Inhumanity
A tape has been released of prisoner interrogation at Gitmo, and it should make us all very, very ashamed.
If this is something we are showing the world our society finds acceptable, we are simply destroying any grounds for respect we ever had. It has to stop.
What is passed off as protecting America is making us the world's most despised country, and this tape is of child abuse. The very things our occupied White House should be preventing it is perpetrating.
For shame.
Wrenching video of a teenaged Omar Khadr under interrogation by a Canadian spy service agent at Guantanamo Bay was released early Tuesday on the Internet.
The 10 minutes of video — selected by his lawyers from more than seven hours of footage — shows the 16-year-old Khadr weeping, his face buried in his hands.
In one section, the agent accuses Khadr of using his injuries and emotional state to avoid the interrogation.
"You see, you're not going to believe me," Khadr says.
"Well, look me straight in the eyes and tell me that you're being honest."
"I am being honest."
"You can't even bear to look at me when you're saying that."
"Why I can't bear to look at you?"
"You know — put your hand down."
"No, you don't care about me."
Khadr is accused by the U.S. military of throwing a grenade that killed an American soldier during a firefight in Afghanistan in July 2002.
He was just 15 when he was found in the rubble of a bombed-out compound — badly wounded and near death.
The remarkable footage from February 2003 was made public under Canadian court orders and offers an unprecedented glimpse into an interrogation by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
It shows Khadr at times calm, at other times in despair, and at other times seemingly resigned and indifferent.
At one point in the interrogation, Khadr pulls off the top of orange prison uniform and shows the wounds he sustained in the firefight from six months earlier.
He complains he can't move his arms and says he had requested, but hadn't received, proper medical attention.
"They look like they're healing well to me," the agent says of the injuries.
"No, I'm not. You're not here (at Guantanamo)," Khadr whimpers.
At another point, Khadr complains about his vision, saying, "I lost my eyes."
"No, you still have your eyes. Your feet are still at the end of your legs."
Later on in the tape, a distraught Khadr is seen rocking, his face in his hands.
If this is something we are showing the world our society finds acceptable, we are simply destroying any grounds for respect we ever had. It has to stop.
What is passed off as protecting America is making us the world's most despised country, and this tape is of child abuse. The very things our occupied White House should be preventing it is perpetrating.
For shame.
Labels: Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights, Torture
posted by Ruth at 3:29 AM
10 Comments:
When you select your president based on mindless criteria, when political parties have turned into cults of believers, when the president thinks that he is better than anyone else, when democracy sounds more and more like a fascist regime, Gitmo is no surprise.
Since our next president fits the above description, we shouldn't be surprised to see Gitmo come back in a different incarnation.
Like the Borbouns, we learned nothing. As opposed to the Borbouns, we did forget our history and our founding fathers.
I am also losing my surprise at the horror in the executive branch, hopefully a pleasant surprise is to come, if we work hard enough for it.
There are no positive surprises. Hate, cult, ignoring the poor and supporting Bush on Iraq and FISA can lead only in the wrong direction.
Some of "us" will see this and remain staunchly, arrogantly, and insanely proud.
What a sad state of affairs we are in when our own people openly stab our soldiers in the back. This individual was obviously old enough to volunteer to fight as an illegal combatant. Now he is rightfully held as an enemy Prisoner of War.
Obviously you are not familiar with the Laws of Land Warfare which govern POW status. Otherwise you might be able to make an argument that what is going on is illegal. However, like so many of the uneducated masses, you simply cry that it is illegal - and you are unable to cite the laws which are being broken.
If you're going to try to make a convincing statement, try using some facts. Otherwise your arguments come off as ignorant and uneducated.
So please, PLEASE, give us an education of the Laws of Land Warfare and show us which are being broken in this case.
Thing is: a lot of us were told that Gitmo was for actual terrorists, not boys caught up in war. It makes a person wonder - if him, who else? And no matter the blame we put on Bush and Co, all Americans share in this shame.
Convention against Torture here :>
http://www.hrweb.org/legal/cat.html
Did someone just say "boys caught up in a war"?
This is an individual who made a conscious decision to participate as an illegal combatant. Ergo his detainment in a camp is warranted.
Read the law.
But you won't because that's too much work.
Dear Anon,
He was fifteen. I teach high school. He was a boy. Who decided he was an illegal combatant? We did. Who decided his detainment for years without representation and torture was legal? We did. The laws in these cases - which I've read - were written by men of the like of Alberto Gonzalez. So, um, really? Bite me.
I doubt if this "boy" was in high school. Someone gave him the amo and taught him how to use it. Maybe his gym teacher?
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