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Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Unknown Target on June 29, 2006, 09:36:09 am

Title: Score one for civil rights!
Post by: Unknown Target on June 29, 2006, 09:36:09 am
The US Supreme Court just ruled that the Bush administration over stepped its boundaries with its treatment of the prisoners in Guantanimo Bay.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/06/29/scotus.tribunals/index.html
Title: Re: Score one for civil rights!
Post by: AlphaOne on June 29, 2006, 09:56:07 am
Oki sure and what are they gooing to do about it?? Also a bit late isnt it?
Title: Re: Score one for civil rights!
Post by: Kosh on June 29, 2006, 10:01:04 am
Took them long enough.
Title: Re: Score one for civil rights!
Post by: Mefustae on June 29, 2006, 10:02:36 am
You do realise that this ruling in no way concerns the actual treatment [torture, etc.] of prisoners, but only the means of prosecution, which US officials don't seem in any hurry to do, and is just another case of 'too little, too damn late'.
Title: Re: Score one for civil rights!
Post by: aldo_14 on June 29, 2006, 10:07:33 am
You do realise that this ruling in no way concerns the actual treatment [torture, etc.] of prisoners, but only the means of prosecution, which US officials don't seem in any hurry to do, and is just another case of 'too little, too damn late'.

It's a ruling, however, that states the US has violated the Geneva Convention (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5129904.stm), which I think is important.
Title: Re: Score one for civil rights!
Post by: Mefustae on June 29, 2006, 10:12:18 am
...which I think is important.
Too bad the US doesn't (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,40158.0.html).
Title: Re: Score one for civil rights!
Post by: NGTM-1R on June 29, 2006, 11:56:47 am
Alas, Bush shall pull an Andrew Jackson. You know he will.
Title: Re: Score one for civil rights!
Post by: Kosh on June 29, 2006, 08:52:31 pm
I just heard on the WorldService that Bush is planning to hold military tribunals for "some" of the detainees, even though the Supreme Court said no. Maybe the **** is finally going to hit the fan......
Title: Re: Score one for civil rights!
Post by: IceFire on June 29, 2006, 08:57:46 pm
We're always a few ticks away from the **** hitting the fan...one wonders how long till something goes completely wrong.
Title: Re: Score one for civil rights!
Post by: Kosh on June 29, 2006, 09:19:30 pm
We're always a few ticks away from the **** hitting the fan...one wonders how long till something goes completely wrong.

Maybe they should do it sooner just to get it over and done with. :p
Title: Re: Score one for civil rights!
Post by: Deepblue on June 29, 2006, 09:42:36 pm
I just heard on the WorldService that Bush is planning to hold military tribunals for "some" of the detainees, even though the Supreme Court said no. Maybe the **** is finally going to hit the fan......

After going through FISA. Special cases exist.
Title: Re: Score one for civil rights!
Post by: Stealth on June 29, 2006, 10:04:54 pm
lol
Title: Re: Score one for civil rights!
Post by: vyper on June 30, 2006, 03:48:24 am
You know, a politician ignoring the rulings of your highest court is generally considered a criminal act.
Title: Re: Score one for civil rights!
Post by: Mefustae on June 30, 2006, 03:52:53 am
What? You've never heard of a politician commiting a criminal act before?
Title: Re: Score one for civil rights!
Post by: Mars on June 30, 2006, 03:54:58 am
You know, a politician ignoring the rulings of your highest court is generally considered a criminal act.

So is mass murder, and operating a country when under the influence, what of it?
Title: Re: Score one for civil rights!
Post by: aldo_14 on June 30, 2006, 04:28:42 am
Apparently a Republican congressman immediately responded by offering to propose a law suspending habeas corpus and giving the President authority to have these kangaroo courts.
Title: Re: Score one for civil rights!
Post by: AlphaOne on June 30, 2006, 05:15:10 am
So basicly the administratuion is ignoring its own justice sistem is that it?

It wouldnt be the first time or the first place somethiong like this happenes. You only need to take a closer look at countries all over the world to see that there are instances where the administration ignored the justice sistem. But still that is by no means right.

Oh well welcome to the modern times everyone. Also here is a dumb question isnt there suposed to be some sort of mean on the part of the justice sitem to punish or ven hold responsible the president congresmen or senators for braking the law.

I know we have one here. It doesnt really work because you need 50%+ of the total senators to agree to lift the political imunity a given senator or whatever has in order for the justice sistem to be able to hold him resposible but still.......the means should be there no?
Title: Re: Score one for civil rights!
Post by: DeepSpace9er on June 30, 2006, 06:48:13 am
If anything is happening for the first time its the Judicial Branch telling the president how he should conduct the war. Every wartime president before Bush has been able to have military tribunals. So basically this filth and bilge of the earth have the same process in criminal courts with the 15 year appeal process. How the hell do you conduct a war like that and with a system like that the likelyhood of them getting blown away on the battlefield instead of captured and interrogated for the purposes of antiterrorism im sure will increase.

Guantanamo isnt a torture camp. Puting undies on heads, turning off AC, dogleashes, and putting them with scantily clad women isnt torture. What they did to the captured US soldiers is.. that is, they cut off their genitals stuffed them in their mouths, broke their arms and bent their limbs back, then cut open their bodies and gutted them alive before they beheaded them. Stark contrast?
Title: Re: Score one for civil rights!
Post by: Ghostavo on June 30, 2006, 07:04:03 am
Really?

The definition of torture must have changed while I was gone.

Quote
Torture is any act by which severe pain, whether physical or psychological is given.

Note that humiliation is a form of psychological damage. Let's see some forms of humiliation

Quote
# forced nudity
# forced watching of nudity and/or sex
# being kept on a dog leash
# being hooded (reason may be the humiliation, but also preventing the victim from seeing and identifying the other person and the location)

What was that you were saying it's not torture?
Title: Re: Score one for civil rights!
Post by: Kosh on June 30, 2006, 07:12:54 am
Quote
How the hell do you conduct a war like that and with a system like that the likelyhood of them getting blown away on the battlefield instead of captured and interrogated for the purposes of antiterrorism im sure will increase.

This isn't a real war, at least not in the way you are thinking of. You cannot compare this with things like World War 2 or even Vietnam because they are nothing like this one.
Title: Re: Score one for civil rights!
Post by: aldo_14 on June 30, 2006, 07:46:24 am
Guantanamo isnt a torture camp. Puting undies on heads, turning off AC, dogleashes, and putting them with scantily clad women isnt torture. What they did to the captured US soldiers is.. that is, they cut off their genitals stuffed them in their mouths, broke their arms and bent their limbs back, then cut open their bodies and gutted them alive before they beheaded them. Stark contrast?

Firstly, one crime does not justify another.

Secondly, it is (Gitmo / Ab Ghraib) most definately torture.  not only interms of the convention definitions, but also in terms of the aims; it's based on psychological methods that a) reduce visibility and b) aim to destroy the subjects ability to think and conceal (i.e. say any the interrogators don't want to hear).

Thirdly, you've grossly mischaracterised what goes on in Gitmo in an attempt to make your point by hiding the reality of it.  Firstly, these are all psychological methods of torture deeply disturbing to muslims (not forgetting it'd be soiled underwear on their heads), aside from 'generic' tortures like sleep deprivation and extreme physical hardship (i.e. being forced to stand upright in a freezing/boiling hot room for hours on end until you soil yourself).  Secondly, it's excluding methods like waterboarding (which amounts to a mock execution). 

Finally, none of these people have been convicted of any crime; the only method you have to justify it is 'ooh, but x and y are doing worse', which is frankly pathetic and would never stand up as an excuse in any court of law.

That is, of course, excluding what may go on in 'black' sites.
Title: Re: Score one for civil rights!
Post by: karajorma on June 30, 2006, 08:05:19 am
Furthermore lets point out that some of the people originally in Gitmo were later released after 2-3 years upon being found guilty of no crime.

How you claim that it was right to torture them just because they looked like a terrorist? That's just out and out racism.
Title: Re: Score one for civil rights!
Post by: Mefustae on June 30, 2006, 08:40:03 am
*Snip*
It's worth mentioning that - as Aldo just said - all inmates are yet to be charged, and all by 10 are [or at least were] anywhere near getting a trial, so it's a bit much to start making blanket statements like "filth and bilge of the earth" when in all likelihood, a notable portion of them were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and are no more guilty than you or I. The guilt of inmates has been distorted so far out of proportion by political posturing, that it's not worth commenting on it, quite simply because there is the mere possibility of there being complete innocents in there. So before you start spouting **** about these inmates being lower forms of humanity, and somehow deserving of torture because a third party engage in worse torture, think about those individuals in there that haven't done anything, and the large portion that have done things that most countries wouldn't even think of convicting for; case in point, David Hicks [the Aussie terrorist, apparently] is in there for crimes that Australian police wouldn't even ****ing arrest him for!

And before you start telling us what does and does not qualify as torture, as you're obviously an expert, let's get a personal demostration so you can show us on Google Movies how getting soiled undies wrapped around your head is totally innocuous.