U.N. Panel Urges U.S. to Close Prison at Guantanamo

[im10ashus]

Cheney must be in full cardiac arrest now.

By JOHN O'NEIL
A United Nations panel on torture called on the United States today to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and expressed concern over reports of secret detention centers and of a practice of sending terror suspects to countries with poor human rights records.

In the report, issued by the Committee on Torture in Geneva, the panel said that the United States should clearly ban interrogation techniques like "water boarding," in which an inmate is held under water to create the fear of drowning; sexual humiliation, and the use of dogs to induce fear. It said that detainees had died during interrogation involving improper techniques.

On Guantanamo Bay, the detention center opened to hold al Qaeda, Taliban and other terror suspects after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, the panel said it was "concerned" that prisoners were held for indefinite periods without sufficient legal safeguards.

The United States "should cease to detain any person at Guantanamo Bay and close this detention facility, permit access by the detainees to the judicial process or release them as soon as possible," the report said.

cont'd...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/world/19cnd-torture.html?hp&ex=1148097600&en=2d26812555f8c83a&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[babylonsister]

1. So I guess the $30M paid to Halliburton to expand Gitmo will be

returned? Yeah, right. Who's making these decisions again? Mind-boggling...


http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0618-06.htm

Published on Saturday, June 18, 2005 by the lndependent/UK
Halliburton Given $30m to Expand Guantanamo Bay
by Rupert Cornwell in Washington


A subsidiary of Halliburton, the oil services group once led by the US Vice-President, Dick Cheney, has won a $30m (£16m) contract to help build a new permanent prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Pentagon announcement, giving further details of the planned two-story jail, complete with air conditioning and exercise and medical facilities, is a further sign that the Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, is determined to keep the jail in operation.

There are some 520 inmates from 40 countries at Guantanamo, some of them held there for more than three years. The new jail will be capable of holding 220 people. Under the contract with the US Naval Engineering Command, the work is to be finished by the end of July 2006. The final deal could be worth as much as $500m.

The work will be carried out by Halliburton's contracting subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR). It will include site work, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, plumbing and electrical work.

Announcement of the deal comes when the whole future of Guantanamo, recently described by Amnesty International as "the gulag of our times," is under fierce debate in the US. There have been repeated allegations of mistreatment of inmates, bordering on torture.

more...

[im10ashus]

2. Criminals that they are.

$30M???? That's quite the facility. Never mind that the money could be used for education, health care, environmental protection.