Guantanamo official to monitor prison

[bicentennial_baby]

BAGHDAD -- The commander of the US military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been transferred to Iraq to oversee the treatment of 8,000 detainees as part of an investigation into alleged sexual and physical abuse at a US Army-run prison outside Baghdad, officials said yesterday.

The officials also disclosed that the top US commander in Iraq, Army Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, has ordered administrative penalties against seven unnamed officers who supervised the Army Reserve military police unit that was responsible for the Abu Ghraib detention facility in November, when Iraqi prisoners allegedly were subjected to beatings and sexually degrading acts by American soldiers.

Criminal charges were filed in March against six members of the unit, the 372d Military Police Company, based in Cumberland, Md. The charges included conspiracy, dereliction of duty, cruelty and maltreatment, assault, and indecent acts with another, the military's term for sexual abuse.

Three of the suspects have been recommended for court-martial. The other three face preliminary hearings in May and June to determine whether a court-martial is warranted. An Army spokesman said charges are likely to be filed against a seventh soldier, and three more soldiers are still under investigation and could face criminal charges.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/04/30/guantanamo_official_to_monitor_prison/

[LittleApple81]

1. Any of you saw the documentary about the Canadian guy

who was a CIA spy and spent time in Guantanamo?
The only thing I can say is that now they won't take pictures.

[Jack Rabbit]

2. Exactly

Next time, there won't be any witnesses.

Guantanamo needs to be investigated as much as Abu Ghraib. I can't say with any certainty that that kind of thing is as widespread at Guantanamo as it is at Abu Ghraib; in fact, I would be very surprised if it is. Nevertheless, what leaks out about Guantanamo isn't pretty; moreover, the concept behind Guantanamo is that those who take up arms against invading US forces have no rights under any law.

The abuses at Abu Ghraib, like the very existence of the prison camps at Guantanamo, grew out of the contempt the Bush junta holds for international humanitarian law and norms of civilized behavior. Nixon held, wrongly, that if the President did it, it was not illegal under US law; Bush holds, wrongly, that if the President of the United States or an agent of his policy does it, it is not a violation of international law. A preventive war based on false justifications, indefinite detention of enemy combatants and torture and other humiliating treatment of those detained are beyond all scrutiny as far as the Bushies are concerned.

We should take the assignment of General Miller to Abu Ghraib as a slap in the collective face of those who care about human rights.

[finecraft]

3. Private Contractors use in interrogation of detainees

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1206725,00.html

(snip) "Graphic photographs showing the torture and sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners in a US-run prison outside Baghdad emerged yesterday from a military inquiry which has left six soldiers facing a possible court martial and a general under investigation.

The scandal has also brought to light the growing and largely unregulated role of private contractors in the interrogation of detainees.

According to lawyers for some of the soldiers, they claimed to be acting in part under the instruction of mercenary interrogators hired by the Pentagon."

I wonder if the pentagon hires private contractors to work at Guantanamo too?