Powell Says UK Guantanamo Prisoners Not Abused

[I AM SPARTACUS]

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-security-guantanamo-powell.html

By REUTERS
Published: March 12, 2004
Filed at 5:02 p.m. ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Friday he did not believe accusations by a recently freed British inmate of Guantanamo Bay prison camp that he had been treated in an inhuman fashion.

Jamal al Harith, the first of five Britons to go free on Tuesday told the Daily Mirror newspaper in an interview published on Friday that animals in the prison camp were given better treatment than inmates.

But Powell, in a taped interview conducted in Washington and broadcast on ITV television, denied that the detainees, held for two years without charge, had been treated badly or, as al Harith alleged, beaten.

``I think that unlikely,'' said Powell. ``We don't abuse people who are in our care. I think we have discharged all of our obligations under the Geneva Convention to treat people in our custody, our detainees, in a very humanitarian way.''


Comment: are his lips moving??? I bet that what's comin' out is most definitely NOT FACT...

[louis-t]

1. Has Powell been to Guantanamo since 2001?

How does he know prisoners were not mistreated? Did he call there and ask? How can he be sure he got an honest answer if he did call? To just assume they were not mistreated because "we don't do that" is typical of this admin.

[Malva Zebrina]

2. Does anyone believe anything Powell says anymore?

Or Rice? They have squandered their trust by supporting the lies of George Bush.

[bobbieinok]

3. how are we to know??? no lawyers allowed, red cross,?

so we have bushco statements and former prisoner statements

don't forget - there was a lot of discussion about 'is evidence obtained by torture admissable in US courts? should it be?'

so who ya gonna believe??????

[atreides1]

4. Powell Also Said....

...that vans used to inflate balloons for artillery units were mobile
weapons labs.

Powell has no credibility, Harry Belafonte was right.

[TankLV]

5. Well, that settles that. I believe him.

NOT!

So, based on his record of past lies, which are about 99.99% of the time since this bunch stole office, why should we believe ANYTHING anyone ever says from this bunch of lying crooks and criminals?

[Just Me]

6. Wow, Powell,...quick response,...

,...wonder why,...do you feel the walls caving in on you?

"We don't abuse people who are in our care."

Really. The American people are in your care and you have repeatedly committed fraud against them while profitting off over and covert violence against others. I consider that a form of abuse.

[The Zanti Regent]

7. Powell should shut up and go away.

Nobody has ever brought as much disgrace to the office of Secretary of State as this lying asshole.

Colin Powell is the most incompetent Secretary of State ever. The man is a walking asshole. And that goes double for his piece of shit son!

[Disturbed]

8. Persistent Liar

Powell is a disgrace. He has dishonored himself, Amerika, and the World. He should have resigned when they ordered him to lie to the UN.

[indepat]

11. But it seems he just keeps on lying

[The Zanti Regent]

16. As Little Richard said...

"The Girl Can't help it,
she was born to tease..."

[Ms. Clio]

9. If Powell denies it

Then it must be true.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

10. He also says George Bush is a good pResident,,,

'Nuff said.

[susu369]

12. “I serve at the pleasure of the president." says Colin Powell

and if that means lying through my teeth so be it!

Chris Floyd's description of the forked-tongued Powell is my particular favorite: "a pathetic bagman."

[Manix]

13. Sorry Colin, nobody believes a word you say anymore.

nt

[suegeo]

14. Powell has no credibility

Who believes anything out of this guy's mouth anymore after the lies he told us in order to support the invasion of Iraq?

Besides, smirky hired James Baker III to do Colin's job for him.

[JohnyCanuck]

15. A good house slave knows it doesn't do to rock the white massa's boat

Or he'll have to take off the nice butler suit and go back to picking cotton with the field hands again.

Back in the Viet Nam days when the then Major Powell was asked to investigate reports of gratuitous violence, brutality and torture by US troops on Viet Namese civilians and Viet Cong suspects, Colin knew well enough which side of his bread was buttered. No doubt he'll investigate these charges of cruelty and abusive treatment of Guantanamo prisoners with the same zeal he looked into the charges of war crimes and atrocities by US GI Tom Glen back in Viet Nam (at the time of the My Lai massacre).

Glen's letter contended that many Vietnamese were fleeing from Americans who "for mere pleasure, fire indiscriminately into Vietnamese homes and without provocation or justification shoot at the people themselves." Gratuitous cruelty was also being inflicted on Viet Cong suspects, Glen reported.

Fired with an emotionalism that belies unconscionable hatred, and armed with a vocabulary consisting of 'You VC,' soldiers commonly 'interrogate' by means of torture that has been presented as the particular habit of the enemy. Severe beatings and torture at knife point are usual means of questioning captives or of convincing a suspect that he is, indeed, a Viet Cong...


"It would indeed be terrible to find it necessary to believe that an American soldier that harbors such racial intolerance and disregard for justice and human feeling is a prototype of all American national character; yet the frequency of such soldiers lends credulity to such beliefs. ... What has been outlined here I have seen not only in my own unit, but also in others we have worked with, and I fear it is universal. If this is indeed the case, it is a problem which cannot be overlooked, but can through a more firm implementation of the codes of MACV (Military Assistance Command Vietnam) and the Geneva Conventions, perhaps be eradicated."

<snip>

Powell reported back exactly what his superiors wanted to hear. "In direct refutation of this portrayal," Powell concluded, "is the fact that relations between Americal soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent."

http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/colin3.html

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[abracadabra]

17. well let's hear him say-"don't take my word for it"

See for yourself--
And let's see them allow journalists in there with cameras.
Let's see interviews with guards and prisoners..
Thanks Kolon--we will start believing you when you "show us" something----something more than those idiotic pictures you showed the U.N. to prove WMD's were being made.

[goclark]

18. Colon At Ranch Rehab in Crawford

Who remembers that TV photo op at Ranch Rehab in Crawford last summer? There was Colon, posing with his King George. A reporter asked him about the rumor that he was going to leave or resign as Sec. of State. He said something like, " I'm here at the wish of my President. I have no plans to leave my position." Then he grinned like a good little boy and looked over to his King George to hear words of praise.

At that point,his King George gave him a not so warm endorsement. It was extremely weak.You could see that Colon was disappointed. From that moment on, he has taken on the role of Biggest Defender Of Wimp George.

A few weeks ago, in some subcommittee meeting, someone asked him about the AWOL issue. He got furious and defended the Wimp to the hilt.

What's with him? He had a higher approval rating then B$sh and now he is completely changed. He is showing his true colors in my opinion and he makes me sick.

I say send him and his kiss up kid to Guantanamo to over see the bathrooms from now until November.

:kick:

[Disturbed]

19. Bathrooms?

The prisoners have none. They have to go into a bucket. Send Powell to empty the buckets and wash 'em out.

[I AM SPARTACUS]

20. I wonder how many times Bowel would crap into a bucket before...

...he called it abusive? Ya think it'd take him a coupla years...???

[Darranar]

21. Powell is a liar. n/t