Pentagon Review Reportedly Says Guantánamo Complies With Geneva Conventions

[tekisui]

Source: Common Dreams

NEW YORK - February 20 - According to a report in the New York Times today, the Pentagon concluded that the Guantánamo Bay prison complies with the humanitarian requirements of the Geneva conventions. The findings come less than three weeks after President Obama ordered a review of conditions at the infamous prison facility. The review was conducted by Admiral Patrick M. Walsh, the vice chief of naval operations.

The American Civil Liberties Union and other rights groups have requested full access to the prison to independently examine the conditions there, but to date access has not been granted.

The following can be attributed to Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU:

"The reported Pentagon review of Guantánamo appears to be nothing more than a whitewash of the Bush practices of abusive treatment and illegal detention. How Admiral Walsh could have completed a thorough review of the conditions of confinement and treatment of prisoners over the past seven years in the lightening speed of seventeen days belies logic and underscores what a farce this process appears to be. Candidate Obama himself acknowledged that Guantánamo was a violation of domestic and international law. That's why the reported review, sweeping the abusive Bush policies under the rug, is so troubling.

"News reports that some Pentagon officials have been advocating the continuation of the Bush administration's failed detention policies make the results of Admiral Walsh's report highly suspect. The only way to get an accurate assessment of conditions at Guantánamo is through an objective review by independent parties who have complete access to the facility as well as government documents detailing the conditions at Guantánamo over the past seven years."

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/02/20-9

[Xipe Totec]

1. I'm so relieved!

[Idealism]

2. Human rights violators? Us? Never...

:puke:

[stillcool]

3. That Pentagon....they joke

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Torture/Torture_page.html

[annabanana]

4. Isn't Holder on his way down there?

What are they planning to show him?

[tekisui]

6. He'll be there, I thik on Monday.

I guess they will show him Club Gitmo.:eyes:

[spanone]

5. the pentagon absolves the pentagon

[spanone]

8. UN calls on U.S. to close Guantanamo camp

By John O'NeilPublished: THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2006

A United Nations report today called on the United States to immediately close the detention center for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and to either release its inmates or bring them before an impartial tribunal.

The report, by a team of five inspectors for the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, blasted the American government for a litany of abuses, and said that certain practices at the prison camp "must be assessed as amounting to torture."

The American ambassador who acts as a liaison to the Human Rights Commission, Keven E. Moley, rejected the report's findings in a letter that was included with it.

He said the inspectors began by concluding that abuses existed, and that the report "selectively includes only those factual assertions needed to support those conclusions and ignores other facts that would undermine those conclusions."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/16/america/web.0216un.php

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Well there is the chance that it complies NOW!!!!!!!!

hardly six years ago,

And if they have stopped all the side issues... like water torture...

Still the Pentagon doing that review.... I want the ICRC to do that... and interview each prisoner ALONE.

Will see

Somehow I suspect that won't happen

[mmonk]

9. Crazy.

War criminals absolve themselves.