What a load of crap!
Battlefield detainees?
Prisoners of war in any other language!
Just changing the name doesn't change their status.
searchfothetruth
JoinedPosts by searchfothetruth
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85
Guantanomo Bay to become death camp!
by Abaddon innice to see the us government is setting standards for the rest of the world to follow again.... (links from secular blasphemy).
http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,6494000%255e401,00.html.
http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,963108,00.html.
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85
Guantanomo Bay to become death camp!
by Abaddon innice to see the us government is setting standards for the rest of the world to follow again.... (links from secular blasphemy).
http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,6494000%255e401,00.html.
http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,963108,00.html.
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searchfothetruth
Rights flouted at Guantanamo Bay
Even officers at the US-run gulag are uneasy about the inmates' legal status
Julian Borger in Guantanamo Bay
Monday September 9, 2002
The Guardian Nothing quite embodies America's transformation since September 11 as the orderly array of metal roofs on the cell blocks at Camp Delta gleaming in the Caribbean sun.A hundred yards from the sea, they look like roofs of some tropical factory with their barrel-shaped fans as neatly spaced as chimneys. But in reality they cover something that would have been hard to conceive of only a year ago - a US-run gulag for foreign captives held indefinitely without being charged or even formally identified.
Camp Delta, a camp within a camp at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, is a measure of how much America has changed. Yet because it is perched on a remote corner of Cuba, out of bounds to all but a few thousand troops and specially vetted service workers, the mutation has gone mostly unseen by the American people.
Inside, there are 598 detainees from the "war on terror" from 38 countries. They include seven British inmates, swept up in the clash of civilisations that erupted last October when the US and its allies took on the Taliban.
The US argues that since the detainees were not part of any regular army and did not observe "the laws and customs of war" they are "enemy combatants" rather than prisoners of war, implying that they do not have all the rights assigned to POWs under the Geneva conventions.
Washington, however, insists that they are being treated just as well. Critics, who include Amnesty International and the UN, say the detainees' status can only be determined by an independent tribunal, not the Pentagon. They add that POWs are supposed to be released when hostilities end. In the war on terror, that may never happen.
Camp Delta is smarter and better built than its improvised predecessor, Camp X-Ray, which was made-up of cages in a heat-trap valley, with no ventilation. The new complex, which has cost more than $30m for just over 600 cells, benefits from sea breezes and fans. Conditions have improved since images of hooded, shackled prisoners in metal cages triggered international concern. The International Committee of the Red Cross is allowed daily access to the camp and the prisoners, and has declared itself satisfied with the cooperation of the military authorities.
In recent months, camp guards report, there have been 30 incidents of inmates trying to harm themselves, and four of those have been classified as suicide attempts.
Interrogation sessions take place in a cell block inside the compound, and are carried out by Joint Task Force 170, a collection of CIA, FBI and military intelligence officers assembled to pump the inmates for information.
No one at the camp would comment on what was being gleaned from the questioning, but leaks in Washington have suggested there are no inmates of any importance from the al-Qaida hierarchy here, and that little usable intelligence is emerging.
Brigadier-General Rick Baccus, the camp commander, stresses that inmates are being treated decently. But as the months go by, the conditions at Camp Delta are increasingly besides the point, as attention focuses on Washington's persistence in describing the inmates as enemy combatants, and its insistence that Guantanamo Bay, an entirely US-run establishment, is outside the jurisdiction of US courts.
Gen Baccus suggests that these are questions for President Bush. "Clearly there's some concern in terms of whether or not, and how, any people might be classified in terms of enemy combatant." Coming from the chief jailer, it reflects a growing unease among the officers here that they are policing a prison camp that feels distinctly un-American.
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23
How many here are Pagan?
by WildHorses ini clean house for a guy who practices paganism and have asked him about his beliefs.
i want to learn more about it and talk with others who also practice this belief.. a friend here on the forum has given me a few links but i also would like to talk with people about this who practice it.
the more i learn about it, the more i like it.
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searchfothetruth
Sirona,
Interesting conversation we had at the party about your beliefs!
Pagan beliefs are a lot older than Christian beliefs so who's to say they are wrong? Most of the stories in the bible have parallels from earlier writings, and were obviously copied from these sources.
Don't forget the Jews spent years in captivity in Babylon and could have easily copied these teachings from them.
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85
Guantanomo Bay to become death camp!
by Abaddon innice to see the us government is setting standards for the rest of the world to follow again.... (links from secular blasphemy).
http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,6494000%255e401,00.html.
http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,963108,00.html.
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searchfothetruth
The US get around the Geneva convention by calling the prisoners 'Enemy Combatants' instead of Prisoners of War...the excuse?
Because they weren't wearing uniforms!
So what about 'special forces' troops who go into a country and mingle with the locals to gather intelligence, they'd find it a hard job in uniform!
ONE RULE FOR AMERICA ONE RULE FOR THE REST OF THE WORLD
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Yet Another Question For People in Europe
by gitasatsangha inthis goes into the whole football-soccer thing.
i was watching a sports channel last night and an nfl-europe game came on between the scottland claymores and the amsterdam admirals.
the stadium was huge (regular football stadium) but it looked like about 500 people were in attendance.
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searchfothetruth
Is that right?
Did you watch Euro 96, when England hosted it?
I like the European Championship better than the world cup for some reason. The bloody Germans knocked us out in the Semi-finals again there aswell!
Well, at least Austria are guaranteed a place in the finals then!
cheers,
mark
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Yet Another Question For People in Europe
by gitasatsangha inthis goes into the whole football-soccer thing.
i was watching a sports channel last night and an nfl-europe game came on between the scottland claymores and the amsterdam admirals.
the stadium was huge (regular football stadium) but it looked like about 500 people were in attendance.
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searchfothetruth
Oh Realist!
I really have to disagree with you on this!
Football, not interesting! Whats wrong with you?
Haven't you got any passion? Or is it because Austria has a rubbish football team!?
Theres nothing like a good football match, full stadium, cheering on your team to a win.
Just think of Germany versus England a few years ago...we beat the Germans 5:1 in there own stadium!
Oh and by the way...all the scoreres were from my club LIverpool FC
I'll have to take you to a game and convert you to the only true religion....football.
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85
Guantanomo Bay to become death camp!
by Abaddon innice to see the us government is setting standards for the rest of the world to follow again.... (links from secular blasphemy).
http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,6494000%255e401,00.html.
http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,963108,00.html.
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searchfothetruth
Abaddon.
We discussed this a while back. The abuses at camp x ray are totally against all conventios already.
But look at this article. Why is what is happening here not worth the same actions as Iraq was treated to...because these are allies of the US.
US looks away as new ally tortures Islamists
Uzbekistan's president steps up repression of opponents
Nick Paton Walsh in Namangan
Monday May 26, 2003
The Guardian Abdulkhalil was arrested in the fields of Uzbekistan's Ferghana valley in August last year. The 28-year-old farmer was sentenced to 16 years in prison for "trying to overthrow the constitutional structures".Last week his father saw him for the first time since that day on a stretcher in a prison hospital. His head was battered and his tongue was so swollen that he could only say that he had "been kept in water for a long time".
Abdulkhalil was a victim of Uzbekistan's security service, the SNB. His detention and torture were part of a crackdown on Hizb-ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation), an Islamist group.
Independent human rights groups estimate that there are more than 600 politically motivated arrests a year in Uzbekistan, and 6,500 political prisoners, some tortured to death. According to a forensic report commissioned by the British embassy, in August two prisoners were even boiled to death.
The US condemned this repression for many years. But since September 11 rewrote America's strategic interests in central Asia, the government of President Islam Karimov has become Washington's new best friend in the region.
The US is funding those it once condemned. Last year Washington gave Uzbekistan $500m (£300m) in aid. The police and intelligence services - which the state department's website says use "torture as a routine investigation technique" received $79m of this sum.
Mr Karimov was President Bush's guest in Washington in March last year. They signed a "declaration" which gave Uzbekistan security guarantees and promised to strengthen "the material and technical base of [their] law enforcement agencies".
The cooperation grows. On May 2 Nato said Uzbekistan may be used as a base for the alliance's peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan.
Since the fall of the Taliban, US support for the Karimov government has changed from one guided by short-term necessity into a long-term commitment based on America's strategic requirements.
Critics argue that the US has overlooked human rights abuses to foster a police state whose borders give the Pentagon vantage points into Afghanistan and the other neighbouring republics which are as rich in natural resources as they are in Islamist movements.
The geographical hub of the US-Uzbek alliance is 250 miles south of the capital, Tashkent. Outside the town of Karshi lies the Khanabad military base, the platform for America's operations in Afghanistan.
The town of Khanabad has been closed for months by the Uzbek government. Locals say the restrictions are compensated for by the highly paid work the base brings.
Journalists are not allowed in to see its runway, logistical supply tents and troop lodgings, all set on roads named after New York avenues. One western source said: "[The Americans] expect to be here for over a decade."
This will suit the Uzbek government, which welcomes America's change in attitude as its own security forces continue to repress the population. Uzbeks need a permit to move between towns and an exit visa to leave the country. Attendance at a mosque seems to result in arrest.
In the city of Namangan, in the Ferghana valley, there are many accounts of the regime's brutality. A fortnight ago, Ahatkhon was beaten by police and held down while members of the Uzbek security service stuffed "incriminating evidence" into his coat pocket. They called in two "witnesses" to watch them discover two leaflets supporting Hizb-ut-Tahrir. He was forced to inform on four friends, one of whom - an ex-boxer - is still in pain from his beating. Abdulkhalil and Ahatkhon prayed regularly. This seemed to have been enough to brand them as the Islamists the Karimov government fears.
The Ferghana valley has been a base for the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which the US and the UK say has links with al-Qaida. But the group is thought to have been crippled by the operations in Afghanistan. Analysts dismiss US claims that the IMU is targeting American military assets in the neighbouring republic of Kyrgyzstan.
The fight against the IMU has been used to justify the repression of Islamists. But the Islamic order advocated by Hizb-ut-Tahrir fills a void left by devastating poverty and state brutality.
Craig Murray, the British ambassador to Uzbekistan, said: "The intense repression here combined with the inequality of wealth and absence of reform will create the Islamic fundamentalism that the regime is trying to quash."
Another senior western official said: "People have less freedom here than under Brezhnev. The irony is that the US Republican party is supporting the remnants of Brezhnevism as part of their fight against Islamic extremism."
The US is also funding some human rights groups in Uzbekistan. Last year it gave $26m towards democracy programmes. A state department spokesman said America's policy was "reform through engagement" and that Uzbekistan had "taken some positive steps", including "registering a human rights group and a new newspaper".
Matilda Bogner of Human Rights Watch's office in Tashkent said: "I would deny there has been any real progress.
"The steps taken are basically window dressing used to get the military funding through the US Congress's ethical laws. Nothing has changed on the ground."
Hakimjon Noredinov, 68, agreed. He became a human rights activist after a morgue attendant brought him his eldest son, Nozemjon. He had been left for dead by the security service but was still alive despite having his skull fractured. Nozemjon is now 33, but screamed all night since they split his skull open. He is now in an asylum, Mr Noredinov said. "People's lives here are no better for US involvement," he said.
"Because of the US help, Karimov is getting richer and stronger."
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WoMD ... so where are they?
by Simon innow, the war is over, the weapons were not used and of course have not been found.. how threatening could they be if they did not even use them when being invaded by a massive force (of the countries they hate)?!
perhaps, as many suspect, they didn't use them because they didn't have them?.
now we're being told that we'll have to be patient and give them time to find them.
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searchfothetruth
An article by Robert Fisk...New Zealand Herald
New Zealand Herald >> Home >> Dialogue
Robert Fisk: So what was the war for?
18.05.2003LONDON - More than 50 dead in a week. Thanks for the Iraq war.
Thank you, Mr Bush and Mr Blair, for making our world safer by ridding us of the one tyrant - Saddam Hussein - who never had any connection with 11 September 2001, or with the Riyadh bombings or with the bombings in Casablanca.
The "liberation" of Iraq was supposed to free us from the bombers of al Qaeda. So said Mr Blair. So said Mr Straw. Could you talk to us, please, Messrs Blair and Straw? What was Iraq for? No, we don't have any "claim of responsibility" for the Casablanca massacre, but the nature of the cold calculation behind the Casablanca bombings is sufficient.
One suicide bomber kills himself by blowing open the doors of the Jewish community centre. Then his surviving comrade blows himself up inside. Weren't the Jews - like the Christians - "people of the Book", honoured by Islam? But then - and there's always a "but then" - wasn't Morocco a "friend" of the West, a country that has resorted to torture again over the past year in its pro-American battle against "terrorism", yet another country in which human rights have taken second place to President Bush's war on terror?
Osama bin Laden always said that his intention was to overthrow "the corrupt monarchies of the Arab world". It was Saudi Arabia at the beginning of the week, Morocco at the end. So, back to the point. Ten suicide bombers killed the innocent of Casablanca - that's more than half the total killers of September 11, 2001. And only five days after al Qaeda struck Riyadh.
Was it not President Bush who boasted to us of how America had struck a devastating blow in the "war on terror" in Iraq? Was it not Vice-President Cheney who informed us that al Qaeda was reeling from America's bombardment of Afghanistan? Was it not Defence Secretary Rumsfeld who would have us believe that half of al Qaeda's leadership was eliminated - either through capture or murder (let us speak frankly) at America's hands? So take a look at the terrain.
Afghanistan is in a state of anarchy, its pathetic government scarcely ruling over Kabul. Iraq is in an even more incipient state of anarchy, largely without electricity, money or petrol. And this is a war of good against evil?
Casablanca is a sorry and pertinent page in the history of America's folly in the Arab world. So what comes next? More boasts by President Bush that he is winning the "war against terror" or more claims - yes, he told you so - that the "war on terror" is eternal? Heaven spare us all.
E-mail story link to a friend Print story Top
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Poor excuse for shameful slip in education rights
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: Dark side of the Empire's crowning glory
Brian Rudman: Public should have say on superdome
Barbara Sumner Burstyn: Drug testing bid will alienate already helpless children
Security of supply has high price tag
John Armstrong: Clark digs in over oil and gas
John Roughan: Even I could run power supply
Diana Wichtel: New anthem could well be a winner
John Armstrong: Loose lips come back to bite PM
Brian Rudman: Honour Blake by buying an island gem
Sport: It's more than just games
The father of a nation comes face to face with a truly great man
Johann Hari: Why suicide bombers die with a smile
Jim Hopkins: A parable of the adventures of Dialysis in Wonderland
Little in the Budget to benefit our kids
Education has much to gain from less regulation
Garth George: Confuse secular and sacred and all you get is trouble
Oil and gas legitimate treaty claim
Dispensing change best for chemists' customers
John Armstrong: Speaker refuses to give 6-letter word House room -
47
Astrology... and your moon sign...
by MrMoe inso, we all know our sun sign, right?
welll... your moon represents inner emotions/inner self, and as far as inner person goes, is a very key sign.
it also shows the role your mother had in your life!
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searchfothetruth
Thanks for that MrMoe.
Amazing! Like reading a biography...thanks very much!
Your a genius!
mark
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8
Quick Builds
by Gadget inhas any body any idea how good the workmanship is on quickbuilds?
normally if you get a group of people who don't know about building you get chaos.
i know a few years ago they were changed from 48hrs to 2weekend, something to do with not being able to lay the bricks fast enough, new legislation limiting how many courses could be done in a day.
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searchfothetruth
The quality is quite good, mainly because you have the regional building team (mugs) that go to all the builds and do all the work while the local brother swan around in their new tool belts and flirt with the sisters making the tea, while the mugs do all the work.
I know, I was a mug for 3 years, every other weekend during the summer months, and never once got invited to a hall dedication.