Hunger Strike at Guantánamo

Generally an unmoderated forum for discussion of pretty much any topic. The focus however, is usually politics.
User avatar
bannination
Captain
Posts: 5502
Joined: Sun Sep 16, 2012 7:58 am
Location: Hendersonville
Contact:

Hunger Strike at Guantánamo

Unread post by bannination »


User avatar
homerfobe
Ensign
Posts: 1565
Joined: Sun Oct 14, 2012 9:37 am
Location: All over more than anywhere else.

Re: Hunger Strike at Guantánamo

Unread post by homerfobe »

Indeed. I don't why they keep these vermin alive. Let 'em starve themselves; it'll ease our tax burden.
Proudly Telling It Like It Is: In Your Face! Whether You Like It Or Not!

User avatar
rstrong
Captain
Posts: 5889
Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:32 am
Location: Winnipeg, MB

Re: Hunger Strike at Guantánamo

Unread post by rstrong »

homerfobe wrote:
Indeed. I don't why they keep these vermin alive. Let 'em starve themselves; it'll ease our tax burden.
Let's do it to you first. At least there would be some justice there.

User avatar
Boatrocker
Lieutenant Commander
Posts: 2059
Joined: Thu Jan 03, 2013 11:53 am
Location: Southeast of Disorder

Re: Hunger Strike at Guantánamo

Unread post by Boatrocker »

rstrong wrote:
homerfobe wrote:
Indeed. I don't why they keep these vermin alive. Let 'em starve themselves; it'll ease our tax burden.
Let's do it to you first. At least there would be some justice there.
It would only work if you take his potty pail away. As long as he shits, he will have something to eat.
I will not lie down.
I will not go quietly.

User avatar
bannination
Captain
Posts: 5502
Joined: Sun Sep 16, 2012 7:58 am
Location: Hendersonville
Contact:

Re: Hunger Strike at Guantánamo

Unread post by bannination »

Vrede wrote: Yeah, those military commissions are just going great. :roll: Why are cons so wasteful with our money?
Well, in the cons defense, they'd just shoot all those potentially innocent people and be done with it.

Not have a conscience sometimes has it's benefits.
:think:

User avatar
Nihilo
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2013 4:09 pm

Re: Hunger Strike at Guantánamo

Unread post by Nihilo »

We are better than this.

I have little sympathy for any at Gitmo who are proven terrorists, but we must always remember that if these individuals
can be perpetually detained without due process in a country founded on freedom, no one is really safe from such a fate.

Remember the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act of 2013, authored by both parties and signed by Obama?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/1 ... 26225.html

User avatar
Vrede too
Superstar Cultmaster
Posts: 50649
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Hendersonville, NC

Re: Hunger Strike at Guantánamo

Unread post by Vrede too »

Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

User avatar
Vrede too
Superstar Cultmaster
Posts: 50649
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Hendersonville, NC

Re: Hunger Strike at Guantánamo

Unread post by Vrede too »

Gitmo Judge Convicts U.S. General—Because He Stood Up for Detainee Rights
Brigadier General John Baker protested the government’s surveillance of Guantanamo Bay defense lawyers. And that got him sentenced to 21 days in confinement.


The Guantanamo Bay military tribunals on Wednesday won their first conviction without a plea deal since 2008. Only it wasn’t a terrorist who was convicted – it was a one-star Marine general sticking up for the rights of the accused to have a fair trial.

In defending the principle that attorneys ought to be able to defend their clients free from government surveillance, Brigadier General John Baker was ruled in contempt of court and sentenced to 21 days in confinement. He also must pay a $1000 fine....

Earlier this month, three civilian attorneys for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the accused bomber of the USS Cole in 2000, abruptly quit the death-penalty case. The attorneys said that they had significant reason to believe the government was listening in to their communications. Spath, the judge in the Nashiri case, barred them from discussing the issue with Nashiri, since it was classified. Nashiri had lost his lawyers without ever knowing exactly why....
That's messed up by any definition. Meanwhile, the federal courts are doing fine at trying terrorists.
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

User avatar
Vrede too
Superstar Cultmaster
Posts: 50649
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Hendersonville, NC

Re: Hunger Strike at Guantánamo

Unread post by Vrede too »

Image

16 Years of US Prison Imperialism and Torture in Guantanamo Bay

Today, January 11th, 2018 marks the 16th year that Guantanamo Bay prison has existed to house an exclusive population of Muslim males under the so-called War on Terror. The prison is also is illegally occupying Cuban soil, making it doubly problematic. Similar to other models of US inspired or driven incarceration in Latin America, the prison has been a site of massive violations of human rights, including torture.

As a continent that has become accustomed to US intervention in the form of exploitation, incarceration, and torture, Guantanamo Bay is yet another example in Latin America of the US exporting its violence to other countries - what some call prison imperialism.

In the War on Terror, this prison exists at the intersection of the exploitation of Latin America and Islamophobia - a system of oppression that has criminalized and demonized Muslims across the world. Guantanamo is a prison that has stood for the principle of innocent until proven Muslim. The prison currently houses 41 prisoners, some who have been cleared for release and others who have been waiting over a decade for some semblance of justice.

SOA Watch joins the coalition of groups who are fighting to close the prison, to end torture, and to dismantle Islamophobia. SOA Watch also calls for an immediate cessation of US intervention in Latin America and the restoration of Cuban land that has been dirtied by the crimes of the US government. Today, we fight back against state violence in Latin America and in particular, that which is directed at our Muslim brothers.

Join SOA Watch today (1/11/18) in Washington, D.C. at 11:30 A.M for a rally to close Guantanamo and stop torture. If you are not in the DC area, look for events and actions in your own community. Also, please tweet #closegitmo and #stoptorture throughout the day to register your opposition to the prison and the use of torture.
Happy anniversary. :roll:
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

User avatar
Vrede too
Superstar Cultmaster
Posts: 50649
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Hendersonville, NC

Re: Hunger Strike at Guantánamo

Unread post by Vrede too »

Open 6002 days now. :(
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

User avatar
Vrede too
Superstar Cultmaster
Posts: 50649
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Hendersonville, NC

Re: Hunger Strike at Guantánamo

Unread post by Vrede too »

January 11, 2019 was the 17th anniversary of the first detainees arriving at Guantánamo Bay. :( :x

There may even be some who have children they've never seen that will soon be adults.
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

User avatar
Vrede too
Superstar Cultmaster
Posts: 50649
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Hendersonville, NC

Re: Hunger Strike at Guantánamo

Unread post by Vrede too »

Image

Could YOU pass the test to leave Guantánamo?

Indefinitely held without charge or trial, Guantánamo detainees must pass a Periodic Review Board (PRB) hearing to be cleared for release.

In this quiz, we put you in the shoes of a Guantánamo detainee at a PRB hearing. 17 years ago, you were kidnapped, tortured, and rendered to Guantánamo. Despite not being charged with any crimes, you still must pass a PRB to prove you’re “no longer a threat”.

Although it sounds simple enough, you might find that – faced with a series of bizarre and arbitrary questions – the reality is far from straightforward.

Do you think that you can pass the test to leave Guantánamo?
Just 12 questions. Imagining that I am a Gitmo detainee I tried to answer honestly each time I first saw a question. After that, I gave the 2nd most honest answer and so on until I passed the question.

First attempt:
"Uh oh: You've failed your review!"
Spoiler:
Not watching TV, and specifically American TV shows, can lead to you being labelled as having an “insufficiently changed mindset” and failing the review.
Second attempt:
"Uh oh: You've failed your review!"
Spoiler:
Guantánamo detainees are expected to give lengthy descriptions of exactly what job you will do when you leave Guantánamo – even though you don’t know what country you are going to and have been out of the workforce for years. Your next PRB hearing will be in two years – better luck next time!
Third attempt:
"Uh oh: You've failed your review!"
Spoiler:
Sorry! The US government can determine it’s too dangerous to return you to countries where locals are critical of US foreign policy. Your next PRB hearing is in two years. Better luck next time!
Fourth attempt:
"Uh oh: You've failed your review!"
Spoiler:
Sorry! If you do not discuss complex and highly technical questions about the political situation in your country, the board can claim that it cannot determine if you have renounced extremism. Your next PRB hearing is in two years. Better luck next time!
Crap.

Fifth attempt:
"Uh oh: You've failed your review!"
Spoiler:
Sorry: challenging the evidence against you at a PRB will nearly always guarantee that the Board determine you to be “lacking candor” and you will fail the review. This often means the only way for most to leave Guantánamo is to falsely confess to crimes you did not commit. You can try again at your next PRB hearing in two years – better luck next time!
Sixth attempt:
Spoiler:
Ah, so you admit that you were involved in War on Terror? We will pass that confession on to the Department of Justice to keep in your permanent legal file.
But I didn't fail the question!

Next question:
"Uh oh: You've failed your review!"
Spoiler:
Sorry, complaining about ill-treatment at Guantánamo can lead to you being labelled "non-compliant" and failing your PRB. You can try again at your next PRB hearing in two years – better luck next time!
Seventh attempt:
"Uh oh: You've failed your review!"
Spoiler:
Sorry: challenging the evidence against you at a PRB will nearly always guarantee that the Board determine you to be “lacking candor” and you will fail the review. This often means the only way for most to leave Guantánamo is to falsely confess to crimes you did not commit. You can try again at your next PRB hearing in two years – better luck next time!
Sheesh!

Eighth attempt:
"Uh oh: You've failed your review!"
Spoiler:
Sorry – complaining about your treatment or justifying peaceful protest can see you labelled as “non-compliant” and failing the review. You can try again at your next PRB hearing in two years – better luck next time!
Ninth attempt:
"Uh oh: You've failed your review!"
Spoiler:
Sorry – participating in further peaceful protests can see you labelled as “non-compliant” and failing the review. You can try again at your next PRB hearing in two years – better luck next time!
Tenth attempt:
Spoiler:
Uh oh – changing your behaviour, even at the request of the Board, isn’t always going to lead to freedom.

Without pointing to any evidence, the Board can rule that your behaviour change was “an attempt to obtain transfer eligibility rather than due to a genuine change in mindset”, and can actually be used against you.
But I didn't fail the question!
Well done! You've managed to pass your PRB. Unfortunately, there's a catch....

Donald Trump has announced that no men should ever leave Guantánamo – even those cleared for release. Five men right now have been unanimously cleared for release by all six government agencies – including the CIA, FBI and Department for Defense – and still cannot return home to their families.

PRB hearings are a rigged process – detainees at Guantánamo should either be charged and receive fair trials or be released.
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

User avatar
neoplacebo
Admiral of the Fleet
Posts: 11886
Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2012 1:42 pm
Location: Kingsport TN

Re: Hunger Strike at Guantánamo

Unread post by neoplacebo »

I missed the first question twice; then assumed my former military mindset and got five or six correct then fouled up on the question about my friends in Belgium.......guess I don't get out

I remember reading something a few months ago about there were half a dozen who were cleared for release but could not be released because no country would accept them, or their home country wouldn't accept them....can't remember the details.....not even sure if it was true.

User avatar
Vrede too
Superstar Cultmaster
Posts: 50649
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Hendersonville, NC

Re: Hunger Strike at Guantánamo

Unread post by Vrede too »

Yeah, it would have taken me fewer attempts if I was trying to pass rather than trying to be honest.
neoplacebo wrote:
Thu Feb 21, 2019 3:03 pm
... I remember reading something a few months ago about there were half a dozen who were cleared for release but could not be released because no country would accept them, or their home country wouldn't accept them....can't remember the details.....not even sure if it was true.
That has been true in the past. I don't think it applies to the group that Reprieve is discussing here, but am not 100% sure.
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

User avatar
billy.pilgrim
Admiral
Posts: 15618
Joined: Wed Oct 10, 2012 1:44 pm

Re: Hunger Strike at Guantánamo

Unread post by billy.pilgrim »

I imagine most at Auburn cheered this lowlife piece of shit, but there were 2 who didn't. I am surprised.

http://www.wsfa.com/2019/04/18/cia-dire ... -outburst/

Langdon Hall now has another badge of shame.
Birth of a Nation had its southern premier at Langdon and now the piece of trash, Gina Haskill, had her intelligence officials do a Q&A there - of course we don't torture, only positive questions will be answered, all other questioner will be escorted out of the Hall.
Trump: “We had the safest border in the history of our country - or at least recorded history. I guess maybe a thousand years ago it was even better.”

User avatar
Vrede too
Superstar Cultmaster
Posts: 50649
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Hendersonville, NC

Re: Hunger Strike at Guantánamo

Unread post by Vrede too »

Department of Defense Boeing 737 plane skids off Florida runway into the water; 21 taken to hospital

A Department of Defense plane from Guantanamo Bay skidded off a runway into shallow water in Jacksonville, Florida, late Friday
Karmic waterboarding.
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

User avatar
Vrede too
Superstar Cultmaster
Posts: 50649
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Hendersonville, NC

Re: Hunger Strike at Guantánamo

Unread post by Vrede too »

Or, the universe responsed rapidly to this revelation:

Trump Reportedly Considered Detaining Kids at Guantánamo
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

User avatar
Vrede too
Superstar Cultmaster
Posts: 50649
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Hendersonville, NC

Re: Hunger Strike at Guantánamo

Unread post by Vrede too »

Collapse of USS Cole Bombing Case Marks Another Failure for Guantánamo’s Military Courts

A protracted legal saga at Guantánamo Bay ended last month, when a federal court tossed out two years of rulings by the judge overseeing the military tribunal trial of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged leader of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole. The ruling was a rare rebuke, as federal courts have largely deferred to the government on matters relating to Guantánamo in recent years.

Though a victory for Nashiri’s lawyers, the ruling also means an indefinite future for the case against Nashiri, who has been in U.S. custody since 2002. There are clear, viable routes to resolving the case and its fraught history — but they involve moving the case from Guantánamo. This prospect usually founders on the question of political will, which has been missing for nearly a decade.

“The ruling shows that the military commissions system, from top to bottom, is flawed,” Rick Kammen, Nashiri’s former death penalty counsel, told The Intercept. “This case would be dismissed in a rational world.” But with little interest from politicians or the public, it seems that the commissions will continue to lurch along, with little prospect of justice for the victims and survivors of the Cole bombing, and little accountability for the government.

On April 16, the D.C. Circuit Court issued a unanimous ruling vacating the orders of Air Force Col. Vance Spath, the presiding judge on Nashiri’s case since 2015, because he failed to disclose that he was seeking a job as an immigration judge with the Justice Department — the very same body involved in prosecuting Nashiri....
Meanwhile, the federal courts have convicted scores of terrorists. Cons love wasting our money on their dogma.
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

User avatar
Vrede too
Superstar Cultmaster
Posts: 50649
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Hendersonville, NC

Re: Hunger Strike at Guantánamo

Unread post by Vrede too »

http://www.blueridgedebate.com/forum/vi ... ure#p98199
Vrede too wrote:
Fri Jun 28, 2019 7:44 am
Not that many years ago much of the country was horrified to learn that we'd become a direct torture state, covertly abusing scores of mostly adult enemy combatants and innocents. We lamented how far our nation had sunk into evil immorality. Then, we probably stopped the direct barbarity and reverted to our decades old practice of fostering client torture states, instead, while choosing not to prosecute any of our American torturers. Not great by any means, but it did feel like we'd pulled back from the abyss.

Now, we openly kidnap and abuse thousands of children, and neither they nor their parents are even enemies.

We suck.
We only sort of "stopped the direct barbarity".
Image
https://www.cvt.org/DeprivationandDespair

A new report by the Center for Victims of Torture and Physicians for Human Rights reveals that the experiences of detainees and independent civilian medical experts with medical care at the Guantánamo Bay detention center not only broadly refute the claim that detainees receive care equivalent to that of U.S. service members, but also evidence specific violations of the Nelson Mandela Rules, the universally recognized UN standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners, which the United States has championed.

Guantánamo should be closed. Unless and until that happens, the Center for Victims of Torture and Physicians for Human Rights call upon Congress, the executive branch, and the courts to adopt a series of recommendations aimed at meaningfully improving the status quo.

Read our report now.

Access the social media toolkit, read the executive summary, and learn more about what medical experts are saying.
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

User avatar
Vrede too
Superstar Cultmaster
Posts: 50649
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Hendersonville, NC

Guantánamo

Unread post by Vrede too »

The Cost of Running Guantánamo Bay: $13 Million Per Prisoner (per year)
Set up nearly 18 years ago to house detainees in the war on terrorism, the prison on the remote naval base has grown into what appears to be the most expensive on earth.


Holding the Nazi war criminal Rudolf Hess as the lone prisoner in Germany’s Spandau Prison in 1985 cost an estimated $1.5 million in today’s dollars. The per-prisoner bill in 2012 at the “supermax” facility in Colorado, home to some of the highest-risk prisoners in the United States, was $78,000.

Then there is Guantánamo Bay, where the expense now works out to about $13 million for each of the 40 prisoners being held there.

According to a tally by The New York Times, the total cost last year of holding the prisoners — including the men accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — paying for the troops who guard them, running the war court and doing related construction, exceeded $540 million....

Because of the relative isolation of its location on a United States Navy base on Cuba’s southeast coast, the military assigns around 1,800 troops to the detention center, or 45 for each prisoner....

The estimated annual cost of $540 million covers the 12-month period that ended last Sept. 30 and does not include expenses that have remained classified, presumably including a continued C.I.A. presence....

The 2013 report put the total cost of building and operating the prison since 2002 at $5.2 billion through 2014, a figure that now appears to have risen to past $7 billion.

Guantánamo Bay, said Capt. Brian L. Mizer, a Navy lawyer who has represented detainees at the prison across a decade, has “America’s tiniest boutique prison, reserved exclusively for alleged geriatric jihadists.” ...
:roll: :confusion-scratchheadblue:

My guess: A program giving the accused $1M each per year, with strict monitoring, would see almost none of them returning to terrorism, if they were even terrorists in the first place.
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

Post Reply