Guantánamo leaks lift lid on world's most controversial prison

Guantánamo leaks lift lid on world's most controversial prison

www.guardian.co.uk

The US military dossiers, obtained by the New York Times and the Guardian, reveal how, alongside the so-called "worst of the worst", many prisoners were flown to the Guantánamo cages and held captive for years on the flimsiest grounds, or on the basis of lurid confessions extracted by maltreatment.

The 759 Guantánamo files, classified "secret", cover almost every inmate since the camp was opened in 2002. More than two years after President Obama ordered the closure of the prison, 172 are still held there.

(visit the link for the full news article)

www.nytimes.com...

Potentially "one of The White House's worst policy failures", The inability to shut down the facility 172 prisoners remain in Guantánamo becuse of "high risk" and because "they have no where to go." Others would be such a further embarrassment they just can't be let go.

The range of those still held captive includes detainees who have been admittedly tortured so badly they can never be successfully tried, informers who must be protected from reprisals, and a group of Chinese Muslims from the Uighur minority who have nowhere to go.

The files profile many innocent or marginal prisoners swept-up in the hysteria and detained because they might have some intelligence value. The files, incomplete as they may be, still offer an inside look at a prison known for its secrecy.

What started as an experiment in dealing with terrorist detainees now remains an American institution.


www.guardian.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)
www.nytimes.com...

I find this part of the article particularly disturbing:

The files depict a system often focused less on containing dangerous terrorists or enemy fighters, than on extracting intelligence. Among inmates who proved harmless were an 89-year-old Afghan villager, suffering from senile dementia, and a 14-year-old boy who had been an innocent kidnap victim.

The old man was transported to Cuba to interrogate him about "suspicious phone numbers" found in his compound. The 14-year-old was shipped out merely because of "his possible knowledge of Taliban...local leaders"

Though I'm sure the reason I find this so disturbing, is because I still don't know the rest of the story.

Imagine a 14-year-old George Bush or Barack Obama being imprisoned and tortured there. While they may be infinitely more deserving of it, I could hardly wish this upon anyone.

While there no doubt were some really bad guys held in this prison, still I get the idea the US wasn't being particularly choosey about who they incarcerated here. Some may have been rounded-up and dumped into GITMO because they were able to provide just the slightest details or serve as a roadmap for US intervention.

Another prisoner was shipped to the base "because of his general knowledge of activities in the areas of Khowst and Kabul based as a result of his frequent travels through the region as a taxi driver".

Interesting exposeé files indeed, this is big stuff. Will this take our mind off China dumping the dollar and gasoline prices? Great timing. Any diversion in an economic hailstorm will do I reckon. It needed to be something big.

I don't remember many cases of this being public, except that arse terrorist david hicks. Yes he was guilty as hell. should have died there imo, that loser should not get a cent in public funds for his new so called book.

Who else has been innocent?

Who else was not at the front end of killing innocent people?

I forget these days, so many angles..

reply to post by bsbray11


That is terrible. What threat could a 14 year old really be?

Originally posted by badw0lf
I don't remember many cases of this being public, except that arse terrorist david hicks. Yes he was guilty as hell. should have died there imo, that loser should not get a cent in public funds for his new so called book.

edit on 25/4/2011 by badw0lf because: (no reason given)

No, he wasn't guilty... you've swallowed the propaganda! Guilty of what, anyway? You Americans invented the crime of being an 'enemy combatant', and I suppose as the world's foremost exponents of war and what some pyscho here called 'Military Science' (or as I like to call it, the systematisation of murder) you feel you're entitled.
So, he's guilty of what? Converting to Islam? (Not a crime, at least not in a civilsed country.)
Treason against Uncle Sam? Think again, he's Australian.
Being in the wrong place at the wrong time? I realise that in American non-law that is a crime, (as is being the wrong sex or the wrong race if you happen to piss off a white man, but even so)
Whatever you claim he's guilty of, you got your money's worth - he was tortured for years.
There are no words harsh enough to convey how I feel after reading that Guardian article.
V

reply to post by Erongaricuaro


I wonder how many $Billions it's costing to hold 172 men??

I also wonder what they could tell us if released...

Originally posted by itaii
reply to post by bsbray11

 

That is terrible. What threat could a 14 year old really be?

Ask the transgendered person who was beat down in the McDonald's in Baltimore. One of the attackers was a 14 year old girl.

The ones that are left behind are extraterestrials....same as the 14 year old boy. What are the threat you ask? Its because the advance knowledge they posses..

They've got balls to report this. After the whole wikileaks witch hunt I was expecting all the major outlets to play nice with the government. for that. I'd love to read all the original docs thought rather than have them being "filtered" through reporters.

Originally posted by PsykoOps
They've got balls to report this. After the whole wikileaks witch hunt I was expecting all the major outlets to play nice with the government.

Nah, the real situation is that the US government/economy/military are all in decline as more and more people rally against the inbred gangsters. It's a recurring theme in both US history and the histories of other countries worldwide, that when they sufficiently piss off their own people, in the end there is not much they can do, especially when those same pissed off people see the possibility of foreign support and start feeling more empowered.

There's no question that if we all stood up, or even 1/3 of our whole population (and polls indicate more Americans are pissed off than that), there is no way they could handle us all. Even with martial law and FEMA camps, they just don't have the resources anymore, and more and more people are betraying their corrupt superiors and leaking information and etc. all the time, because our fellow citizens in government by and large don't want to haul off and kill millions of Americans just for opposing their leaders. Virtually all of us in America, except for the very richest, are all negatively impacted by current trends. It's just about check mate by my reckoning, though the US military leaders are still capable of inflicting a lot of destruction if they become cornered. It's nothing to cower down at though. This is the time when we organize and do what we can to expose everything that has been done and create real change ourselves, from the people up.

Originally posted by awakenone
The ones that are left behind are extraterestrials....same as the 14 year old boy. What are the threat you ask? Its because the advance knowledge they posses..

I am sorry, but your post is the rankest insanity! It tries to minimise an awful, appalling situation that in a civilised country and a civilised world, would not be allowed.

Ill be straight up, people would be pissed if there WASN'T a terrorist prison..
If we're at war with someone, we should have somewhere to lock em up on mutual ground.. if not, what are we doing? Killing them all?.

Originally posted by Vicky32
No, he wasn't guilty... you've swallowed the propaganda!

True, he never said that he would rather be a mercenary than a terrorist. He's just a good bloke, down on his luck, who fell in with the wrong crowd, a loving son, a good natured boy, always having a laugh...

Apart from the time he trained with terrorists in the middle east.

Yeah, good old david...

That propaganda almost got me, crikey!

Guilty of what, anyway? You Americans

Unlike you, guilty of knowing who he was thinking about. I'm Australian btw!!

But your 'You Americans' bit here stopped me from bothering to facilitate your glossing over any more posts of mine, since you lack the ability to even see beyond the thinnest layers.

David hicks is a sod and should never have been released. He went to fertile war grounds for fame. And he got it.

Originally posted by badw0lf


Yeah, good old david...

That propaganda almost got me, crikey!

But your 'You Americans' bit here stopped me from bothering to facilitate your glossing over any more posts of mine, since you lack the ability to even see beyond the thinnest layers.

David hicks is a sod and should never have been released. He went to fertile war grounds for fame. And he got it.

Sorry, your grammar lets you down badly, and I am not sure what you mean by "stopped me from bothering to facilitate your glossing over any more posts of mine," - it's really sad to see uneducated people using big words, they always mess up...
I stand by what I have said. You've swallowed the propaganda. I would put links, but why I should bother, when you would not read them, for fear of having your pre-conceived ideas upset, I can't see.
Let's hope your Crosby-Textor buddies never turn on you. Otherwise a bunch of ignorant people might be saying in 5 years time "that 'Ernie McGillicuddy' (badw0lf) is a sod and should be locked up forever"