Guantanamo ?

[DaPi]

Since there are mostly Americans in this corner of the forum:

What do you think of Guantanamo Bay?


I was heartened and then sickened by this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3994183.stm

Someone with moral back-bone:
"His military-appointed lawyer, Lt Cmdr Charlie Swift, argued the military commissions are not legal and should not have jurisdiction in his client's case."

and then this:
"But the US justice department said: . . . . By conferring protected legal status under the Geneva Conventions on members of Al-Qaeda, the judge has put terrorism on the same legal footing as legitimate methods of waging war,"
Something about guilty until proven innocent?

[Alchemy]

"What do you think of Guantanamo Bay?"

An aspect of Guantanamo Bay that I have not seen or read about is the fact there is such a setup as close as Cuba for a "war" so far away.

I would say some here have suspicions as to why, but nothing seen or heard.

As for "guilty until proven innocent", you will find a good many folks here do not care for that approach, quite the 180 degrees from that.

As for the article, surely you are not surprised by the Buch camp on this?

I'm a little surprised that the judiciary has taken the stance it now has. In the beginning it was "onward" across the board.

[cruser3]

AFAIK -> Gitmo was set up as the Taliban army was not recognized along with the regime by the UN and comprised of soldiers & irreregulars, and the GI's encountered armed civilians, terrorists etc when they went in and the Geneva conventions does not apply to an irreregular rag tag force. Heard Gitmo has civilians, terrorists, cab drivers, petty criminals, Taliban fighters etc but nobody knows who is what. One guy released as a civilian now shows up on Al-Q videos in Afghanistan. The Military tribunals should try Taliban soldiers for war crimes if guilty - the others should face the courts in my opinion. Bin Laden's driver is a case in point - looks like the guy was small fry and if he knows nothing, has'nt committed a crime etc should be set free after a civil trial. Our intelligence dried up after the Soviets left - till then we trained these guy's commanders and some old CIA guys only knew them and not the structure that had evolved since then which is why it's difficult to sort them out - was watching an interview of a CIA spy in Gitmo on TV who was recruited for this purpose but the guy knew nothing and was misleading them most of the time so it's not easy!

As to the torture there it does not serve any purpose - only sullies our reputation like Abu Graib in Iraq !