Stymied by Their Own Spin

by Judith Siers-Poisson — October 4, 2006 - 10:10am

The Bush Administration has been a little too effective with its propaganda for their own purposes. After deciding that more than 120 detainees at the Guantánamo detention camp are eligible for transfer or release, it is proving difficult to identify countries willing to take them. This shouldn't be surprising after 5 years of U.S. officials labeling detainees as enemy combatants and dangerous terrorists. Vienna Colucci, Director of Amnesty International's Program for International Justice and Accountability said, "For so long, the presumption of innocence has sort of been thrown out the window, and they've been labeled these...hardcore terrorists, and killers, and these people would kill us all. And what that does is leads to a(n)...unwillingness on the part of other countries' governments to take them. It also puts...themselves at risk because they are perceived to be a danger to their own community."

Main Source:

NPR's Morning Edition, October 4, 2006

Comments

The case of French Guantanamo detainees

Submitted by stephane mot on October 6, 2006 - 2:49am.

After years of negociation, all French detainees have eventualy been delivered to the French justice. They expect a verdict next May 2007. Without much fear - not because they're fearless hardcore killers but because most of them are not so dangerous misfits.
The judgement was supposed to be delivered last September the 27th but there is another case within the case : some detainees have been interviewed by French agents during their stay. The interviews were normal but to a certain point : in the legal void of this twilight zone, they are by definition illegal.
So these agents are likely to be prosecuted too. At least, there is an investigation on how the case was made... which is exactly the kind of investigations the Bush Administration don't want on their home turf (even if that turf actually belongs to a former US puppet called Fidel Castro - by the way, funny how US puppets tend to turn nasty : Fidel, Saddam, Osama, Noriega...).
Anyway. I wonder when the President of the United States and his head of "Justice" will answer for their own attacks on the values that used to make America respected.
And I don't think the Dems played it smartly by passing the UnPatriot law : they keep following the Rove agenda and roadmap instead of shifting gears and planes. Wake up, lads : the first step out of this mess is the total respect of the core values of your country. You cannot expect any good decision otherwise. Don't answer to their question "are you with us or against us ?" , just be yourselves.

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Stephane MOT -
http://e-blogules.blogspot.com

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