On Fri, 11 Jan 2002, J. van Baardwijk wrote: > Then they will probably also pay little attention to what I just saw on the > evening news. > > Human rights groups have protested the way the US treats its Al-Qaida and > Taliban prisoners. The program showed footage of those prisoners being > brought to a plane that was to bring them to the Guantanamo (sp) military > base (on Cuba). They were hooded (so they could not see where they were > going), in shackles, and tied to each other (and pulled forward) by a > chain. On board the plane, they were strapped in in such a way that they > could not even move their limbs, and were not allowed to use the toilet for > the duration of the flight. For "security reasons", their guards were > allowed to sedate the prisoners if they deemed it necessary.
BBC reports the prisoners had portable urinals. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld says that one person, not all, was sedated. > Once on Cuba, they were locked up in what currently passes for a prison. > They were locked up in small cages (most of them in the open air) and had > to sleep under bright lights. Walls of chain-link fence, roofs of corrugated metal. Exposure to Cuba's open air is probably more comfortable than living an a cave in Afghanistan in winter.. > Why Guantanamo base? According to the evening news, because their prison is > not on American soil and therefore the prisoners cannot appeal against > their (mis)treatment. Probably true. Marvin Long Austin, Texas
