Posted on 10/29/2007 9:04:35 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
UNITED NATIONS - A U.N. human rights expert is calling on the United States to prosecute or release suspects detained as "unlawful enemy combatants" and to move quickly to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.
Martin Scheinin, the U.N.'s independent investigator on human rights in the fight against terrorism, said in a report released Monday that he's concerned about U.S. detention practices, military courts and interrogation techniques.
He urged the U.S. government to end the CIA practice of extraordinary rendition, in which terrorism suspects are taken to foreign countries for interrogation.
Scheinin said he was also concerned about what he termed "enhanced interrogation techniques reportedly used by the CIA," saying that under international law "there are no circumstances in which cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment may be justified."
The U.S. military defended the current process. "Unlawful enemy combatants held at Guantanamo are afforded more due process than any other captured enemy fighters in the history of warfare," U.S. Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Defense Department spokesman on Guantanamo, told The Associated Press. "We will enforce the law as spelled out in the Military Commissions Act of 2006."
Gordon, who said appropriate officials will review the report, added that the U.S. will move cautiously on Guantanamo.
"While we have stated our desires to close Guantanamo, it would be irresponsible to release these dangerous men into the general population," he said.
Scheinin, a law professor from Finland appointed by the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council, issued a preliminary report after visiting the United States in May. His final report was issued on Monday, coinciding with the report to the U.N. General Assembly's human rights committee.
Scheinin expressed regret to the committee that he couldn't interview detainees at Guantanamo in private.
Scheinin also welcomed his recent invitation by the U.S. government to Guantanamo to observe proceedings before military commissions.
In the report, Scheinin called for the abolition of the military commissions which were established in 2001 by President and declared unlawful by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2006 because they were not authorized by Congress. Congress responded by passing the Military Commissions Act of 2006.
Scheinin said the offenses in the 2006 law — including terrorism, wrongfully aiding the enemy, spying and conspiracy — "go beyond offenses under the laws of war." He argued that the offense did not apply at the time of the alleged acts by detainees, and maintained that the commissions are applying criminal law retroactively in violation of international law.
Due to various concerns, Scheinin recommended the abolition of the commissions. "Wherever possible, ordinary civilian courts should be used to try terrorist suspects," he said.
Scheinin also recommended that the U.S. government abandon "the categorization of persons as `unlawful enemy combatants,'" calling it a "a term of convenience without legal effect."
The report called on the "United States to release or to put on trial those persons detained under that categorization."
While acknowledging the need to bring those accused of war crimes to justice, Scheinin emphasized that "the chance of ensuring a fair trial diminishes over time." He added that "the detention of persons for a period of several years without charge fundamentally undermines the right of fair trial."
Scheinin called on the U.S. to lift restrictions that prohibit Guantanamo Bay detainees to seek "full judicial review of their combatant status." The U.S. prohibition violates the International Covenant's prohibitions on arbitrary detention, the right to a judicial review which could grant freedom, and the right to a fair trial within a reasonable time, he said.
He urged "determined action" to move toward Bush's goal of closing Guantanamo.
Scheinin said he has been advised that up to 80 detainees will be tried by military commissions, and that the U.S. wants to return the rest to their countries of origin or to a third country. He said the U.S. and the U.N. should work together to resettle detainees in accord with international law.
Okay, summary trial with immediate execution as per teh Geneva conventions.
I wonder what that idiot would say then.
We should definately close Gitmo- the reporters know about it. Bury the prisoners at sea.
UN resolution on death penalty
A UN resolution calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions has been co-sponsored by 76 countries, one more than in 2003 and the highest number ever. Resolution 2004/67 was adopted by the UN Commission on Human Rights on 21 April.
The resolution, backed by the European Union (EU), was sponsored by all EU countries and by many others from different parts of the world, including Iraq, Kiribati, Samoa and the Solomon Islands for the first time.
The text of the resolution is available on the website of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights at http://www.unhchr.ch
The UN is part and parcel with the enemy and they should not only be asked to leave these shores, they should be drummed out, and run out on a rail.
LOST comes up for senate ratification on Wednesday.
didn’t the U.N. do a commercial saying...HEAR ME NOW ?
and only one tree from the forest responded ?
The UN has no jurisdiction over us - have a nice day.
Get the US out of the UN. What a freakin disgrace.
we’ll see how many voting on that abomination still know what sovereignty is.
Their fate will be sealed if they vote to ratify it. We only need 34 patriot American senators to stop it....this time. It's like the amnesty bill that keeps coming back again and again.
agreed.
It has become a great embarassment, an ineffectual monstrosity of a bureaucratic disaster.
And the 800,000 butchered in Rwanda in 1994.
And Sudan.
And I see how tough on China the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights has been--
Chinese police by the tens jump on old Falun Gong women meditating in some park and burn the crap out of them with their Ronco electric batons--
Hey, but at least the Chinese Peoples Police don't put panties on those women's heads. . . . .
Yes, I demand early release for all Guantanamo detainees. . . .
Ten thousand feet from the ramp of a few C-130s.
Over Natanz. . .
With the new fall line of bomb vests. . . .
Mr Scheinin, gfy!
I can’t Gitmo, satisfaction...
I can’t Gitmo, satisfaction...
And I try, and I try, I can’t Gitmo, no no no...
I can’t Gitmo, no no no...
When I’m drivin’ down the street...
and the guy comes on the radio...
to tell us how to treat our terrorists...
I can’t get no, no no no...
I can’t get no, no no no...
I just tell that man right where to go...
And I get some, yes yes yes...
And I get some, yes yes yes...
SATISFACTION!!!
Independent?!
Martin Scheinin, Dr. iuris, Professor of Constitutional and International Law, Director of the Institute for Human Rights
AP correspondent Edith M. Lederer
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