Thursday, March 29, 2007

Out Of The Frying Pan, Into The Fire

Meanwhile, as this BBC article shows, sometimes releasing detainees from Gitmo is not the humane thing to do:

Seven Russians detained at Guantanamo Bay suffered torture or other abuse after they were repatriated by the US, human rights campaigners say...

The seven were repatriated with a guarantee that they would be treated humanely, the group said...

According to the report, all seven men had repeatedly asked the US authorities not to return them to Russia because they expected to be treated worse there...

"The Russian experience shows why 'diplomatic assurances' simply don't work," said the report's author, Carroll Bogert...

Human Rights Watch says it wants Guantanamo detainees to have the opportunity to challenge their transfer before an impartial body.

As much as it offends the American conscience, compared to many parts of the world Gitmo is a model prison. That doesn't by any means justify the abuses that go on there. But amidst our outrage, we should remember to be proud of just how high our standards in this country are.

Update: Here's another article on the Human Rights Watch report, from The Independent, which kind of knocks the wind out of that sense of pride I was talking about:

The Kremlin and the United States have been accused of flouting international law in a report which tells the little-known story of seven Russian men freed from Guantanamo Bay...

The New York-based rights organisation said Washington knew that the men would face torture at the hands of the Russian authorities but accepted the flimsy diplomatic assurances offered by Moscow.

"The US government knew that these men would likely be tortured, and sent them back to Russia anyway," the report said.

There's also this from the BBC, about a British resident/Iraqi national soon to be released from Gitmo. He's been there five years, and in isolation for the past year. None of which prevented British MP Edward Davey from stating categorically that,

...Everything he had learned from Mr al-Rawi's family, lawyers and government officials showed he was not and never had been a "threat to national or international security".

Oh, well. One out of three... ain't so good.

Posted by Judah in:  Global War On Terror   Human Rights   

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