Rights Groups Protest Guantanamo Trial Exclusion

[Judi Lynn]

Rights Groups Protest Guantanamo Trial Exclusion
Tue February 24, 2004 12:17 AM ET

By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three human rights groups said on Tuesday the Pentagon denied their request to observe upcoming military tribunal trials of foreign terrorism suspects at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Human Rights First had sought to send representatives to observe the trials, but the Pentagon responded that it planned to provide courtroom seating only for certain journalists and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Amnesty International spokesman Alistair Hodgett noted that the State Department annually criticizes other countries for closing trials to international monitors.

"It seems like that medicine can't be taken at home despite us prescribing it abroad," said Hodgett, noting that his organization has been permitted to observe trials in such nations as Libya and Egypt.
(snip/...)

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4420884

[OldCurmudgeon]

1. yes, well...

it seems that there's an extreme shortage of folding chairs in Guantanamo, so they can't seat human rights groups in the courtroom.

When asked why Guantanamo is so short of folding chairs, Col. Buck Turgidson explained "we go through a lot of them during interrogations, you know."

[Judi Lynn]

2. No doubt!

It's a real wonder watching these guys work.

(snip) The organizations said the Pentagon is using space constraints at Guantanamo as a pretext to keep out rights activists who have been critical of the U.S. plans to try some of the more than 600 non-U.S. citizens held at the base under a set of trial rules specially devised by the Pentagon.

Critics say the rules are rigged to result in convictions.

The groups, which have been critical of the Pentagon's rules for the trials, protested their exclusion in a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, saying "there can be no legitimate governmental reason for denying our access to the proceedings."
(snip/)

Hardly the logical behavior of a gubmint which trumpets its superior virtues.