US Held Inmates at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba, originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire Photo File.
On Friday, fourteen suspected terrorists rounded up at secret CIA jails will face a tribunal to determine whether they are enemy combatants. Held at Guantanamo since September, these suspects include the alleged masterminds of September 11th and 2002 Bali, Indonesia bombings. Don't expect to see the proceedings on Court TV, they will be held in secrecy. No reporters will be present but redacted transcripts will be released after the proceedings.
You shouldn't be surprise that none of the accused will have lawyers present nor will they have the opportunity to face their accusers or know exactly what the charges are against them. The Geneva Convention Article 99 states the following:
No moral or physical coercion may be exerted on a prisoner of war in order to induce him to admit himself guilty of the act of which he is accused.
No prisoner of war may be convicted without having had an opportunity to present his defence and the assistance of a qualified advocate or counsel.
We invaded Iraq based on faulty intelligence, remember Saddam Hussein was connected to al-Qaeda and the September 11th bombings? He also posed a threat with those weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) that we still haven't found. In spite of evidence that has proved all of these claims wrong, the Bush administration refuses to abandon them. They got it wrong and refuse to admit it.
I'm not convinced that evidence against the people held at Guantanamo is all that credible, especially since I don't know what it is in the first place. Just because they have been accused of being terrorists doesn't make them terrorists. Given the tales about extraordinary rendition and torture, the information against these people is suspect at best. Any type of confession obtained through torture isn't reliable but the Bush administration doesn't care. They will do anything to justify their 'war on terror' even if it means lying about it. You can't believe anything they say.
No comments:
Post a Comment