US Senate backs detainee rights

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4314304.stm

Highlights:

Shouldn't really need to be voted on but hey... it is at least sending out the right message.

My question of course is "which ones?"

 

Its about time, now what about the other barbaric practices?

I hope those new Abu Ghraib images will be released soon. I don't care if it lowers opinion of US military, if they cared about their image, they would have tried to prevent such things, and at worst, at least punished those vile bastards involved.

 

Agreed. It's in no way compatible with the American constitution, but hey, that's Gitmo, so the US constitution doesn't apply.

Putting aside the battle over cruel treatment, if someone says that a ban on degrading treatment is resrictive, that person is a sociopath that requires professional help rather than a position in public service.

Another thing about Gitmo is that detainees don't even face charges. They are just detained and waiting, God only knows for how long yet, to be deemed guilty or not, probably not in a trial but as a matter of an administrative decree. Someone should answer for that.

IMHO, the US police forces of any kind have one big trouble with telling detainees from people lawfully arrested on a judge's order and those from people already convicted. I've done a lot of ranting on this subject here on SP and I have no intention of stopping. The amount and degree of dishonourable conduct on the part of police and prison guards over there will probably never cease to astonish me, as well as the ease with which the allegation of innocence, as well as the benefit of the doubt and human dignity are stomped on.

In short, something is wrong either with the whole culture or with the people that get to work in the police and similar services (military police, prison guards etc). I would like to believe it's just the police and that those bastards are only a small number against those who do their job honourably. But this optimism of mine is fading. Something needs to be done about recruitment procedures.

I'll be blunt: No one who approves of degrading treatment has no place in public service, is a disgrace and probably sick. Should never have been elected or appointed to anything and should be removed. No such people should make it through the recruitment stage. Neither they nor those with a knack for violence as a means of solving their own problems and taking it out on others.

 

I have read about Chinese Muslims that were wrongly deatained, they were eventually found innocent, yet cannot go back to China (for obvious reasons), and the US will not take them in, so they are stuck there, being treated like terrorists, dispite being 'innocent'.

Another ****ed up thing is that people that are allowed to leave are not allowed compensation whatsoever. How is this fair, and why are Americans not protesting in the streets over this? If you can get passionate about the sale of arms and the price of oil, why not something ****ed up as this?

 

Anyone who has been wrongly detained deserves a hefty compensation. There is no constitutional or otherwise obligation whatsoever to undergo wrongful detention in order to help the process of justice. The government took away their freedom to which it had no right, so it has to compensate them -- this is basic human decency.

Plus, I would like to see those wrongdoers finally punished. Anyone who has ever beaten a detainee, tortured people for fun, strip-searched a person of the opposite gender or in presence of opposite gender officers, sexually or otherwise humiliated a detainee or even convicted prisoner, any such person should be demoted to private (from a five star general, if need be) and dishonourably discharged in a public ceremony. And punished as the law (the real law, not what government lawyers make of it) prescribes.

 

Exactly, and their names should be given to the American public so they can demand the removal of these people.

 

I don't think that would happen Carcaroth:

Take Lieutenant William Calley, dispite having women gang raped, children shot, animals killed, he was pardoned by the president, and is now the owner of a jewlrey shop, and no-one has kicked that bastards ass, as he was abusing foreigners in their own country

Thats the justice that Muslims receive

 

There should be a procedure for public castration in such cases. I would suggest penal group sodomy, but I'm against using sex as punishment, so no. Just the gelding. Pity.

It's time to understand that US soldiers (or any soldiers for that matter) who rape women in war are no better than plain thugs who break into a law abiding family's house, tie the husband up and violate the wife on his eyes. They are no better than commies who do such things, or bloody rightist regime goons or anyone else who does it. It's always the same crime. So cut the bloody hero talk and punish them like they deserve.

 

Though I'm loathe to join in any call for blood, anyone who commits such terrible crimes should be stricken from existence and doomed to spend an eternity alone with their diseased mind. War is war, but this is not.

 

And Bush continues his support for torture:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/politics/06cnd-detain.html?hp&ex=1128657600&en=4ff7dfc49c1cfdcb&ei=5094&partner=homepage

 

It's a step in the right direction, to be sure.

My biggest issue with it is how they plan to enforce it, and I'd like to know what's being proposed in that respect. Laws like this are great, yes, but if you can't make people accountable to them, they're nothing more than policy statements.

Logically, people in such custody will be being interrogated (or possibly tortured) by intelligence and military personnel. They can't report a covert officer without revealing their identity - which is a crime. If you can't name your victimiser, you won't have a case.

 

Works great for guys who are into beating, strip-searching, hooded fun and all such pleasantries. If people can't name their assailant without committing a crime, the whole constitution goes down the toilet. Whoever designed that should rot in prison for it. That sort of injustice calls to heaven for vengeance.

 

Yes, with this admistration one does need to remind them of this. They are the ones who believe that "natural rights" only extend to American citizens.

 

Unless they are suspected of back terrorism. Or generally suspected. Not say that's a normal situation but the tendency to treat detainees like convicts doesn't seem to be in decline.

 

Oh, some new info. It looks like nine republican senators voted against the bill and White House threatens to veto the whole bill if the part about cruel or degrading treatment isn't removed. It's already freaking law. The bill is only a reminder and as a legal rule, it's redundant. What does it show about Dubya's team that they want to veto it?

 

To quote Homer Simpson: "Crap on a crutch!"