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Guantanamo Bay: A Blot on Humanity: Even Hitler Did not Treat Prisoners so Horribly
by Buut Shikan (Idol Breaker)

At least 16 prisoners at the U.S. concentration camp in Guantanamo are reported to have attempted suicide during the last year. The U.S., other than reporting the attempts, has not permitted any investigation into the alleged attempted suicides. The human rights situation in the camp seems to be tragic and in blatant violation of international and Islamic law. Islamic people never attempt suicide. What could have happened to bring things to such a pass. Let's begin with what the U.S. has revealed of its interrogation techniques. The U.S. admits that it uses:
1. Sleep deprivation.
2. open-ended solitary confinement.
3. Flashing lights and/or extremely bright lights.
4. Keeping a person standing up till he collapses and them forcing him to stay standing.
5. Threats of immediate or impending execution.
6. Constant reminders that there is no hope or future for the captive.
7. Deprivation of medical attention.

Hopelessness is created by the U.S. not permitting relatives, journalists or attorneys to meet the prisoners. From the few releases we have seen (including an 80 year old Pakistani) there is a high probability that most of the prisoners are not combatants but simply Islamic people who were helping the people of Afghanistan when the Northern Alliance/Karzai groupings sold them to the U.S. as "al-Qaida" and "Taliban."

Judging from what happens in U.S. prisons on the mainland, the following procedures are destructive for Islamic prisoners and which are routinely used by the U.S.:
1. Strip searches on almost a daily basis.
2. Depersonalization of the prisoner through the use of a number instead of a name.

In the case of the Guantanamo Bay prisoners, their Islamic personalities were deliberately targeted. For months, they were kept hooded and dragged on chains when taken to the bathroom. To start off their beards were shaved. Later, they were given a government "imam" who taught them that being rebels against America ("terrorists"), they had gone against Islam.

[As historian David Irving pointed out, Hitler did not treat his prisoners as badly as the U.S. has done with its Islamic prisoners. In fact, as my own reading shows, American and British pilots who were shot down by the Germans after bombing population centers were permitted to wear their uniforms and were never treated thus.]

Amnesty International has pointed out that the U.S.'s disorientation techniques, which do not leave a mark on the body, are TORTURE. Thus the U.S. does practice torture.

The world must take notice of the crimes against humanity being committed at Guantanamo Bay. Write to the U.S. embassy in your country and urge the U.S. to bring the prisoners to trial or let them go. Within the U.S. write to the Attorney General.
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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL'S POSITION ON U.S. USE OF TORTURE

US officials claim that they use only "acceptable techniques" for interrogation, including sleep and light deprivation and the temporary withholding of food, water, access to sunlight and medical attention, allegedly even for a prisoner who had been shot.

"The tactics US officials openly admit to constitute cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or torture. These statements by US officials are an admission of complicity in torture," said Dr. William F. Schulz, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA. "Furthermore, transfer of prisoners to the custody of other countries where they are likely to be tortured is also a violation of international law. President Bush should issue a public, unequivocal statement rejecting all forms of torture by US officials and their foreign allies, just as his father did in 1992. US and international law are clear and absolute: torture is unacceptable regardless of the rationale or threat."
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WHY ARE MUSLIMS SILENT ABOUT THE TRAGEDY OF GUANTANAMO BAY?
[Most Muslim 'leaders' in America are in the government's pocket. Here are a few lines from a powerful poem Sis. Karen English wrote to try and awaken the deeply asleep Imam W.D. Muhammad of Muslim Journal in which she describes the condition of the Islamic prisoners:
"Our uncles in Guantanamo Bay……
Did you see them on the television?
Shuffling along with their ankles shackled?
Arms handcuffed behind them?
Faces hooded?
Being pulled along on chains like dogs?
They're confined in jails built from shipping containers
The International Red Cross and Amnesty International
Say they are held in contravention of The Geneva Convention,
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights The US Constitution
What do you say?"
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2003-03-13 Thu 09:44ct