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Author Topic:   Human Rights Group Alleges 'Widespread' U.S. Torture
Mystic Gemini
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posted May 03, 2006 10:12 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Human Rights Group Alleges 'Widespread' U.S. Torture

By Richard Waddington, Reuters

GENEVA (May 3) - Torture and inhumane treatment are "widespread" in U.S.-run detention centers in Afghanistan, Iraq, Cuba and elsewhere despite Washington's denials, Amnesty International said on Wednesday.



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Other human rights groups have also alleged abuses at U.S. detention facilities, such as the military camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Bush administration has repeatedly denied the charge.

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In a report for the United Nations' Committee against Torture, the London-based human rights group also alleged abuses within the U.S. domestic law enforcement system, including use of excessive force by police and degrading conditions of isolation for inmates in high security prisons.

"Evidence continues to emerge of widespread torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment of detainees held in U.S. custody," Amnesty said in its 47-page report.

It said that while Washington has sought to blame abuses that have recently come to light on "aberrant soldiers and lack of oversight," much ill-treatment stemmed from officially sanctioned interrogation procedures and techniques.

"The U.S. government is not only failing to take steps to eradicate torture, it is actually creating a climate in which torture and other ill-treatment can flourish," said Amnesty International USA Senior Deputy Director-General Curt Goering.

The U.N. committee, whose experts carry out periodic reviews of countries signatory to the U.N. Convention against Torture, is scheduled to begin consideration of the United States on Friday. The last U.S. review was in 2000.

It said in November it was seeking U.S. answers to questions including whether Washington operated secret detention centers abroad and whether President George W. Bush had the power to absolve anyone from criminal responsibility in torture cases.

The committee also wanted to know whether a December 2004 memorandum from the U.S. Attorney General's office, reserving torture for "extreme" acts of cruelty, was compatible with the global convention barring all forms of cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment.

In its own submission to the committee, published late last year, Washington justified the holding of thousands of foreign terrorism suspects in detention centers abroad, including Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, on the grounds that it was fighting a war that was still not over.

"Like other wars, when they start, we do not know when they will end. Still, we may detain combatants until the end of the war," it said.


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The U.S. human rights image has taken a battering abroad over a string of scandals involving the sexual and physical abuse of detainees held by American forces in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay.

In its submission, Washington did not mention alleged secret detention centers.

Amnesty listed a series of incidents in recent years involving torture of detainees in U.S. custody, noting the heaviest sentence given to perpetrators was five months in jail.

This was the same punishment you could get for stealing a bicycle in the United States, it added.

"Although the U.S. government continues to assert its condemnation of torture and ill-treatment, these statements contradict what is happening in practice," said Goering, referring to the testimony of torture victims in the report.


05/03/06 01:07 ET


Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

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Mystic Gemini
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posted May 03, 2006 11:02 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Wow Jwhop. I see the Govermnent you love and worship so much is still keeping up with the great work.

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jwhop
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Posts: 2787
From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted May 03, 2006 12:31 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Yes they are TP. Gitmo isn't supposed to be Club Med.

Those are terrorists, terrorists who fought against or conspired against the United States and in the destruction of the WTC.

They should receive harsh treatment but they're not.

So called human rights groups have their heads up their patooties. Nothing new there.

I shed no tears for terrorists, none whatsoever, wherever they're captured, killed or imprisoned in the world.

The fact a Belgium official said prisoners are treated better at Gitmo than those in Belgium prisons are, is, in my opinion, an indictment against US terrorist prisoner policies.

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Mystic Gemini
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posted May 03, 2006 02:06 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Whatever you say...Satan the Great

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