Rights groups fear torture ban provision

[Algorem]

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/washington/index.ssf?/base/politics-8/1134778457318610.xml&storylist=washington

12/16/2005, 7:08 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) — Human rights groups that praised a proposed ban on mistreating terrorism suspects warned on Friday that another provision lawmakers inserted in a final defense bill could lead to abuse at the Guantanamo Bay prison...

But human rights groups say the language could encourage interrogators to mistreat detainees because it does not explicitly bar the panels from relying on information gained from coercive interrogation techniques to keep someone detained indefinitely.

Elisa Massimino, the Washington director of Human Rights First, called the change "a grave mistake," given that "no civilized court in the world today considers evidence that was gleaned as a result of torture or cruel and inhuman treatment."

The change "intentionally and effectively undermined" the McCain ban and "could contribute to further abuses," added Tom Malinowski, the Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch...

[followthemoney]

1. There are too many innocent in Guantanamo...

The trials of these people would reveal the baseless PR reasons for imprisoning these people in the first place. The U.S would become as despised as the old U.S.S.R. if the truth were to be known.

So an exception is made for the benefit of the totally incompetent Bush regime at the expense of a few thousand innocents. Can you say nihilism?

[thecai]

2. There Are Too Many Innocent In American Prisons...

....still being abused and tortured, while Bush claims "we don't torture inmates".
The C A I - Coalition Against Injustice, et al, have reported inmate abuse in the U.S. for YEARS. Reports are ignored, denied, covered-up, and the only instances made public are the ones with photos or enough witnesses willing to testify.
Meanwhile, over 20,000 innocent Americans are wrongfully convicted EACH YEAR in the U.S. That number only represents cases with DNA, that does not include cases where there is no biological evidence to clear them.

That's right "Follwthemoney".
Prisons are highly profitable slave-factories. Prisons are self-supporting, yet gvt. takes $23,000-$50,000 per inmate, per year, of our tax-dollars.
Boycott Privatized Prisons on the stock market. (They're even WORSE).

[followthemoney]

4. District Attorneys build their resumes with convictions...

The DAs in Illinois wouldn't give up on their hard won convictions even when DNA tests proved the convicted were innocent.

I don't remember hearing half as many stories about human rights abuses in the U.S. as in China.

Do we compete for the world's largest prison population because the American people are bad or is the American system of justice bad? Logically it would have to be one or the other.

[Peace Patriot]

3. Recommended! This needs wider circulation at DU and elsewhere.

If I understand the OP correctly (and the snippings make it confusing), the torture ban in the McCain bill was all P.R. and they snuck torture back in, in the Defense bill. I figured torture wouldn't stop anyway, since we are dealing with Bushite criminals, but now they've made themselves some paper legality. Disgusting. Anyone know the status of this Defense bill?

[Thom Little]

5. Big changes loom for captives' rights (may lose even more legal rights)

Congress this weekend is expected to overhaul the legal system at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, eliminating almost all access by detainees to federal courts and, according to its Senate sponsor, wiping out petitions filed by about 300 of the 500-plus captives in the prison camp.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., prime author of the new system, emphasized Friday that it will give each detainee one chance to contest his status with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, and for the first time get Congress involved in the oversight of Guantánamo.

''They will still have rights, but I don't think anybody intended in wartime that people who are trying to kill us have the right to sue us,'' Graham said.

But human rights groups and lawyers for detainees criticized the changes, which are part of a defense policy bill. House and Senate negotiators agreed on all provisions of the bill Friday, including Sen. John McCain's ban on ''cruel, inhuman and degrading'' treatment of detainees, clearing the way for a final vote.


http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13429379.htm

[PDJane]

6. This is ugly.

How many more rights will they take away before the US populace and the rest of the world get involved in beating them back into a corner?

[Solly Mack]

7. I expect them to have full rights accorded them - you fascist fuck.

by the laws that were still in effect prior to the Bush Regime.

[Webster Green]

8. WE must stop these motherfuckers NOW!

They have crossed the line.

ANY action taken to get rid of the asshole war-chimp and his cohorts is justified under our constitution. They are actively violating our constitutional protections, and must be stopped by any methods available.

Oh,........and agent Mike........Fuck You!!

[aquart]

9. This is an outrage. We're in perpetual 1984 war.

And I knew it the second I heard 'Act of war" on 9/11. I knew we'd be right here. And no one could stop those bastards once they said the words.

My prayers are dark. And just.

[OKthatsIT]

10. Still no trials or guilty verdicts, nor sentencing of detainees

This is evil stuff the Bushies are doing. So many Bushies are in the 'prison industry'.