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shawa
CNO
Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 2004
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 Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2005 2:32 pm Post subject: Democrats Report No Abuse At Gitmo |
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Will the New York Times banner this report?
Yeah, when hell freezes over!
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050628-121155-4623r.htm
| Quote: | Democrats Report No Abuse At Gitmo
By Stephen Dinan
The Washington Times
June 28, 2005
Two Democratic senators just back from reviewing U.S. detention facilities and interrogations at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said they saw no signs of abuse and said it would actually be worse to close the facility and transfer the detainees elsewhere.
"I strongly prefer the improved practices and conditions at Camp Delta to the outsourcing of interrogation to countries with a far less significant commitment to human rights," said Sen. Ron Wyden, Oregon Democrat, who toured the U.S. facility along with Sen. Ben Nelson, Nebraska Democrat.
The two Democrats were joined on the trip by two Republicans, Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky and Sen. Michael D. Crapo of Idaho.
Their characterization contrasts with critics, including Democratic Party leaders, who have called for the camp to be closed as a bruise on America's human rights record.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California called for a commission to document abuses at Guantanamo and worldwide, while the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, two weeks ago compared interrogation tactics at Guantanamo to those used during the Nazi and Soviet regimes.
"The United States, which each year issues a human rights report holding the world accountable for outrageous conduct, is engaged in the same outrageous conduct when it comes to these prisoners," Mr. Durbin said at the time, citing an FBI agent's e-mail detailing some of the tactics to which the agent objected.
But the four returning senators, in separate Republican and Democrat press conferences yesterday, said they saw no evidence of ongoing abuse.
"Everything we heard about operations there in the past, we'd have to say, was negative. What we saw firsthand was something different," Mr. Nelson said.
Mr. Bunning said he observed six separate interrogations, and only one detainee was questioned while in restraints. Four of the six detainees spoke to their interrogators, and the other two refused to answer questions. The interrogators were usually women, and the translators were usually men, Mr. Bunning said.
Mr. Crapo said of the 70,000 people captured and detained globally in the war on terror, only 800 have been taken to Guantanamo. Many of those have been released or moved to other facilities, leaving 520 at Camp Delta.
He said there have been 400 visits by 1,000 reporters to the facility and that nearly 20 senators, a larger number of House members and 100 congressional staff members have visited the camp.
A delegation from the House of Representatives made a similar trip during the weekend, and one member reported similar findings.
"The detainees' meal was as good as any I had in my 31 years of Army Guard service, and I can see why the prisoners this year gained five pounds over last year," said Rep. Joe Wilson, South Carolina Republican.
Asked how they knew they were seeing real operations rather than a staged display, both Republican and Democratic senators said that they had access to everything and that they trusted the troops they talked with from their own states.
The Democrats did agree with Mrs. Pelosi's call for better-defined rules about who should be detained at Guantanamo.
"You have this state of legal limbo where it's not clear what the rules are," Mr. Wyden said. "The fact is it's a process that is not taking place in accord with any federal statute considered or debated by Congress."
But the two Republicans maintained the problem is not in the way the United States defines the detainees, saying they are treated as well as or better than the Geneva Conventions would require for prisoners of war.
Mr. Crapo said the U.S. definition combines directives from the president and the secretary of defense and Supreme Court rulings about the legal options available to detainees.
He said it is now up to the international community to decide on standards of treatment for detainees who do not qualify for prisoner-of-war status and fall outside of regular law-enforcement options.
"I don't think any such agreement would ultimately result in a higher standard; it might result in an agreed standard," Mr. Crapo said. |
_________________
“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” (Thomas Paine, 1776)
Last edited by shawa on Tue Jul 05, 2005 1:12 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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kate
Admin
Joined: 14 May 2004
Posts: 1891
Location: Upstate, New York
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| Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2005 9:48 pm Post subject: |
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I was watching Fox News this afternoon, ( no links yet) Steve Harrigan was reporting on his trip to Gitmo, and his interviews with the soldiers Paraphrasing
said there are officers all around, 2nd sets of eyes everywhere,
not possible to have mistreament go on
soldiers all very professional
one soldier on camera told of hearing from people back home…asking him what’s going on down there?
this soldier said it was like a kick-in-the-stomach to hear what is being said about them
Hope the DamnDurbinDemocrats can sleep at night for the personal pain they caused our service men & women
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one of..... We The People
Last edited by kate on Mon Jul 04, 2005 3:53 am; edited 1 time in total |
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PhantomSgt
Vice Admiral
Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 972
Location: GUAM, USA
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| Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2005 3:51 am Post subject: |
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| kate wrote: | | Hope the DamnDurbinDemocrats can sleep at night for the personal pain they caused our service men & women |
The souless slimeball sleeps like a baby, you can rest assured.
I sending hundred bucks to whoever runs against him in the next election to help send this scumball packing back to Searchlight.
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Retired AF E-8
Independent that leans right of center. |
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GM Strong
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 18 Sep 2004
Posts: 1579
Location: Penna
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| Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2005 11:26 pm Post subject: |
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From Matt Drudge:
Gloria Steimen decries Club Gitmo, demands shutdown. Since when has the sea hag had any concern about the affairs of mistreated men and women as well in certain notable cases (Kathleen Wiley)??
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050704/ap_en_ot/guantanamo_protest_2
NEW YORK - Feminist author Gloria Steinem on Monday joined about 200 protesters to demand the closure of the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, saying holding prisoners indefinitely without charging them violates the values upon which the United States was founded.
Steinem compared Guantanamo to the kind of autocratic rule early colonists were trying to flee.
"They came to escape the very things — detention without due process, bias, a religious government ... that we protest today," Steinem said.
Some detainees have been held at the camp in Cuba for more than three years without being charged. The U.S. government contends the prisoners are enemy combatants and are not entitled to constitutional protections.
Rachel Meeropol, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights that has filed lawsuits in federal court challenging the detentions, also addressed the crowd.
The Bush administration "has claimed the power to kidnap men anywhere in the world and hold them, interrogate them, detain them without any process of law," said Meeropol, the granddaughter of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed in 1953 after being convicted of conspiring to commit espionage for the Soviet Union.
_________________
8th Army Korea 68-69
Last edited by GM Strong on Tue Jul 05, 2005 10:53 am; edited 2 times in total |
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Navy_Navy_Navy
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Joined: 07 May 2004
Posts: 5777
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| Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 1:00 am Post subject: |
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Can I possibly be more ashamed? I actually used to think that Gloria Steinem was relevant and had something to say that was worth heeding. Oh, it makes me feel ill just to remember it. 
_________________
~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother
Last edited by Navy_Navy_Navy on Tue Jul 05, 2005 2:59 am; edited 1 time in total |
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LewWaters
Admin
Joined: 18 May 2004
Posts: 4042
Location: Washington State
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| Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 1:20 am Post subject: |
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Seriously, does anyone actually listen to her any longer? Where was she during the Monicagate scandal or supporting Paula Jones, Kathleen Willy, Linda Tripp, Juanita Broderick or any of the others?
But, she actually thinks she has anything of import to say now?
Maybe she needs to understand the words "WE ARE AT WAR" better. These are not petty hoodlums down there, they are battle hardened terrorists. They're not even soldiers, just terrorists.
Maybe she could take a dozen or so into her home and show us how to humanely treat them?  
Edited to add: MSNBC bills this as: Gloria Steinem among celebrity protesters demanding shutdown of Guantanamo
MSNBC
Funny, I don't see a single "celebrities" name listed, just Steinems 
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Clark County Conservative
Last edited by LewWaters on Tue Jul 05, 2005 1:43 am; edited 2 times in total |
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GM Strong
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 18 Sep 2004
Posts: 1579
Location: Penna
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| Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 1:41 am Post subject: |
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| Navy_Navy_Navy wrote: |
Can I possibly be more ashamed? I actually used to think that Gloria Steinem was relevant and had something to say that was worth heeding. Oh, it makes me feel ill just to remember it. |
Thanks for adding the additional photos. Ick. It's OK N3, in my misguided 'yooth' after returning from overseas duty, for awhile, prior to regaining some sense, I thought this was an attractive (visually) woman. Then MS. made the observation that "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle." That was it. I concluded, this is a female genetically, but certainly not a woman. The photos show it is the Sea Hag. If the thread of "Ours and Theirs" from mid-May hadn't ended with such a nice tribute to two classy women, I would recommended tacking this on to it, but not worth it.
Also note 200 protesters. They could get more people than that to a Gus Hall rally.
_________________
8th Army Korea 68-69
Last edited by GM Strong on Tue Jul 05, 2005 10:38 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Navy_Navy_Navy
Admin
Joined: 07 May 2004
Posts: 5777
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| Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 3:03 am Post subject: |
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Yes, I thought she was beautiful, too and very brainy - someone I should emulate. (Oh dear, how naive I was!)
And you're right - I didn't catch that part about 200 demonstrators. Hell, that's not even a traffic jam is it?!
PS - I'm a woman - the triple N comes from my original sig - "Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother."
_________________
~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother |
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coldwarvet
Admiral
Joined: 03 Jun 2004
Posts: 1125
Location: Minnetonka, MN
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| Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 12:41 pm Post subject: |
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When ever I watch a feminist being interviewed I look for a smile. They never smile. They are the most unhappy group of Americans I have ever seen.
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Defender of the honor of those in harms way keeping us out of harms way.
"Peace is our Profession"
Strategic Air Command - Motto
USAF 75-79 Security Police |
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