June 25, 2005

The Truth of Gitmo

The U.S. is admitting to the U.N. that torture has taken place at Gitmo:

Washington has for the first time acknowledged to the United Nations that prisoners have been tortured at US detention centres in Guantanamo Bay, as well as Afghanistan and Iraq, a UN source said.

The acknowledgement was made in a report submitted to the UN Committee against Torture, said a member of the ten-person panel, speaking on on condition of anonymity.

With all the talk about the abuses in Gitmo most have missed the fact that prisoners there have received hearings:

The Department of Defense, working through the National Security Council interagency process, established procedures that would provide appropriate legal process to these detainees, procedures that go beyond what is required even under the Geneva Conventions. These included combatant status review tribunals to confirm that, in fact, each individual is, in fact, an unlawful enemy combatant. Every detainee currently at Guantanamo has received such a hearing. As a result, some 38 individuals were released.

Why the administration hasn't loudly proclaimed this fact, I don't know. Less secrecy wouldn't stop the moonbats from proclaiming "Bush lied, people died!" or that Gitmo is a Gulag, but it might reassure those who support the Islamist War but worry some preventable bad things are taking place. The White House should release the U.N. document before the UN Committee against Torture hearings next May.

"US Acknowledges Torture at Guantanamo and Iraq, Afghanistan: UN source"

"Guantanamo Bay Tribunals"