News Stories That Make Me Angry

US government urged to free Al-Jazeera cameraman in Ramadan gesture

Joint appeal with International Committee for Release of Sami Al-Haj

oday, on the first day of Ramadan, Reporters Without Borders reiterates its appeal to the US authorities to free Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami Al-Haj, a Sudanese national who has been held at the US military base at Guantanamo, Cuba, since 13 June 2002 without being tried and without any precise charges being brought against him.

Al-Haj has tried to stage several hunger strikes since January and his physical and psychological condition has deteriorated a great deal. His lawyer, Clive Stafford-Smith, is due to travel to Guantanamo on 26 September.

“Ramadan is traditionally the month of self-denial and forgiveness and for the individual to confront his own humanity, but how much humanity remains when someone is detained arbitrarily and deprived of all contact with his family for more than five years?” Reporters Without Borders asked. “And what remains of the rule of law, when a prisoner is denied a fair trial, denied treatment and tortured? The Al-Haj case is a legal scandal, as is the Guantanamo prison camp itself.”

The press freedom organisation added: “Together with the International Committee for the Release of Sami Al-Haj, we call on the United States to free him immediately. We also urge the US congress, where the camp’s existence is increasingly criticised, to press for his release. And we call on the US federal courts, which have ruled that it is unconstitutional to try the Guantanamo ‘enemy combatants’ before military tribunals, to impose their decisions.”

They haven't even charged him with anything or shown any proof and the poor guy remains locked up.

It makes me so angry when I read news stories such as these, cause to me it shows the US and UK have forfeited whatever political and moral responsibility they had. What a sad state of affairs we have today when torture has become the norm and governments had no qualms about locking people up without trial.

'No customs, no laws' (Tacitus)

Hicks to serve nine months' jail

Australian Guantanamo detainee David Hicks will be sent home to serve nine months in prison after being sentenced by a military judge at the facility.

Hicks, 31, was sentenced to seven years in jail after pleading guilty to supporting terrorism, but all but nine months of the sentence was suspended.

Nice deal eh!

Either maintain your innocent and be locked up for all eternity or admit your guilty and promise not to mention what torture methods were used on you and get a shorter sentence.

Makes one feel quite ill.

This is even more horrifying - 'In Britain, I have fewer rights than an animal'

When the man known as 'G' fled torture in Algeria, the UK offered the hope of refuge. But then he was detained for three years without trial. Now, living under stringent bail conditions, this member of the 'Belmarsh 12' is desperate to leave the country he thought would help him. He talks to Paul Donovan

Disgusting

FBI files detail Guantánamo torture tactics

Captives at Guantánamo Bay were chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor for 18 hours or more, urinating and defecating on themselves, an FBI report has revealed.

The accounts of mistreatment were contained in FBI documents released yesterday (pdf) as part of a lawsuit involving the American Civil Liberties Union, a civil liberties group.

In the 2004 inquiry, the FBI asked nearly 500 employees who had served at Guantánamo Bay to report possible mistreatment by law enforcement or military personnel. Twenty-six incidents were reported, some of which had emerged in earlier document releases.

Besides being shackled to the floor, detainees were subjected to extremes of temperature. One witness said he saw a barefoot detainee shaking with cold because the air conditioning had bought the temperature close to freezing.

On another occasion, the air conditioning was off in an unventilated room, making the temperature over 38C (100F) and a detainee lay almost unconscious on the floor with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been pulling out his hair throughout the night.

This is just repugnant, torturing another human being, it is beyond my comprehension how anyone can condone such a practice or make it (un)official policy. Torture is of very little use when gathering intelligence, if your causing pain to an individual they'll tell you anything to make it stop, it doesn't make any sense to use it to get information.

Guantanamo Bay is an abomination in itself, holding prisoners without telling them what they are charged with. Its simple, if the detainee is guilty produce evidence and prosecute, if not let them go, its wrong to hold people against their will without telling them why they are in there in the first place.

Makes me very angry reading news such as this.