Witch Hunt My Arse!
An article In this past Friday’s Washington Post, Interviews Of Terror Suspects Challenged, tells us a little something about the scope of international participation at Guantanamo. According to the article
The U.S. military has allowed intelligence and law enforcement agents from at least 18 countries to interrogate Guantanamo inmates since the detention center opened in 2002, according to the Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York-based group that provides legal representation to many Guantanamo prisoners.
According to the group, interrogators from Tunisia, Libya, China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Jordan verbally threatened citizens of their countries held at Guantanamo, warning them that they would be abused at home if they didn’t cooperate. Other countries that have sent interrogators to Guantanamo include Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Spain and Morocco, the center says.
I know, there is a big debate going right now over whether there was any good intelligence obtained from detainees. So, the takeaway is that Tunisia, Libya, China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Spain and Morocco - and at least six more countries - all felt that it was worthwhile sending interrogators to GTMO. Why? Because the perceived benefits outweighed the costs. And aren’t many of these countries the same bed-wetters that have blasted the United States for torture? Pot, meet kettle.
Surely, France would not participate in interrogations. I mean, France would never be so base as to commit torture or violate human rights, would they. Opps, sorry. Quel horror! I forgot about the Algerian War of Independence. Never mind.
According to Finnish diplomat and the U.N. special investigator for human rights Martin Scheinin
…foreign agents visiting Guantanamo or secret U.S. jails overseas committed “an internationally wrongful act” even if they merely observed interrogations.
“They were acting in breach of their legal obligations in regard to the prohibition on torture and arbitrary detention,” Scheinin, who is also a law professor at the European University Institute in Florence, said in a telephone interview.
Later in the article, Scheinin is quoted
“We have had a witch hunt for alleged terrorists for the past 7 1/2 years,” he said. “Now I think the witch hunt is over and it is time for the law to step in.”
Scheinin does not appear to have any axe to grind, does he? “Alleged terrorists”? Let’s see, according to this, a total of 218 detainees were from Afghanistan, and 8 were from Iraq (!). The other 70% were from 50 other countries. The leading contributors behind Afghanistan are Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan, Algeria, China, Morocco, Libya, Kuwait, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Sudan, Syria, and Russia. All of these countries contributed more detainees than Iraq. Are any of these countries known for terrorism or islamic jihadists? What might the citizens of these countries been doing when they were rounded up? Selling Girl Scout cookies?
The United Kingdom has the same number of citizens in GTMO as Iraq. Why might Britain be interested in supplying questions and interrogating the UK detainees? Does Scheinin not recall July 7, 2005? Come on Martin, I don’t expect you bed-wetters to remember 9/11, but isn’t London part of Europe? I’d expect you to remember that. Maybe you are too busy conducting your own witch hunt?