-Caveat Lector- Date sent: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 11:47:29 +0000 From: TOP_VIEW <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Organization: x ** TOP_VIEW ** x
Subject: US mistreatment of POWs draws increasing scrutiny x ** TOP_VIEW ** x The Bigger Picture 1.22.02 US mistreatment of POWs draws increasing scrutiny at home and abroad = = = = = = = = http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20020122_647.html Treatment of detainees at Guantanamo getting more scrutiny The Associated Press GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba Jan. 22 GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) The treatment of detained terrorist suspects from the Afghanistan war is getting more scrutiny from the international community and a federal judge in Los Angeles. U.S. District Court Judge A. Howard Matz set a Tuesday hearing for a petition filed by a coalition of Los Angeles clergy, journalism professors and civil rights attorneys, including former Attorney General Ramsey Clark. The first court challenge of the detention of al-Qaida suspects at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base demands that the U.S. government bring the suspects before a court and define the charges against them. The European Union joined a chorus of protests from the Netherlands, British legislators, Amnesty International and the International Committee of the Red Cross demanding that the detainees be given prisoner-of-war status subject to the Geneva Conventions. Sweden called Monday for fair treatment for a Swedish captive. "In the fight (against terrorism) we need to uphold our norms and values," said Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Jozias van Aartsen. "That applies to prisoners, too." Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair tried to defuse London press accusations of torture at the base, saying through a spokesman Monday that three Britons among the detainees say they have no complaints about their treatment. The number of detainees at the base in remote Cuba rose to 158 with Monday's arrival of 14 battle-scarred fighters on stretchers, including two amputees and three with infections requiring surgery. The military C-141 cargo plane bringing them here was the sixth flight bringing detainees from the U.S. base at Kandahar in Afghanistan, where 218 detainees remain. The 14 prisoners were carried from the aircraft on stretchers by Marines in yellow rubber gloves and turquoise surgical masks. The Marines seemed to frisk the captives before carrying them to a bus. The detainees wore blacked-out goggles and orange jumpsuits, and appeared to have their arms strapped to their bodies. "They were restrained in a manner appropriate, in a way that would not aggravate their medical conditions," Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Brendan McPherson said. U.S. officials say stringent security is needed because some captives have threatened to kill their American guards. Similar photographs of detainees kneeling on rocky earth, published by the U.S. Department of Defense on Friday, have provoked protests in Britain. But Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he has "no doubt" the detainees were being treated humanely. U.S. military officials say the precautions are taken during the flight for security reasons and are removed once prisoners are processed and led to a cell. They refused to say Monday whether they have begun interrogating detainees, who have not been allowed lawyers. The Red Cross, which has a team at Guantanamo, said Monday it considers the detainees prisoners of war, and the photographs violate a Geneva Convention protecting them from "public curiosity." "Such pictures should not be disseminated. They could have a strong impact on the family and the Muslim community worldwide," spokesman Darcy Christen said in Geneva. Recognizing the detainees as prisoners of war would mean trying them under the same procedures as U.S. soldiers by court-martial or civilian courts, not military tribunals. Monday night, Marine Brig. Gen. Mike Lehnert, who is in charge of the detention mission, defended the temporary cells where detainees are being held a concrete slab divided by chain-link fences and topped by a corrugated metal roof that some human rights advocates have likened to kennels and cages. "We have to look at Camp X-Ray as a work in progress, a temporary facility that 20 days ago didn't exist," Lehnert told CNN. All but two of the 160 cells were occupied Monday, but officials said another 60 would be built in three days and they could put two captives in one cell. Lehnert said plans are to build a more permanent prison "exactly in accordance with federal prison standards" which "will be much more comfortable." At the camp, a new green-and-white sign in Arabic points in the direction of Mecca, which Muslims face to pray. Lehnert said a Muslim cleric from the U.S. Navy was to arrive Tuesday to discuss religious issues, including whether detainees are allowed to grow hair and beards that were shaved off. Prison guards said leaders are emerging among the detainees. The Miami Herald said one tried to use a prayer period to rally prisoners, chanting "Be strong. Allah will save us." Prison guards told him to stop, the newspaper reported Monday. The Herald reported that the most prominent inmate appears to be former Taliban army chief of staff Mullah Fazel Mazloom, though U.S. commanders refuse to identify inmates. Guards say the prisoners mainly eat, pray and meditate in their open-air cells flooded by security lights at night, and are shackled to go to Date sent: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 11:48:55 +0000 From: TOP_VIEW <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Organization: x ** TOP_VIEW ** x Subject: 911 Families Urge Aid to Afghans For US Bombings, Devastation x ** TOP_VIEW ** x The Bigger Picture 1.22.02 911 Families Urge Aid to Afghans For US Bombings, Devastation = = = = = = = = http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20020122_479.html Sept. 11 Families Lobby for Afghans ** Relatives of Sept. 11 Victims Seek Compensation for Afghans Over US Bombardment The Associated Press Jan. 22 KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) Two American women who lost loved ones in the Sept. 11 terror attacks petitioned the United States on Tuesday for compensation to Afghan families whose relatives were killed and property destroyed by U.S. bombing. Before handing petitions through the closed gates of the embassy to a U.S. Marine guard, the women and representatives of a U.S. advocacy group held a news conference to appeal for the creation of a compensation fund for those who died in the bombing campaign. The air assault was launched Oct. 7 after the Taliban refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, blamed for masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The Taliban were driven from power but bin Laden has not been found. "I've come to this country to meet with other innocent victims," said Rita Laser, 70, of New York City, whose brother Abe Zelmanowitz died in the World Trade Center. She said of the Afghan bombing victims her group had met over the past week: "They are all very happy that we've gotten rid of the Taliban, but they are suffering tremendously." Kelly Campbell, 29, of Oakland, California, whose brother- in-law Craig Amundsen was killed in the attack on the Pentagon, showed pictures of Afghan families the group had met in recent days, saying some were left destitute by airstrikes that wrecked their homes, and others were maimed and disabled. "The U.S. government needs to take responsibility for the direct effect on people's lives," Campbell said. "We have cried with them we feel the same grief, but these people have nothing." The Sept. 11 families' visit, which began Jan. 15, was organized by the San Francisco-based group Global Exchange, a peace and human rights organization. The group said it would continue to collect petitions on behalf of the victims and present them to the Kabul embassy. No plans have been announced for the setting up of a compensation fund for Afghan victims, although the United States has in the past paid compensation to civilians who suffered injuries, bereavement and loss of property during U.S. military actions. The Pentagon said civilians were never deliberately targeted during the bombing in Afghanistan, but has acknowledged that some bombs went astray. On Monday, the United States pledged $296 billion during the current fiscal year to help Afghanistan rebuild from decades of war. The aid is part of a $4.5 billion, multiyear package pledged at a conference of nearly 60 donor nations and international organizations in Tokyo. The pledges fell short of the five-year, $10 billion goal set by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to rebuild everything from bridges to schools to education and health care systems in the war- devastated country. photo credit and caption: Abdul Mohammad, center, and his two children, no names given, meet relatives of the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks at their house in Kabul, Wednesday Jan. 16, 2002. Mohammad lost five members of his family when a U.S. bomb aimed at Taliban targets mistakenly hit his house last November. Four relatives of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks are in Afghanistan in a five-day-visit organized by the San Francisco based peace organization Global Exchange. Others are unidentified. (AP Photo/Enric Marti) Date sent: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 11:48:26 +0000 From: TOP_VIEW <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Organization: x ** TOP_VIEW ** x Subject: Geneva Convention RE: POWs x ** TOP_VIEW ** x The Bigger Picture 1.22.02 Geneva Convention RE: POWs Ahem... Rummy, Shrub, binCheney -- you all just might want to give this a quick going over... NO? Didn't think so, but just thought we'd mention it... = = = = = = = = Extracts from the international law on prisoners of war. The Associated Press ALAMEDA, Calif. Jan. 22 Extracts from the Third Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War of Aug. 12, 1949. Article 4 A: Prisoners of war, in the sense of the present Convention, are persons belonging to one of the following categories, who have fallen into the power of the enemy: (1) Members of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict as well as members of militias or volunteer corps forming part of such armed forces... (3) Members of regular armed forces who profess allegiance to a government or an authority not recognized by the Detaining Power... Article 5: Should any doubt arise as to whether persons ... belong to any of the categories ... in Article 4, such persons shall enjoy the protection of the present Convention until such time as their status has been determined by a competent tribunal. Article 13: Prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated ... Likewise, prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity. Article 25: Prisoners of war shall be quartered under conditions as favorable as those for the forces of the Detaining Power who are billeted in the same area. The said conditions shall make allowance for the habits and customs of the prisoners and shall in no case be prejudicial to their health ... Article 82: A prisoner of war shall be subject to the laws, regulations and orders in force in the armed forces of the Detaining Power; the Detaining Power shall be justified in taking judicial or disciplinary measures in respect of any offense committed by a prisoner of war against such laws, regulations or orders ... Article 84: In no circumstances whatever shall a prisoner of war be tried by a court of any kind which does not offer the essential guarantees of independence and impartiality as generally recognized ... Article 105: The prisoner of war shall be entitled to assistance by one of his prisoner comrades, to defense by a qualified advocate or counsel of his own choice, to the calling of witnesses and, if he deems necessary, to the services of a competent interpreter ... shower stalls or latrines without doors. Navy crews on Monday were flattening land with a bulldozer to erect an air-conditioned, tented field hospital for injured prisoners that will include an X-ray machine and two operating tables. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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