By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
18 minutes ago[/i]
[/align][/align]Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday said the United States should close the prison at Guantanamo Bay for terror suspects as soon as possible, backing a key conclusion of a U.N.-appointed independent panel.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan rejected the call to shut the camp, saying the military treats all detainees humanely and "these are dangerous terrorists that we're talking about."
The panel's report, released Wednesday in Geneva and leaked earlier in the week, said the United States must close the detention facility "without further delay" because it is effectively a torture camp where prisoners have no access to justice.
Annan told reporters he didn't necessarily agree with everything in the report, but he did support its opposition to people being held "in perpetuity" without being charged and prosecuted in a public court. This is "something that is common under every legal system," he said.
"I think sooner or later there will be a need to close the Guantanamo (camp), and I think it will be up to the government to decide, and hopefully to do it as soon as is possible," the secretary-general told reporters.
The 54-page report summarizing an investigation by five U.N. experts, accused the United States of practices that "amount to torture" and demanded detainees be allowed a fair trial or be freed. The panel, which had sought access to Guantanamo Bay since 2002, refused a U.S. offer for three experts to visit the camp in November after being told they could not interview detainees.
Annan said the report by a U.N.-appointed independent panel was not a U.N. report but one by individual experts. "So we should see it in that light," he said.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the report will be presented to the U.N. Commission of Human Rights, which appointed the panel, when it convenes on March 13 in Geneva.
Manfred Nowak, the U.N. investigator for torture who was one of the panel's experts, told The Associated Press in Geneva that the detainees at Guantanamo "should be released or brought before an independent court."
"That should not be done in Guantanamo Bay, but before ordinary U.S. courts, or courts in their countries of origin or perhaps an international tribunal," he said.
The United States should allow "a full and independent investigation" at Guantanamo and also give the United Nations access to other detention centers, including secret ones, in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, Nowak said by telephone from his office in Vienna, Austria.
"We want to have all information about secret places of detention because whenever there is a secret place of detention, there is also a higher risk that people are subjected to torture," he said.
The United States is holding about 490 men at the military detention center. They are accused of links to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime or to al-Qaida, but only a handful have been charged.
The U.N. investigators said photographic evidence " corroborated by testimony of former prisoners " showed detainees shackled, chained and hooded. Prisoners were beaten, stripped and shaved if they resisted, they said.
The report's findings were based on interviews with former detainees, public documents, media reports, lawyers and questions answered by the U.S. government, which detailed the number of prisoners held but did not give their names or the status of charges against them.
Some of the interrogation techniques " particularly the use of dogs, exposure to extreme temperatures, sleep deprivation and prolonged isolation " caused extreme suffering, the report said.
"Such treatment amounts to torture, as it inflicts severe pain or suffering on the victims for the purpose of intimidation and/or punishment," the report said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross is the only independent monitoring body allowed to visit Guantanamo's detainees, but it reports its findings solely to U.S. authorities.[/align][/align]Legislators and journalists have been allowed in on guided tours but few are permitted to see interrogations. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the U.N. report "clearly suffers from their unwillingness to take us up on our offer to go down to Guantanamo to observe first-hand the operations." [/align][/align]McClellan, the White House spokesman, echoed Whitman, saying "it's a discredit to the U.N. when a team like this goes about rushing to report something when they haven't even looked into the facts. All they have done is look at the allegations."[/align][/align]Although his statement did not address specific allegations, the Pentagon has acknowledged 10 cases of abuse or mistreatment at Guantanamo, including a female interrogator climbing onto a detainee's lap and a detainee whose knees were bruised from being forced to kneel repeatedly.[/align][/align]In Strasbourg, France, the European Parliament condemned the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo and renewed its calls for the detention center to be closed.[/align][/align]Human rights activists also supported the investigators' findings.[/align][/align]Amnesty International said the report was only the "tip of the iceberg." "The United States also operates detention facilities at Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere in Iraq and has been implicated in the use of secret detention facilities in other countries," an Amnesty statement said.[/align][/align]Many of the allegations in the report have been made before. But the document represented the first inquiry launched by the 53-nation U.N. Human Rights Commission, the world body's top rights watchdog.[/align][/align]___[/align][/align]Associated Press correspondents Sam Cage and Alexander G. Higgins in Geneva, Jan Sliva in Strasbourg, France, and Jennifer Loven in Washington contributed to this report.
[/align][/align]Aught Six says Annan should close the U.N.[/align][/align]Not holding my breath....[/align][/align]
Vacate the assets you hold in a land where you are not welcome? You first Kofi.
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Obamanfreude - 1. taking pleasure from the misfortunes of an Obama supporter as he or she is adversely affected by the policies of their Dear Leader.
Go pi$$ up a rope, Kofi! Like I am going to believe any bloody report that the UN generates. In my opinion the UN is a totaly uncredible organization. End of story.
And furthermore, in case I have been tooreticent in expressing my opinion above and some are left uncertain of where I stand on the UN, I think the US should kick the UN out of New York and entirely withdraw from involvement in the UN. It is an organization that does not accomplish its stated objective, is rife with corruption, and is a vehicle for bashing and undermining the United States.
Article 25.
[ul](1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
[/ul]
Gee, I always thought that food, clothing, housing, etc. were the fruits earned by being productive and adding value to society. Now that the Koffi and Co.have weighed in I know can quit my job and hunt and fish all the time.
It's also interesting that charity is a fundamental right and entitlement. I always thought those checks I cut and volunteer work I did were out of caring and compassion for others. Evidently I was simply fulfilling my minimal obligations to my comrades.
So who is this Annan guy, and since when did he have any authority to tell the US what to do?
Oh yeah, he's a one world, anti-US puke who's words have as much validity over what the US does as a terd in my toilet.
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πνεύμα γ*μισα
"Error never shows itself in its naked reality in order not to be discovered. On the contrary, it dresses elegantly, so that the unwary may be led to believe that it is more truthful than truth itself."
-Irenaeus of Lyon
Annan Says US Should Close Guantanamo Bay
Evidently I was simply fulfilling my minimal obligations to my comrades.
