Dear America: You can't 'make clean' a torture camp, let them go already
While browsing Rick Mercer's log, I'm reminded again of why I don't like that Ignatieff guy (why is he still in the party, taking up the space of the black woman whose riding they cleared for him earlier?), he's a closet neo-con, he keeps saying he's like Trudeau, but He's No Pierre Elliot Trudeau, not even close.
Rick Mercer's Blog (the old blogspot one)
Monday, October 16, 2006
From the Teleprompter of Michael Ignatieff
Ladies and Gentlemen, honored guests, protester standing silently at the back of the room with a bag on his head, thank you for coming here today.
LOL
Although it's hard to keep laughing about the last one, considering that the Americans still have some of our citizens in their custody in their torture camps. One of them was a minor 15/16 when he was taken in on charges of throwing a grenade (which is what the Americans are doing right now in the country they have invaded towards mosques and busy streets). That boy has been there for over 4 years now. Gods know what happens now, according to Rotten Library, the pictures aren't the worse documents out there, there are videotapes of women and young men being sexually assaulted by American guards or their cellmates. Videotapes mean that the Americans can't turn around and say afterwards 'that they didn't know / it was isolated', but it's not like the people involve would have to pay for it, eh? History says they won't, it's not like Iraq is WASP or something.
ETA: Okay, I've found it, I think it's Omar Khadr...who was captured in Afghanistan, so he is the one the media has been referring to recently, but I think I also remember someone else? Possibly brought by the Bagdad Burning blog...or not, since it was several years ago and what I remember reading was that an Iraqi-Canadian teenager was detained. Ha, there could be more than one, just numbers rolling on now.
Khadr to boycott trial, family says
RICK MADONIK/TORONTO STAR
Detained Canadian allowed to speak with relatives for first time since his capture in 2002
Mar 08, 2007 04:30 AM
Michelle Shephard
Staff Reporter
Canadian Omar Khadr says he plans to boycott his military trial in Guantanamo Bay and no longer wants to be represented by his American lawyers.
During the first phone conversation Khadr has been allowed with his family since he was captured in Afghanistan in July 2002, the 20-year-old reportedly told his mother he would do everything he can to avoid appearing before a military commission because he believes the trial is unfair.
Maha Elsamnah said yesterday she was surprised how mature her son sounded during the 50-minute phone call on Tuesday and laughed at the Saudi dialect he has apparently acquired when speaking Arabic.
"When we heard his voice first I was almost collapsing. And then he said, `Don't cry, hold on,'" Elsamnah said yesterday.
"Most of the conversation was almost the same question over and over, `How are you doing and how's your health?'"
Khadr told his family he was "desperate to come home," and described his captors as "criminals," his mother said. He also asked that the Canadian government "try harder" to bring him home and said the only legal help he'll accept is from the family's Edmonton-based lawyer, Dennis Edney.
His U.S. lawyers could not be reached for comment last night.
Canadian foreign affairs officials arranged the phone call and only Elsamnah, her mother and daughter, Zaynab, were allowed to speak with him.
U.S. Department of Defence spokesperson Jeffrey Gordon said yesterday he couldn't comment on Khadr's call specifically, but that detainees are sometimes allowed calls home for "humanitarian reasons."
Guantanamo's chief prosecutor has sworn a murder charge against Khadr for the death of U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer. He also faces allegations of attempted murder, conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism and spying. The military commission's convening authority now must officially confirm the charges before the first hearing can take place.
Although Khadr has been allowed to meet with his military-appointed lawyers and two civilian lawyers from Washington, Edney has not been allowed to visit the U.S.'s Navy base at Guantanamo Bay. Edney questioned why Australian lawyers representing detainee David Hicks (who is also scheduled to be tried before the military commission) had been granted access but he has been denied.
"Obviously the Australian government was able to exert sufficient pressure on the Americans to have Hicks represented by an Australian lawyer," Edney said yesterday.
"What is the message that we send to the Americans about how we value Canadian citizens when they're detained abroad?"
Pressure on the Canadian government is starting to mount as groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch criticize Stephen Harper's government for remaining silent concerning Khadr's upcoming military commissions, while other Western governments have denounced the process as illegal.
Six former Canadian foreign affairs ministers, including Liberals Bill Graham and Pierre Pettigrew, who held the positions during Khadr's incarceration, wrote an open letter in January urging Harper to "speak up."
"As former Canadian foreign ministers, we are deeply concerned by how the U.S.-run detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, flagrantly violates human rights, undermines the rule of law, and sends a signal to other governments that it is acceptable to abuse the rights of their citizens," the letter stated.
After the letter's publication, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said Canada had been assured that detainees were treated humanely at Guantanamo and chided the Liberal leaders for criticizing his government when they had not spoken out during their time in power.
Contacted yesterday, Pettigrew said MacKay's response was only an attempt to deflect criticism.
Pettigrew, foreign affairs minister from July 2004 to February 2006, said he felt Canada is losing the "moral high ground," by not calling for Guantanamo's closing like other Western countries such as Britain.
He would not, however, comment specifically on Khadr's charges and when asked to detail his actions concerning Guantanamo during his tenure he replied: "I don't want to go there."
Lloyd Axworthy, one of the letter's authors, said in an interview yesterday he feels Ottawa remains deferential to the U.S. on security concerns and must now "get its act together," before the start of Khadr's trial.
Khadr was captured in July 2002 by U.S. forces in a small town near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan following a lengthy firefight. Then 15, Khadr had been shot three times during the battle and was the only survivor after the U.S.'s bombing of a suspected Al Qaeda hideout.
When U.S. Special Forces troops moved toward the compound, it's alleged Khadr threw a grenade that killed Speer. Khadr was kept in Afghanistan until October 2002, a month after his 16th birthday, when he was transferred to Guantanamo Bay.
In addition to being held responsible for Speer's death, Khadr is alleged to have received training from Al Qaeda in the summer of 2002 and is accused of converting land mines to improvised explosive devices destined for U.S. troops, according to the sworn charges.
Khadr now resides in a new maximum-security facility known as Camp 6, which the Toronto Star toured in January. The detainees are kept in isolation except for a couple of hours a day of recreation in a caged-in area outside.
Two years ago, Khadr told his American civilian lawyer, Muneer Ahmad, that he had been abused during interrogations at the prison. The allegations included being hogtied and used as human mop to clean urine on the floor.
He has reportedly staged various hunger strikes and refused to meet with his lawyers at various points during his incarceration.
...and our politicians need to do something about this. I am disgusted that while the country at large threw up their hands in protest over the inconvenience at the border, that America have our citizens in their torture camps...that our esteemed neighbours are running torture camps that especially targets Arabs in fact (will it be Godwin if it is?), are met with relative passivity. Canada, as the country that supplies America with much of its raw resources, as the country that trades with America, as America's neighbour, will go down in history as The Collaborator (again?) shall we remain in silence over their crimes, shall we take no action. We need to threaten trade sanctions against them (after first ensuring that we could of course, by starting to trade with other countries more), and we need to make it clear that we disapprove of their crazy, and we also need to start accepting those that decide to dodge the immoral war into our borders especially considering the circumstances of their recruitment, and that they do end up coming home to neglect and abandonment.
...and I don't want to join an anti-war protest, or rather, find one that I could, all the ones on campus lumps Iraq and Afghanistan together with the goal of getting Canada to pull out of the second one, which I disapprove of. Where's the surrounding the American embassy with torches and loud radios option? The Americans have grown quite fond of depriving detainees of their sleep using radios. Since I remember that Cinn-what's-his-name was an asshole, totally protest him being here representing what he does.
Rick Mercer's Blog (the old blogspot one)
Monday, October 16, 2006
From the Teleprompter of Michael Ignatieff
Ladies and Gentlemen, honored guests, protester standing silently at the back of the room with a bag on his head, thank you for coming here today.
LOL
Although it's hard to keep laughing about the last one, considering that the Americans still have some of our citizens in their custody in their torture camps. One of them was a minor 15/16 when he was taken in on charges of throwing a grenade (which is what the Americans are doing right now in the country they have invaded towards mosques and busy streets). That boy has been there for over 4 years now. Gods know what happens now, according to Rotten Library, the pictures aren't the worse documents out there, there are videotapes of women and young men being sexually assaulted by American guards or their cellmates. Videotapes mean that the Americans can't turn around and say afterwards 'that they didn't know / it was isolated', but it's not like the people involve would have to pay for it, eh? History says they won't, it's not like Iraq is WASP or something.
ETA: Okay, I've found it, I think it's Omar Khadr...who was captured in Afghanistan, so he is the one the media has been referring to recently, but I think I also remember someone else? Possibly brought by the Bagdad Burning blog...or not, since it was several years ago and what I remember reading was that an Iraqi-Canadian teenager was detained. Ha, there could be more than one, just numbers rolling on now.
Khadr to boycott trial, family says
RICK MADONIK/TORONTO STAR
Detained Canadian allowed to speak with relatives for first time since his capture in 2002
Mar 08, 2007 04:30 AM
Michelle Shephard
Staff Reporter
Canadian Omar Khadr says he plans to boycott his military trial in Guantanamo Bay and no longer wants to be represented by his American lawyers.
During the first phone conversation Khadr has been allowed with his family since he was captured in Afghanistan in July 2002, the 20-year-old reportedly told his mother he would do everything he can to avoid appearing before a military commission because he believes the trial is unfair.
Maha Elsamnah said yesterday she was surprised how mature her son sounded during the 50-minute phone call on Tuesday and laughed at the Saudi dialect he has apparently acquired when speaking Arabic.
"When we heard his voice first I was almost collapsing. And then he said, `Don't cry, hold on,'" Elsamnah said yesterday.
"Most of the conversation was almost the same question over and over, `How are you doing and how's your health?'"
Khadr told his family he was "desperate to come home," and described his captors as "criminals," his mother said. He also asked that the Canadian government "try harder" to bring him home and said the only legal help he'll accept is from the family's Edmonton-based lawyer, Dennis Edney.
His U.S. lawyers could not be reached for comment last night.
Canadian foreign affairs officials arranged the phone call and only Elsamnah, her mother and daughter, Zaynab, were allowed to speak with him.
U.S. Department of Defence spokesperson Jeffrey Gordon said yesterday he couldn't comment on Khadr's call specifically, but that detainees are sometimes allowed calls home for "humanitarian reasons."
Guantanamo's chief prosecutor has sworn a murder charge against Khadr for the death of U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer. He also faces allegations of attempted murder, conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism and spying. The military commission's convening authority now must officially confirm the charges before the first hearing can take place.
Although Khadr has been allowed to meet with his military-appointed lawyers and two civilian lawyers from Washington, Edney has not been allowed to visit the U.S.'s Navy base at Guantanamo Bay. Edney questioned why Australian lawyers representing detainee David Hicks (who is also scheduled to be tried before the military commission) had been granted access but he has been denied.
"Obviously the Australian government was able to exert sufficient pressure on the Americans to have Hicks represented by an Australian lawyer," Edney said yesterday.
"What is the message that we send to the Americans about how we value Canadian citizens when they're detained abroad?"
Pressure on the Canadian government is starting to mount as groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch criticize Stephen Harper's government for remaining silent concerning Khadr's upcoming military commissions, while other Western governments have denounced the process as illegal.
Six former Canadian foreign affairs ministers, including Liberals Bill Graham and Pierre Pettigrew, who held the positions during Khadr's incarceration, wrote an open letter in January urging Harper to "speak up."
"As former Canadian foreign ministers, we are deeply concerned by how the U.S.-run detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, flagrantly violates human rights, undermines the rule of law, and sends a signal to other governments that it is acceptable to abuse the rights of their citizens," the letter stated.
After the letter's publication, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said Canada had been assured that detainees were treated humanely at Guantanamo and chided the Liberal leaders for criticizing his government when they had not spoken out during their time in power.
Contacted yesterday, Pettigrew said MacKay's response was only an attempt to deflect criticism.
Pettigrew, foreign affairs minister from July 2004 to February 2006, said he felt Canada is losing the "moral high ground," by not calling for Guantanamo's closing like other Western countries such as Britain.
He would not, however, comment specifically on Khadr's charges and when asked to detail his actions concerning Guantanamo during his tenure he replied: "I don't want to go there."
Lloyd Axworthy, one of the letter's authors, said in an interview yesterday he feels Ottawa remains deferential to the U.S. on security concerns and must now "get its act together," before the start of Khadr's trial.
Khadr was captured in July 2002 by U.S. forces in a small town near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan following a lengthy firefight. Then 15, Khadr had been shot three times during the battle and was the only survivor after the U.S.'s bombing of a suspected Al Qaeda hideout.
When U.S. Special Forces troops moved toward the compound, it's alleged Khadr threw a grenade that killed Speer. Khadr was kept in Afghanistan until October 2002, a month after his 16th birthday, when he was transferred to Guantanamo Bay.
In addition to being held responsible for Speer's death, Khadr is alleged to have received training from Al Qaeda in the summer of 2002 and is accused of converting land mines to improvised explosive devices destined for U.S. troops, according to the sworn charges.
Khadr now resides in a new maximum-security facility known as Camp 6, which the Toronto Star toured in January. The detainees are kept in isolation except for a couple of hours a day of recreation in a caged-in area outside.
Two years ago, Khadr told his American civilian lawyer, Muneer Ahmad, that he had been abused during interrogations at the prison. The allegations included being hogtied and used as human mop to clean urine on the floor.
He has reportedly staged various hunger strikes and refused to meet with his lawyers at various points during his incarceration.
...and our politicians need to do something about this. I am disgusted that while the country at large threw up their hands in protest over the inconvenience at the border, that America have our citizens in their torture camps...that our esteemed neighbours are running torture camps that especially targets Arabs in fact (will it be Godwin if it is?), are met with relative passivity. Canada, as the country that supplies America with much of its raw resources, as the country that trades with America, as America's neighbour, will go down in history as The Collaborator (again?) shall we remain in silence over their crimes, shall we take no action. We need to threaten trade sanctions against them (after first ensuring that we could of course, by starting to trade with other countries more), and we need to make it clear that we disapprove of their crazy, and we also need to start accepting those that decide to dodge the immoral war into our borders especially considering the circumstances of their recruitment, and that they do end up coming home to neglect and abandonment.
...and I don't want to join an anti-war protest, or rather, find one that I could, all the ones on campus lumps Iraq and Afghanistan together with the goal of getting Canada to pull out of the second one, which I disapprove of. Where's the surrounding the American embassy with torches and loud radios option? The Americans have grown quite fond of depriving detainees of their sleep using radios. Since I remember that Cinn-what's-his-name was an asshole, totally protest him being here representing what he does.