Europe Invites the United States to Observe the Law

[Jon8503]

Reuters - Tuesday 26 April 2005

Tuesday, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe "adamantly" asked the American government to "observe the principles of the preeminence of law and human rights" with respect to the detainees at Guantánamo.

In a resolution adopted in Strasbourg by 83 votes, none against, and five abstentions, the Assembly invites the United States to "stop all mistreatment of the Guantánamo detainees" and to authorize "a suit for the examination of the legality of their detention by a properly constituted tribunal."

The Assembly deems that Washington must "immediately free all detainees for whom there does not exist sufficient proof to justify their criminal incarceration" and that in those cases where such proof does exist, the detainees should be charged and tried "with no further delay." The United States is furthermore invited to "exclude any declaration obtained by torture or by punishments or treatment of a cruel, inhuman, or degrading character," in conformity with "international law and the Constitution of the United States."

The Assembly emphasizes that it "shares the United States' determination to fight international terrorism," but considers that "the American government has betrayed its own highest principles in the zeal with which it has tried to conduct 'the War against Terrorism.'"

Some 540 suspects, for the most part captured in Afghanistan, are detained at the American Guantánamo base on the island of Cuba. The United States has attributed to the detainees the status of "enemy combatants" unable to claim the rights reserved to prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions. Testimony from several former prisoners, as well as a recent report by the British parliament and internal memoranda of the FBI published in the press, have recorded mistreatment of the Guantánamo detainees that could correspond to acts of torture.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/042605I.shtml
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Translation: t r u t h o u t French language correspondent Leslie Thatcher.

[whistle]

1. That ought to get John Bolton up on his hind legs, oh, wait.....

....Bolton has not been confirmed has he:woohoo:

[Just Me]

2. Sadly.

Sadly, America has temporarily lost her moral, ethical and lawful compass.

Until she gets it back,...she will be viewed as a criminal to the rest of the world.

[Jon8503]

3. I know, I even got a news letter from a travel group that is saying

Cancun is not safe for Americans right now and partly to the fact that Mexico is not putting enouch police in the area for protection.