Heftig nieuws als dit waar blijft te zijn. Je kunt bedenken 'waar rook is is vuur'. Maar hoelang kun je zoiets eigenlijk stil houden. En die vermeende kampen zullen dan in goedkeuring met de betroffen autoriteiten van een aantal landen opgezet zijn.quote:Bron : [url=http://www.nu.nl/news/536648/22/%27VS_hebben_geheime_gevangenissen%27.html=Nu.nl[/url]
'VS hebben geheime gevangenissen'
Uitgegeven: 6 juni 2005 07:23
WASHINGTON - Volgens de mensenrechtenbeweging Amnesty International beschikken de Verenigde Staten over geheime gevangenenkampen. Deze maken deel uit van een wereldwijd netwerk gevangenissen, waarin gedetineerden worden mishandeld en vermoord en letterlijk verdwijnen.
De aantijgingen werden zondagavond geuit door het hoofd van de Amerikaanse afdeling van Amnesty, William Schulz. Op de Amerikaanse zender Fox verdedigde hij de recente kritiek van Amnesty op de behandeling van terreurverdachten in het Amerikaanse kamp Guantanamo Bay. Volgens Schulz maakt dit detentiecentrum deel uit van de door hem veronderstelde "archipel" van kampen.
quote:Bron : CNN
Rights group leader says U.S. has secret jails
Top GOP senator says Gitmo hearings might be appropriate
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The chief of Amnesty International USA alleged Sunday that the Guantanamo Bay detention camp is part of a worldwide network of U.S. jails, some of them secret, where prisoners are mistreated and even killed.
William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty's Washington-based branch, speaking on "Fox News Sunday," defended the human rights group's recent criticism of U.S. treatment of detainees at the naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"The U.S. is maintaining an archipelago of prisons around the world, many of them secret prisons, into which people are being literally disappeared, held in indefinite, incommunicado detention without access to lawyers or a judicial system or to their families," Schulz said.
"And in some cases, at least, we know they are being mistreated, abused, tortured and even killed."
Schulz's comments were the latest in a volley of incriminations and denials between Amnesty and the White House.
London, England-based Amnesty International's report, released May 25, cited "growing evidence of U.S. war crimes" and labeled the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay as "the gulag of our times." (Full story)
U.S. officials responded with outrage. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld rebuffed such a comparison, saying a gulag was where the Soviets "kept millions in forced labor concentration camps." (Full story)
President Bush said the comparison was "absurd" and Vice President Dick Cheney said he was offended by Amnesty's assertions. (Full story)
Schulz also answered questions about previous remarks in which he labeled Rumsfeld and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as "alleged high-level architects of torture."
"Any nation that is party to the Geneva Conventions ... is obligated under international law to investigate those who are alleged to be involved with the formulation of a policy of torture or with its carrying out," Schulz said.
He went on: "The United States should be the one that should investigate those who are alleged at least to be architects of torture, not just the foot solders who may have inflicted the torture directly, but those who authorized it or encouraged it or provided rationales for it."
Senators weigh in
A high-ranking Republican senator said Sunday that hearings on abuse allegations at Guantanamo Bay might be appropriate, and a top Democratic senator suggested closing down the prison.
"Look, it's very difficult to run a perfect prison," Majority Whip Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said on CNN's "Late Edition."
"But we have an open country. We have hearings on a whole lot of different subjects. We might well have hearings on this."
Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he thinks the Guantanamo Bay prison imperils the nation and should cease operating.
"This has become the greatest propaganda tool that exists for recruiting of terrorists around the world, and it is unnecessary to be in that position," Biden said on ABC's "This Week."
He called for an independent commission to review operations at Guantanamo and other U.S. military-run prisons and make recommendations to Congress.
"But the end result is, I think we should end up shutting it down," Biden said.
McConnell, the Senate's No. 2 Republican, objected to some of the language used by critics of the prison -- particularly Amnesty's gulag comparison.
"There is no country in the world that has stood for human rights more than the United States," McConnell said.
"Does that mean that a given soldier in a given situation may have made mistakes? I think some were made at Abu Ghraib, maybe some were made in Guantanamo. Our people are not perfect."
Other human rights groups have criticized activities at Guantanamo Bay, a station the United States has leased from Cuba since 1903.
In a 2004 report, the Red Cross called the psychological and physical coercion used at Guantanamo Bay "tantamount to torture."
Human Rights Watch said U.S. interrogators had inflicted religious humiliation on Muslim detainees, a violation of the Geneva Conventions.
The U.S. military issued a report Friday that detailed four incidents where camp personnel mishandled the Quran at Guantanamo Bay, which holds about 540 detainees. (Full story)
The report concluded that inmates -- not U.S. military personnel as previous reports claimed -- tried to flush the book down a toilet. The report was issued by Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, commander of the detention center.
The incidents included guards kicking a detainee's Quran; a guard stepping on a detainee's Quran; a guard's urine going through an air vent and splashing a detainee and his holy book; and a guard water balloon fight causing two detainees' Qurans to get wet.
In a fifth confirmed incident, it could not be determined whether a guard or a detainee wrote a two-word obscenity in a detainee's Quran.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan insisted Saturday the incidents were "isolated" and did not reflect the behavior of the majority of soldiers.
The investigation was prompted by a Newsweek article citing unnamed sources who claimed U.S. personnel had flushed a Quran down a toilet in an attempt at intimidation. Newsweek later retracted the story. (Full story)
De praktijken in Abu Graibh en Guantanamo Bay zijn vriendelijk en mild als je het vergelijkt met normale gevangenissen in de states.quote:Op maandag 6 juni 2005 09:26 schreef SocialDisorder het volgende:
Gezien de praktijken in Abu Graibh en Guantanamo Bay zou het mij in elk geval niets verbazen.
Geldt dan het oog om oog principe, dus een geheime dienst van een islamitisch land mag dan ook door hun geheime dienst bush laten ontvoeren en op een onbekende plaats onderbrengen?quote:Op maandag 6 juni 2005 09:26 schreef CeeJee het volgende:
Als je terrorismenetwerken wil bestrijden is het geheim houden van wie je vast hebt een belangrijk middel.
Als Bush geen staatshoofd zou zijn.quote:Op maandag 6 juni 2005 09:32 schreef Basp1 het volgende:
[..]
Geldt dan het oog om oog principe, dus een geheime dienst van een islamitisch land mag dan ook door hun geheime dienst bush laten ontvoeren en op een onbekende plaats onderbrengen?
Onder het motto, laten wij gelijk overdrijven....quote:Op maandag 6 juni 2005 08:55 schreef Drugshond het volgende:
[..]
Vreselijke gestapo achtige techniek, Heinrich Himmler had het niet kunnen verbeteren.
Er zijn meerdere gebieden waar niemand komt.... Wie komt er regelmatig in AREA 51? Of op van die kernproef plaatsen? Dus er zijn genoeg gebieden waar niemand komt en waar ook niemand echt een poging doet/kan doen om er achter te komen wat daar gebeurd...quote:Op maandag 6 juni 2005 09:36 schreef Brendovic het volgende:
Waar wil je dat geheim houden vraag ik me af? Overal komen toch wel mensen en als er niemand komt behalve af en toe een vaag busje gaat dat echt wel opvallen
Je gaat teveel uit van Nederland, de VS is groot....quote:Op maandag 6 juni 2005 09:36 schreef Brendovic het volgende:
Waar wil je dat geheim houden vraag ik me af? Overal komen toch wel mensen en als er niemand komt behalve af en toe een vaag busje gaat dat echt wel opvallen
In Syrie of Egypte zien ze misschien wel een busje af en aan gaan, maar zijn ze wijzer om daar wat van te zeggen, Er stond immers wereldwijd in het artikel. Enne, De gevangenissen in de VS zijn deels geprivatiseerd. Als er een gevangenis ergens staat, dan hoeft de buitenwereld niet te weten wie daar in zit.quote:Op maandag 6 juni 2005 09:36 schreef Brendovic het volgende:
Waar wil je dat geheim houden vraag ik me af? Overal komen toch wel mensen en als er niemand komt behalve af en toe een vaag busje gaat dat echt wel opvallen
quote:President Bush again failed to address longstanding concerns regarding US detention policies and practices in the context of the "war on terror", Amnesty International said in response to his comments today.
At Guantánamo, the US has operated an isolated prison camp in which people are confined arbitrarily, held virtually incommunicado, without charge, trial or access to due process. Not a single Guantánamo detainee has had the legality of their detention reviewed by a court, despite the Supreme Court ruling of last year.
"Guantánamo is only the visible part of the story. Evidence continues to mount that the US operates a network of detention centres where people are held in secret or outside any proper legal framework -– from Afghanistan to Iraq and beyond," said Amnesty International.
US interrogation and detention policies and practices during the "war on terror", have deliberately and systematically breached the absolute prohibition of torture and Ill-treatment. Individuals held in US custody have been transferred for interrogation to countries known to practice torture.
"If President Bush and his administration are serious about freedom and human dignity they should recommit to the rule of law and human rights."
Amnesty International continues to call on the US administration to:
end all secret and incommunicado detentions;
grant the International Committee of the Red Cross full access to all detainees including those held in secret locations;
ensure recourse to the law for all detainees;
establish a full independent commission of inquiry into all allegations of torture, ill-treatment, arbitrary detentions and "disappearances";
bring to justice anyone responsible for authorizing or committing human rights violations
Background Information
When asked to comment about Amnesty International’s report during a White House Briefing President Bush said: "I'm aware of the Amnesty International report, and it's absurd. (…) The United States is a country that promotes freedom around the world. When there's accusations made about certain actions by our people, they're fully investigated in a transparent way."
Methode Greenpeace,quote:Op maandag 6 juni 2005 12:25 schreef Finder_elf_towns het volgende:
USA: Response to President Bush
[..]
http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGAMR510872005
Er is overigens nog steeds niets bewezen, de bron van de beweringen van AI zullen dus wel voormalig gevangenen (of mensen die dat beweren) zijn, dit betekend dus ook dat AI gigantisch moet uitkijken met wat ze beweren, dit soort bronnen zijn immers de minst betrouwbare denkbaar.
Idd, dit is een voorbeeld wat ze zeggen over een "normale" gevangenis in Irak, geeneens Abu Ghraib dus:quote:Op maandag 6 juni 2005 09:30 schreef Pietverdriet het volgende:
[..]
De praktijken in Abu Graibh en Guantanamo Bay zijn vriendelijk en mild als je het vergelijkt met normale gevangenissen in de states.
Ik snap dan ook niet dat men zich zo opwind over Abu Graibh en Guantanamo Bay.
Iig, die internationale gevangenissen zijn natuurlijk foute boel, die terroristen gewoon droppen op een slagveld en omver schieten.quote:As Bad as the Nazis?
May 23, 2005; Page A14
The International Committee of the Red Cross is granted a privileged status to inspect the conditions of prisoners of war and other detainees in return for confidentiality. But in recent years it has demonstrated a habit of selective media leaks damaging to American purposes. This is the backdrop for two recent incidents that make us think the U.S. should reconsider the ICRC's role.
The first concerns a story we heard first from a U.S. source that an ICRC representative visiting America's largest detention facility in Iraq last month had compared the U.S. to Nazi Germany. According to a Defense Department source citing internal Pentagon documents, the ICRC team leader told U.S. authorities at Camp Bucca: "You people are no better than and no different than the Nazi concentration camp guards." She was upset about not being granted immediate access shortly after a prison riot, when U.S. commanders may have been thinking of her own safety, among other considerations.
A second, senior Defense Department source we asked about the episode confirmed that the quote above is accurate. And a third, very well-placed American source we contacted separately told us that some kind of reference was made by the Red Cross representative "to either Nazis or the Third Reich" -- which understandably offended the American soldiers present.
We called the ICRC last Wednesday for its side of the story, and a spokesman in Geneva confirmed that "there was a serious misunderstanding between the ICRC's team leader and [Coalition] authorities during our last visit to Camp Bucca." The ICRC also confirmed that "the team leader subsequently decided to leave the Iraq assignment."
The spokesman added, however, that he "can categorically say that the team leader did not in any sense compare the detention regime in Iraq to what happened in the Third Reich." Pressed as to whether he could rule out those terms having been used, the spokesman declined, citing the ICRC's practice of confidentiality when it comes to relations with the governments with which it works.
However, a second episode later last week shows that the ICRC is only too happy to throw that same confidentiality rule out the window when it suits its ideological purposes. It did so in the wake of the false Newsweek report about the treatment of the Quran at Guantanamo Bay. The ICRC's Washington office volunteered to the world's media that it had given the Pentagon "multiple" reports from Guantanamo detainees about mishandling of the Quran, after which the detainee complaints had ceased. Pentagon officials confirmed the news, adding that the incidents had been both "minor" and "inadvertent."
In other words, the ICRC hides behind the confidentiality rule when being candid might embarrass its own officials. But it drops the same rule when it is in a position to embarrass the United States, however unfairly. News of the ICRC Quran reports last week came just as the U.S. was scrambling to undo the damage in the Muslim world from the discredited Newsweek story.
This behavior has unfortunately become an ICRC pattern. A pair of earlier ICRC reports on U.S. detention policies in Iraq and at Guantanamo were leaked to the press, and readily confirmed by ICRC officials in Geneva. The Guantanamo report, moreover, called the practice of indefinite detention at that prison "tantamount to torture," a phrase that has since been repeated everywhere by people wanting to damage the U.S.
As we pointed out at the time, that statement was absurd, given that the ICRC's main complaint about the Gitmo detainees is that they were not granted prisoner of war status. POWs are explicitly allowed by the Geneva Conventions to be held indefinitely -- that is, for the duration of a conflict. Another problem has been the ICRC's pretense that its policy document called Protocol 1 -- once dubbed "a shield for terrorists" by the New York Times -- is settled international law and applies to the U.S.
Which brings us back to the "Nazi" reference by that ICRC official at Camp Bucca. We wouldn't normally report the remarks, however offensive, of a single official. But after we started asking about the incident, we began to hear from other sources that someone was attempting damage control by alerting the ICRC's friends in the media and State Department about what we might report. One media proponent of the "torture" allegation against the U.S. warned on the Internet that we were out to smear the ICRC (which, we should add, is not the same as the American Red Cross).
No. We are trying to understand how a representative of an organization pledged to neutrality and the honest investigation of detainee practices could compare American soldiers to the Nazi SS. And considering the timing and content of several ICRC confidentiality breaches concerning the U.S. war on terror, it's fair to ask if similar views aren't held by a substantial number in the organization.
The world needs a truly neutral humanitarian body of the sort the ICRC is supposed to be. But the Camp Bucca incident -- in addition to the leaked Gitmo and Abu Ghraib reports -- is evidence it isn't currently up to the task.
En is daar iets mis mee, of moet je gewoon maar over je heen laten lopen?quote:Op maandag 6 juni 2005 12:37 schreef Pietverdriet het volgende:
[..]
Methode Greenpeace,
gewoon wat beweren en daar een rel mee trappen.
Weet je nog dat nieuwsbericht wat o.a. op CNN kwam etc. van 1 of ander geheim CIA/FBI vliegtuig of wat dan ook, een Gulfstream, die overal in Egypte e.d. maar landde, en gevangenen oppakte, en lekker geheimzinnig mensen aan het smokkelen was?quote:Op maandag 6 juni 2005 19:21 schreef Maar-T het volgende:
Op de een of andere manier geloof ik er niks van, niks gezien, wie zijn er allemaal verdwenen dan?
Dat noord-korea kampen heeft is bewezen door gesmokkelde filmpjes.
En als ze een staatsvijand te pakken hebben proberen ze die wel 'juridisch correct' uit de maatschappij te verwijderen.
Alhoewel, ik geloof wel dat er een antidemocratische beweging is in republikeinse kringen dat democraten opruimt, maar daar laat ik het bij.
Beetje lullen over Korans levert ook zo wat doden op. Gevaarlijke business. =Xquote:Op maandag 6 juni 2005 19:55 schreef Yildiz het volgende:
[..]
En is daar iets mis mee, of moet je gewoon maar over je heen laten lopen?
Een beetje leven in de brouwerij zoals dat heet is soms zo gek nog niet.
Ja maar dat is ook omdat iedereen wel kon raden dat dat gebeurde, maar vervolgens niemand zijn bek open trekte.quote:Op maandag 6 juni 2005 19:57 schreef NightH4wk het volgende:
[..]
Beetje lullen over Korans levert ook zo wat doden op. Gevaarlijke business. =X
jaquote:
Dat doe je als je die methode goedpraat, dan laat je zelfbenoemde figuren als deze over je heen lopen. Put up, or shut upquote:of moet je gewoon maar over je heen laten lopen?
Ja geweldig, lekker als kippen zonder kop lopen gillen zonder dat duidelijk is wat er aan de hand is.quote:Een beetje leven in de brouwerij zoals dat heet is soms zo gek nog niet.
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