Text: President Bush's News Conference
Q: Mr. President, former Secretary of State Colin Powell says the world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism. If a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former secretary of state feels this way, don't you think that Americans and the rest of the world are beginning to wonder whether you're following a flawed strategy?
BUSH: If there's any comparison between the compassion and decency of the American people and the terrorist tactics of extremists, it's flawed logic...
...It's unacceptable to think that there's any kind of comparison between the behavior of the United States of America and the action of Islamic extremists who kill innocent women and children to achieve an objective...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-6083135,00.html
What rights should POW's have?
American POW
American POW
Bush: "...comparison between the compassion and decency of the American people and the terrorist tactics of extremists..."
UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS EXPERTS EXPRESS CONTINUED CONCERN ABOUT SITUATION OF GUANTANAMO BAY DETAINEES
4/2/2005
...“In January 2005 the detention centre at the United States Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay entered into its fourth year of existence, and many of the inmates are completing their third year of virtually incommunicado detention, without legal assistance or information as to the expected duration of their detention, and in conditions of detention that, according to numerous observers, amount to inhuman and degrading treatment...
...(a) Both the international armed conflict in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq have been over for more than 18 months now. The Third Geneva Convention, dealing with prisoners of war, mandates that any prisoner of war must be released “without delay after the end of hostilities”. The legal basis for the continued detention of the GuantánamoBay inmates is therefore unclear. In any event, many of them were arrested in countries which were not parties to any armed conflict involving the United States of America;
(b) The lack of clarity concerning the legal basis on which the Guantánamo detainees are deprived of their freedom also means that both the detainees and their families are in a state of uncertainty regarding the remaining duration of the detention;
(c) The exact number and the names of the persons detained at GuantánamoBay continue to be unknown. This situation is extremely disconcerting and is conducive to the unacknowledged transfer of inmates to other, often secret, detention facilities, whether run by the United States or by other countries. This situation is of particular concern to the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances;
(d) Concerns have been voiced regarding the independence of both the Combatant Status Review Tribunals and the Administrative Review Board, and with respect to the fairness of the proceedings before them. In particular, most detainees do not have access to legal counsel, and much of the evidence on which the decision to detain them is based is not disclosed to them;
(e) The need to objectively assess the allegations of torture, and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, particularly in relation to methods of interrogation of detainees, that have been brought to the attention of the Special Rapporteur on torture;
(f) The conditions of detention, especially of those in solitary confinement, place the detainees at significant risk of psychiatric deterioration, possibly including the development of irreversible psychiatric symptoms;
(g) Most detainees do not know whether the United States Government intends to raise criminal charges against them or not. The procedural rules governing the Military Commissions set up to try those detainees who will face criminal charges raise misgivings similar to those voiced with regard to the Combatant Status Review Tribunals: doubts regarding the actual independence of the Commissions, and concerning the fairness in the respective positions (or “equality of position”) between prosecution and defence, in particular with regard to access to evidence. Moreover, the mandate holders recall that where the conditions of detention are such as to subject a defendant to inhuman or degrading treatment, or to otherwise gravely weaken him physically and psychologically, equality is compromised and any imprisonment upon conviction tainted with arbitrariness...
http://www.un.org/news/Press/docs/2005/hr4812.doc.htm
Bush: "...extremists who kill innocent women and children to achieve an objective..."
Iraqi Women Under Occupation
By Ghali Hassan
09 May, 2005
...U.S. aerial bombing and destruction caused the death of great numbers of women and children. In November 2004, the reputable British medical journal, the Lancet, reported that from March 2003 to October 2004, U.S. forces have killed more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians. The number of Iraqis killed is increasing daily. The Lancet authors acknowledge that most of the victims were innocent women and children killed by U.S. bombing of population centres....
http://www.countercurrents.org/iraq-hassan090505.htm
REPUBLIC OF IRAQ
2006 Amnesty International Annual Report
Both the US-led Multinational Force (MNF) and Iraqi security forces committed grave human rights violations, including torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary detention without charge or trial, and excessive use of force resulting in civilian deaths. Armed groups fighting against the MNF and the Iraqi government were responsible for grave human rights abuses, including the deliberate killing of thousands of civilians in bomb and other attacks, hostage-taking and torture. Dozens of people were sentenced to death by criminal courts and at least three were executed. Former President Saddam Hussain and seven others were brought to trial. Women and girls continued to be harassed and lived in fear as a result of the continuing lack of security...
http://web.amnesty.org/report2006/irq-summary-eng
Torture and ill-treatment
There was evidence of widespread torture and ill-treatment by the Iraqi security forces. Methods of torture included hanging by the arms, burning with cigarettes, beatings, the use of electric shocks on different parts of the body, strangulation, the breaking of limbs and sexual abuse. Torture and ill-treatment were reported in secret detention centres, police stations and official detention centres in different parts of the country as well as in buildings in Baghdad under the control of the Interior Ministry.
In February, three alleged members of the Badr Organization died in custody after being arrested by Iraqi police at a police checkpoint. The bodies of the three men, Majbal ‘Adnan Latif, his brother ‘Ali ‘Adnan Latif, and ‘Aidi Mahassin Lifteh, were found three days later, bearing marks of beatings and electric shocks.
In February, a 46-year-old housewife from Mosul, Khalida Zakiya, was shown on the Iraqi TV programme “Terrorism in the Grip of Justice” alleging that she had supported an armed group. However, she later stated that she had been coerced into making a false confession. She reported that during her detention by Interior Ministry forces she had been whipped with a cable and threatened with sexual abuse.
In July, 12 men were detained by the Iraqi police in Baghdad’s al-‘Amirya district. Nine of the 12 suffocated to death after being confined in a police van. The Iraqi authorities suggested that the 12 were members of an armed group who had engaged in an exchange of fire with US or Iraqi forces. However, other sources claimed they were a group of bricklayers who were arrested as suspected insurgents and then tortured by police commandos before being confined in a police van in extremely high temperatures for up to 14 hours. Medical staff at the Yarmouk hospital in Baghdad, where the bodies of those who died were taken on 11 July, were reported to have confirmed that some of them bore signs of torture, including electric shocks.
In November, US forces announced that they had found 173 detainees confined secretly in a building controlled by the Interior Ministry. Many had been tortured, ill-treated and were malnourished. Shortly thereafter, the Iraqi government launched an investigation into these and other allegations of torture.
There were also reports that the MNF tortured or ill-treated detainees.
In September, several members of the US National Guard’s 184th Infantry Regiment were sentenced to prison terms in connection with torture or ill-treatment of Iraqis. The detainees had reportedly been arrested in March following an attack on a power plant near Baghdad. According to media reports, an electric stun gun had been used on handcuffed and blindfolded detainees...
http://web.amnesty.org/report2006/irq-summary-eng#4