According to this article the US has set up two systems of hidden prisons and interrogation centers around the world. We are prefering in 3rd world countries where legal problems and civil rights of prisoners are not an issue, and nosey journalists have short life spans.
I realize that they are mining these people for information that may be saving the lives of those I love.
Yet I feel dirty.
My government has these places purposefull off of US soil so as to be away from the jurisdiction of all the laws and rights that define the United States.
My government is locking people away with absolutely no rights. They are not POW's. They are not Prisoners of any government. They are chattel, to be used and abused at the discretion of bueurocrats and professional interrogators. They have no rights, to lawyers, to religion, to live. They can be tortured or executed or forgotten all in our name.
Perhaps they deserve it.
Perhaps some of them don't.
The judge, jury, and executioner is the intelligence officers and the paper pushers who live within the CIA or the Military.
They have our best interests at heart, but they are only human, prone to human mistakes and human passions such as anger and prejudice.
Posted by Rhaegar The Fool (Member # 5811) on :
The lesser of two evils my good man, sad, frustrating, but neccesary.
[ December 18, 2003, 04:01 PM: Message edited by: Rhaegar The Fool ]
Posted by scottneb (Member # 676) on :
The United States Armed Forces are bound to what is called the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Which strictly prohibits the use of inhumane avenues to get at information. Being the lone super-power in the world we have to set the example and obey our own rules. So don't worry about torture or treating the detainees inhumanely, because it's not happening.
Posted by Rhaegar The Fool (Member # 5811) on :
Oh, its happening, just the Israelis are doing it for us, and I am all for it.
Posted by scottneb (Member # 676) on :
You're wrong on this, big time. After WWI there was the Geneva Conventions, that strictly prohibited the torture of any person held by any government. If what you say is true, Isreal would be at odds with us, not working for us.
Posted by Rhaegar The Fool (Member # 5811) on :
Israel never signed the Geneva Convention.
Posted by scottneb (Member # 676) on :
My point was that the US did.
And any country that goes against it, is against us. That was the whole attitude behind the convention.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
*blinks* What does Israel have to do with anything?
Rhaegar, that's patently false!
Posted by Rhaegar The Fool (Member # 5811) on :
Attitude yes, legally no, we can turn them over to Isreali authorities, and how they get the information, well, its not our problem. But if they aren't in existence, I hope they soon do.
Posted by Daedalus (Member # 1698) on :
quote:The lesser of two evils my good man, sad, frustrating, but neccesary.
Oh, absolutely. Just like with J. Edgar Hoover in power to fight the Communist influence on America -- gosh darn, it's a bad thing, but it sure was better than the alternative, wasn't it?
Wasn't it?
Posted by Rhaegar The Fool (Member # 5811) on :
T'was.
Posted by Storm Saxon (Member # 3101) on :
Rivka, I don't know if they still do it, but they used to.
Someone would've been proud to have been born seventy years ago in Germany...
Posted by Rhaegar The Fool (Member # 5811) on :
I am greatly offended by that. I said "T'was" because it really is the greater of two evils. We have to be cruel to beat those who would like nothing better than another 9-11.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
No, SS, there have been ACCUSATIONS that they did so.
They certainly never did so on behalf of any other governments.