Friday, September 28, 2007

Guantanamo Suspects

Fourteen terrorist suspects labeled "high value" are going to be granted the right to representation by a lawyer for the first time since they entered US custody. Transferred to the infamous Guantanamo Bay from secret CIA prisons over a year ago, the suspects have not been allowed contact with anyone other than their captors and International Committee of the Red Cross represenatives. In allowing these suspects to attain representation and communication with the outside world, the US is finally starting to keep some of its military prisoners within the bounds of Habeus Corpus and the Geneva Convention rights. It is absolutely disgraceful that prisoners are not all treated as mandated under international law.

Ellie talked about the Patriot Act and I agree with all of her points highlighting the problems with the act, this being a major problem. It's clear that it's not only a threat to our liberty but also serves as an embaressment to the United States and is an example of aweful hypocrisy. The US cannot preach freedom to the world when this is occuring.

6 comments:

Paul Slack said...

This news pisses me off because once again, the U.S. is a hypocrite. The U.S. has always preached democracy, freedom, and civil rights, while also telling other countries to stop being oppressive. But now, it makes itself an exception because the government thinks it can do whatever it wants to do. International law should be able to punish the U.S. somehow because it is not right to withhold prisoners without some kind of legal representation. I understand that these are suspected terrorists, but that doesn't mean that the U.S. can break its own rules.

Anonymous said...

I like the idea of using modern technology to spread information to students. Most people use it and therefore will be exposed to the message that is being sent to them. However, most schools are reluctant to allow unlimited usage of technology simply because they think that using it for only a couple things is not worth the distraction and trouble it causes.

I agree that Aragon is a relatively safe place. There aren't too many incidents in school where someone gets seriously injured. But that atmosphere doesn't exist outside of school and certainly doesn't last forever, which makes it even more important that students are aware of ways to protect themselves from harm.

Anonymous said...

oops i had problems with the posting so i kinda submitted my response in the wrong post. It should be in the "technology to the rescue" post. my bad.

benji said...

I hope they're bad lawyers.

Anonymous said...

The U.S. is very powerful and many other countries look at it as a role model. If the U.S. does not treat its prisoners as mandated under international law, I don't see how it can expect anything different from other countries. Especially with the reputation and image of the U.S. right now, I think the U.S. should start following international law in this area.

Anonymous said...

I didn't were else to post these random thoughts/questions....Is it wrong to like your country but loath your government? Unrelated: Why does anarchy have such a negative connotation? It doesn't have to be chaos. It could just be a state in which the rulers have no power.
Help me out someone.