janeiro, a gang of gun-toting drug dealers chases a runaway chicken. Meanwhile, a studious boy who grew up with them walks through the same neighborhood, having recently become a photographer for a city newspaper. Suddenly their paths intersect: the boy freezes, camera dangling from his neck; the dealers clutch their automatic rifles; he has reason to think they want him dead. But instead they ask to be photographed. As it turns out, they love seeing themselves in the paper. So the boy lifts the camera to his face, the dealers clasp their guns, and he does the shooting.
The Pentagon's Secret Stash: Abu Ghraib Photos
Reason | 4/05 | Matt Welch | Abu GhraibThe images, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Congress, depict "acts that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel, and inhuman." After Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) viewed some of them in a classified briefing, he testified that his "stomach gave out." NBC News reported that they show "American soldiers beating one prisoner almost to death, apparently raping a female prisoner, acting inappropriately with a dead body, and taping Iraqi guards raping young boys." Everyone who saw the photographs and videos seemed to shudder openly when contemplating what the reaction would be when they eventually were made public.
Green Light for Iraqi Prison Abuse Came Right from the Top
The Independent | 4/3/05 | Andrew Bunscombe | Bush AdministrationAmerica's leading civil liberties group has demanded an investigation into the former US military commander Iraq after a formerly classified memo revealed that he personally sanctioned a series of coercive interrogation techniques outlawed by the Geneva Conventions. The group claims that his directives were directly linked to the sort of abuses that took place at Abu Ghraib.
We Can't Remain Silent
New York Times | 4/1/05 | Bob Herbert | GeneralAt dinner on a rainy night in Manhattan this week, I listened to a retired admiral and a retired general speak about the pain they've personally felt over the torture and abuse scandal that has spread like a virus through some sectors of the military.
Afghanistan: 'One huge US jail'
The Guardian | 3/19/2005 | Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark | General
Kabul was a grim, monastic place in the days of the Taliban; today it's a chaotic gathering point for every kind of prospector and carpetbagger. Foreign bidders vying for billions of dollars of telecoms, irrigation and construction contracts have sparked a property boom that has forced up rental prices in the Afghan capital to match those in London, Tokyo and Manhattan. Four years ago, the Ministry of Vice and Virtue in Kabul was a tool of the Taliban inquisition, a drab office building where heretics were locked up for such crimes as humming a popular love song. Now it's owned by an American entrepreneur who hopes its bitter associations won't scare away his new friends.
| Go to original
Guantánamo: Detainee Accounts
Human Rights Watch | 01/26/04 | Various Journalists | Testimony/Accounts
The following is a compilation by Human Rights Watch of accounts by thirty-three former detainees at Guantanamo of their experiences there. Human Rights Watch interviewed sixteen of the detainees, reviewed press reports containing statements by former detainees interviewed by journalists, and used as well statements published by the detainees themselves.
Download Printer-friendly
PDF file (300 KB, 26 pages)
| Go to original
| NEXT page |