Saturday, November 28, 2009

Repeating Yourself Gets Boring, SO ! STOP IT ! STOP IT ! STOP IT !

I am truly so tired of feeling the need to appeal for reason in the struggle to uphold democracy, justice, and freedom against the attacks - military, guerilla, and ideological - of terrorists and the attacks - misguided, dangerous, and unconscionable - of the so-called defenders.

Afghans Detail a Secret Prison Still Operating on a U.S. Base - NYTimes.com
By ALISSA J. RUBIN, Published: November 28, 2009

KABUL, Afghanistan — An American military detention camp in Afghanistan is still holding inmates for sometimes weeks at a time and without access to the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to human rights researchers and former detainees held at the site on the Bagram Air Base.
...
The jail’s operation highlights a tension between President Obama’s goal to improve detention conditions that had drawn condemnation under the Bush administration and his stated desire to give military commanders leeway to operate. While Mr. Obama signed an order to eliminate so-called black sites run by the Central Intelligence Agency in January, that order did not apply to this jail, which is run by military Special Operations forces.
...
“Holding people in what appears to be incommunicado detention runs against the grain of the administration’s commitment to greater transparency, accountability, and respect for the dignity of Afghans,” said Jonathan Horowitz, a human rights researcher with the Open Society Institute.
Mr. Horowitz said he understood that “the necessities of war requires the U.S. to detain people, but there are limits to how to detain.”
...
Human rights researchers worry that the jail remains in the shadows and largely inaccessible both to the Red Cross and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, which has responsibility for ensuring humane treatment of detainees under the Afghan Constitution. Manfred Nowak, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on torture, said the site fell into a legal limbo and was not clearly governed by the Geneva Conventions.

So close it down! In a system of justice worthy of defending, the accused are brought to trial and punished only after they are found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. So, Mr. Obama, do NOT try to keep some smelly corner of the playpen in operation! Maturity and deliberacy are the only sure means for thought to overcome militancy, fundamentalism, and radical religionism!

No comments:

Post a Comment