Friday, January 23, 2009
Gitmo and Torture
Why the Gitmo policies may not change
Here are a few of the delays, caveats and loopholes that could limit the impact of Obama’s orders:
1. Everyone has to follow the Army Field Manual—for now…
Obama’s executive order on interrogations says all agencies of the government have to follow the Army Field Manual when interrogating detainees, meaning the CIA can no longer used so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, which have included waterboarding, the use of dogs in questioning, and stripping prisoners.
However, the order also created an interagency commission which will have six months to examine whether to create “additional or different guidance” for non-military agencies such as the CIA.
2. Obama ordered a 30-day review of Guantanamo conditions—by the man currently responsible for Guantanamo.
Waxman pointed out that adhering to the Geneva Condition is “already the law,” and deemed that section of the order “bizarre.”
3. Obama vowed no torture on his watch, but force-feeding and solitary confinement apparently continue at Guantanamo for now.
It’s possible that the 30-day referral to Gates is simply an effort to buy the Obama team time to deal with two Guantanamo practices that some consider torture, or at least inhumane: force feeding and isolation of prisoners. According to detainee lawyers, about two dozen inmates who refuse to eat as a form of protest are currently being force fed, and about 140 are in some form of solitary confinement.
The Bush administration has argued that the feeding is humane and that the solitary, at least as practiced now, is not the kind of total isolation that amounts to torture. “There’s an important distinction to be made between isolation and separation” from other prisoners,” Waxman said.
As far as we know, the force feeding and solitary practices continued onto Obama’s watch.
4. The vast majority of detainees in American custody may see no benefit from Obama’s orders
While Obama ordered a case-by-case review of the 245 prisoners held at Guantanamo, the 600 prisoners held in indefinite American custody in Afghanistan and roughly 20,000 in Iraq won’t get such attention.
5. The orders downplay the possibility that some prisoners might be set free in America.
Obama ordered that when Guantanamo closes, any remaining inmates “be returned to their home country, released, transferred to a third country, or transferred to another United States detention facility in a manner consistent with law and the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States.” But Obama’s wordsmiths seem to have deliberately trimmed out any explicit mention of the explosive possibility of freeing prisoners on American soil.
6. Military commissions are shut down…. for now
One of the attention grabbing provisions of Obama’s orders calls for military tribunals at Guantanamo to be “halted.” But the Obama administration is not ruling out returning to some sort of military forum to deal with some of the prisoners.
Report: Ex-Gitmo detainee joins al-Qaida in Yemen
CAIRO, Egypt – A Saudi man released from Guantanamo after spending nearly six years inside the U.S. prison camp is now the No. 2 of Yemen's al-Qaida branch, according to a purported Internet statement from the terror network.Labels: Gitmo, Obama, politics, torture
There is a right wing group putting out that two of the former prisoners are now working with al Qaeda but the problem is first did they turn that way out of anger at how they were treated and two can we trust anything this source puts out given the last 8 years?
So wait and see and then complain...
And torture is not something that works Period. You can't try someone once you did torture them as people will say anything to escape it... and that's why you got them saying things that weren't true to make us think they knew things they didn't know!
We either are who we have said we are, or we are not and we do whatever benefits us at the moment or we think does. End result is a big question mark about what our Constitution ever meant. We have a Chief Justice right now who didn't even know how to administer the oath of office to a president. Wonder what else he doesn't know...
It is like Ellen still beating the Obama drum when he has the same anti-gay marriage postion as McCain, but for some reason it is OK for Obama and not McCain. It is the hypocracy that bothers me, not the actions.
Also his big speech about not allowing lobbyists to do a bunch of stuff, then he appoints a lobbyist for Raytheon the be Deputy Secretary of Defense. Not he might make the best Defense Secretary in the world but do not make such a big deal out of not allowing it then the next day allow it.
What John McCain endured in Vietnam was inhumane treatment and we should have no part of that.
Right now Obama's biggest problem will be congress on both sides. Americans who want certain things done will need to push their congressmen. They only care about themselves; so if we want to see change, we better see that they have reason to do what is right or suffer the consequences!
And I know we mostly agree.
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