UN: Free the Terrorists

Friday, May 19, 2006

The United Nations, once again demonstrating that it is about anything but making the world a more peaceful place, has called for the closure of the United States's detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

A United Nations panel on torture called on the United States today to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and expressed concern over reports of secret detention centers and of a practice of sending terror suspects to countries with poor human rights records.
Armed with the smug assumptions that (1) the United States is actually "torturing" the prisoners there, and (2) that it is immoral for the United States to do so; and with the knowledge that the MSM will fail to question them, the United Nations then flat-out demands that we free our war prisoners, or at least treat them like our own civilians!
The United States "should cease to detain any person at Guantanamo Bay and close this detention facility, permit access by the detainees to the judicial process or release them as soon as possible," the report said.
So it looks like the leftists are going for Round II in the Cuban Theater of their War Against the War. I'm sure that we'll start hearing squeals about "legal limbo" and the Geneva Conventions pretty soon, too. As a reminder on that score: "The detainees at Guantanamo are not in a legal limbo any more than any other prisoners in any other war were in limbo when they were captured." And there's more from Senator John Kyl and Mark Steyn where that came from.

-- CAV

3 comments:

Gus Van Horn said...

Rotter,

First off, it's better to include permalinks. I believe you meant this one.

http://donkephant.blogspot.com/2006/05/un-calls-for-closing-of-guantanamo.html

Second of all, this is not germane to the point, but it is worth noting: This kid -- who merely replaced the escapism of drugs with that of Islam (not unlike at least two terrorists I can think of with no effort) -- went to a nation at war with the United States. Foolish at best, as you admit.

Third, this is war. While this particular case of torture sounds mistaken and excessive on a quick skim, that is beside the point. (And I do not need to read that book to answer your implication -- that the UN is right.) I support the use of torture when appropriate in the defense of my freedom, and I support the imprisonment of terrorists when we can't kill them out right.

To address your position, let's take a more clear-cut case. Assume an American citizen was scandalously sent to such a prison. Would this treatment mean we should start treating terrorists like common criminals rather than enemy combatants, and release all prisoners of war? No. It would mean that our government should stop treating its citizens like enemy combatants.

Thanks for bringing up this point. It has made me aware of what the left will probably do next to further discredit the war effort.

Gus

Zeeshan Suhail said...

Gus,
If you think the UN's work is questionable, whose work is credible? Another recent report which came out in Feb '06 looked at Gitmo from a variety of aspects, and it was found to violate a whole bunch of human rights conventions, as it still continues to do.
You might also want to consider looking at the work of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) which legally represents over 200 of the detainees. I just completed a research paper on Gitmo and am shocked to see the US legal system go down the drain when it can very well close the base and try everyone fairly in a court of law, one by one, and close the cases.
It chooses not to, while having the apparati to do so.
I'm surprised even after Abu Ghraib, you think this is all phony...

Gus Van Horn said...

Zeeshan,

When you give me a credible explanation for how a notion like Libya can head a human rights commission, I'll briefly entertain the notion that the United Nations has a shred of credibility.

The UN is founded supposedly to prevent warfare among nations, and yet it admits the bloodiest dictatorships (which have no interest in peace and in fact cause many wars) as members on an equal footing with civilized nations that actually do desire peace.

This is like having an investment club with a few bank robbers as members in order to promote its members' prosperity.

The whole premise of the United Nations is flawed, and that is why it spends so much time on America's case, and so little on the tyrannies that deserve examnation.

The United Nations should be disbanded post-haste.

Gus