Guantanamo - Three inmates kill themselves

"Two men from Saudi Arabia and one from Yemen were found dead shortly after midnight Saturday in separate cells, said the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command, which has jurisdiction over the prison. Attempts were made to revive them, but they failed.

"They hung themselves with fabricated nooses made out of clothes and bed sheets," Navy Rear Adm. Harry Harris told reporters in a conference call from the U.S. base in southeastern Cuba.

"They have no regard for human life," he said. "Neither ours nor their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation but an act of asymmetric warfare against us." (Yahoo News Report)

No comment necessary.

O_o;

>_<

http://www.amnesty.org/

http://www.internationalpen.org.uk/

/Tina

When we were in school and we first learnt of the holocaust, I figured it must have been in the year 900 AD or something, no way proper, modern, real people could go about doing that kind of thing... Surely.

I fear that as I sit here typing this I am actually living in the age of another great historic injustice. Those people killed themselves to escape a fate worse than death. Probably innocent, they sat in a cage day after day for years, being tormented in the name of interrogation every so often by some soldiers. Their food was basic and their conditions harsh. They had no trial, and no evidence was offered up against them. And worst of all they had no hope of release.

I say god be with them, poor souls who thankfully have escaped a place worse than death. I am saddened every day that such a place can still exist in a year as late as 2006, and saddened further that a progressive and democratic country like the USA is actually supporting, maintaining and running such a nightmare faciility.

I add my name to the UN, The UK government, the International Red Cross, Amnesty International and various organisations and governments around the world on the list of those who wish to see the facility closed for good. If the USA is running a facility like that, what does it matter if there's a dictator in Iraq, or terrorists all over the world. We have a much bigger terror right here at home, and first we should put our house in order before we look to the rest of the world.

My two cents from this article will go to Amnesty International's war chest to campaign for the closure of this facility.

So, if I understand this correctly, they got themselves captured, sent half a world away to Cuba and imprisoned for years (with no trial date in sight, mind you) to strike back at the Great Satan by committing suicide? What an ingenious plan!

By this logic, if the alliance troops commit suicide en masse in Iraq, we'll win.

EDIT: I meant the genius you quoted, not you Teeny.

I was telling a friend last night I didn't think it'd take long before someone mentioned the Holocaust in relation to this. Wow. Thank you for verifying my estimation of the radical opposition. Please send your apologies to the ADL however, I don't think they care much for these overreaching analogies. (6 million slaughtered versus 3 suicides.... 3 suicides or 6 million... hmmm)


Yes. Three square meals a day paid for by American taxpayers, a free Koran and a prayer rug, plenty of water for showers and reading materials to pass their time. A "fate worse than death". ~sigh~

Personally, I think it's a shame 30 of them weren't allowed to take the easy way out rather than 3. It would have saved us a lot of trouble.

You know you just reduced them to the status of animals. They get three meals and a religeous book. Big deal. There's a whole world out there, and every day we walk down the street, looking at the blue sky, thinking the women we pass are hot, smiling to ourselves that our wives and kids are well and that we're alive and happy and doing well in our jobs and having fun.

Those guys live in cages like animals. It's degrading and insulting to humanity to suggest three meals and a book is enough for them to be happy. I think the holocaust was better. The people there died, but at least their suffering ended there. Think. Those people will never get back the years of their lives being spent in a cage. It's awful. Any one man woman or child who agrees with guantanamo, I just can't comprehend their mindset.

3 down and about 450 to go

Nick Berg, the two men dragged through Fallujah, the slaughter in Beslan-these actions make them animals. They live in cages? So does every other prisoner. You think we should put them on parole with an ankle bracelet or something? Get real.

Besides, this wasn't "suicide", it's "martyrdom" and who are we to interfere with their right to self martyrdom? They are just excercising their religious freedoms.

-Kiamat Dusk

In other words, we should still feel good about ourselves because at least we're better than Nazi's? The fact remains these inmates have not been given their human rights - no trial, no reason to ever expect they will be let out. Doing this to them strips away our moral high ground, and justifies their compatriots in doing whatever they feel is necessary to end these violations of human rights.

Who is next to be fetched a night...

/Tina

Ummm, yes?




Another SLefty justifiying the terrorist behavior. So all of this was justified:
http://hrw.org/reports/2005/iraq1005/17.htm

Nick Berg-justified. Beslan-justified. I wonder, if the Marines are convicted of the Haditha massacre, will you give them the same pass because one of their buddies died?

-Kiamat Dusk

Throw out all the rules, and no one has any motivation to be nice to you any more.

Or let's look at this from the other angle: Do a few terrorists really justify us disregarding human and civil rights all over the place? If your answer is yes, then this is the game. People kill each other when they can get no voice.

We didn't make them animals - they already set themselves apart through their own actions and words. It's the only adjective I can conceive that would describe beheading innocent civilians on TV without trial or executing women in public for daring to speak to strange men in public.

In Case You've Forgotten


Nonsense. These men are not uniformed soldiers as we normally think of combatants, and which are covered by the Geneva Convention. These are enemy combatants in every sense of the word EXCEPT their formal allegiance to any state OR their allegiance to the Geneva Conventions. And yet we are giving them their "human rights" under those conventions, since we are in a state of war with the movement they represent.

There are a number of reasons we haven't had more attacks on our own soil. One reason is our heightened security. Another is that a few hundred of the most radical perpetrators are locked up in Cuba. I prefer that alternative to seeing more Americans die, but maybe you disagree.

Prisoners in our jails get 3 square meals, access to religious services and reading materials. Just like the Gitmo prisoners. I don't hear anyone claiming that we're Nazis for jailing murderers and child molesters -- but enemy combatants captured in the field with weapons they were firing on our troops? Oh the humanity. Sheesh.

Bullshit. "Human rights" doesn't mean 3 meals a day. It means "convict me of a crime or release me!"

Not in war.

-Kiamat Dusk

I don't buy that. Either you are at war, and the Geneva Convention applies, or you are not, and human rights apply. We are giving these people neither, and that needs to stop. How are a bunch of people we dragged out of the hills in Afganistan so much of a threat that they don't get the same consideration we give Terry Nichols?

Do you really think our human rights are worth nothing?

No, the Geneva Conventions don't require conviction by trial for war prisoners -- much less for enemy combatants that aren't part of a military organization run by a state.

From the White House statement regarding this matter, just to clarify the administration's position:


To imply that we are somehow morally equivalent to Nazis, or that we're violating the human rights of unrepentant murderers is about as specious an argument as I've seen surrounding this whole war. But it's easy to be in the opposition here -- no matter what we do, it can be spun as "wrong". If we weren't holding these 400-some people prisoner and they were detonating bombs in New York, Washington, LA and Detroit, then the very same people would be accusing the administration of being lax with Americans' security. It's a win-win position to take polemically, but I'm afraid it's a moral void.

The US has not declared war since 1942

And yet, we have had the Gulf War I & II and now the War on terror.

What does it matter than it war has not been 'officially' declared since 1942?

Briana Dawson

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These 400 people were not detonating bombs in New York. They were taken prisoner overseas when we invaded another country. The position by the Administration is the "moral void" here. They have declared these people are without rights, and have done so without any proof given of crimes committed. They have done so by creating a previously unseen "loophole" in international law.

If in fact they were taken prisoner in the U.S. for blowing things up, they would have more rights than they are being given now. They would be given representation, the right to face their accusers, and a trial by jury. Instead, they have simply been carted off to storage, with no reason to ever expect release. Killing themselves is a natural thing to do in such circumstances.

NAZI.

Godwined.

WTF are you talking about, "poor souls". These people are murders and terrorists. Did you EVER see what the Taliban was doing to the people of afghanistan?? These people are criminals who were plotting death and destruction on the streets of the U.S. and terrorizing the population of Afghanistan.

What "much bigger terror right here at home" are you talking about? Something bigger than a bunch of sleeper cell taliban crominals?

I guess you would prefer these people go free so they can continue their plotting against our country and beating the women of Afghanistan for not covering their ankles.

Did you ever see how the Taliban executed people while they were ruling in Afghanistan? They used a soccer field to do public beheadings. The people they were beheading hadn't committed any 'real crimes', they simply got caught not following the rules of the Taliban.

Briana Dawson

Constitutionally it matters quite a bit.

Actually we also had Vietnam, Korea also - neither legally Wars by the US definition.

It could be the nature of politics in the US these days dont allow for formal declarations of war. But other countries are justified in citing that we do not follow our own laws.