Prison news
A few items of note yesterday concerning our GWOT(TM) and those we’ve rounded up:
Rumsfeld says no U.N. access to Guantanamo inmates
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Spurning a request by U.N. human rights investigators, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Tuesday the United States will not allow them to meet with detainees at the Guantanamo prison for foreign terrorism suspects.
He calls the hunger strikes “a ploy to attract media attention”. Well, gee, wonder why people being kept without being charged for years might want media coverage?
Five hundred Abu Ghraib prisoners set free, given gift of Qoran and $25
Meanwhile, US occupation forces on Tuesday set free five hundred prisoners from Abu Ghraib military prison. Each prisoner received a gift of the Qoran, $25, and a new white shirt upon release, the US Army said.
The move was a goodwill gesture on the part of US forces for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. “These detainees have confessed to their crimes, renounced violence and pledged to be good citizens of Iraq,” a U.S. military statement said.</i>
Ok, so these people were dangerous enough to capture, but now you’re taking them on their pledge to be good citizens of Iraq? More likely, these people were swept up in large groups, and we’ve known they were guilty of no crime, and were just holding them from paranoia.
Well, it was a nice gesture, coming on the heels of this story:
Secret prison system detains high-level terrorism suspects
By Dana Priest
WASHINGTON – The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al-Qaida captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement.
Sorta hard to dismiss charges of fascism when you’re using Soviet jails.
