Monthly Archives: February 2005

Holden at First Draft, Pentagon Confirms Detainee Allegations:

A forthcoming report of a Pentagon investigation of the treatment of detainees in GITMO confirms allegations that defense department interrogators used sexual humiliation tactics during interrogations. When detainees previously complained of routine torture at GITMO Don Rumsfeld insisted that they were treated “humanely,” and Pentagon officials said terrorists were trained to fabricate torture allegations. We can now assume that such assertions are no longer opperative.

…

Church's report found that interrogators used sexually oriented tactics and harassment to shock or offend Muslim prisoners, the senior Pentagon official said. The official said that the military would not condone “sexual activity” during interrogation, but that good interrogators “take initiative and are a little creative.”

“They are trying to find the key that will get someone to talk to them. Using things that are culturally repulsive is okay as long as it doesn't extend to something prohibited by the Geneva Conventions.”

I've got some news for that “senior Pentagon official”. The Geneva Conventions specifically prohibit “Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment.”

Canadian Was Abused at Guantánamo, Lawyers Say

Lawyers for a Canadian detainee at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, who was captured in Afghanistan when he was 15 years old asserted in a document released Wednesday that he was repeatedly abused by his American jailers.

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Mr. Khadr spent three years in a small cell in Guantánamo, and his lawyers have previously asserted that the United States government has violated the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The treaty, to which the United States is a signatory, condemns the recruitment of child fighters by groups like Al Qaeda and obliges nations to help children who become involved in armed conflict.

Where's the outrage? Very strong, but insufficiently broadly based, I'd say.