Justice Denied: Voices from Guantánamo

November 5, 2009 12:24 PM

Released detainees talk about life during and after their unlawful detention in the video Justice Denied: Voices from Guantánamo which is part of an ACLU initiative against the practice of detention without due process that violates fundamental principles of American justice. (Previously)
posted by gman (7 comments total)

I don't know where to start on how this post (thank you gman! ) disturbs me so profoundly, but here are a couple of questions. First, what has happened since March 2009 when this video was released? And secondly, why on earth would anyone debate water boarding and other practices in terms of whether they are or are not torture if, as these men describe, what went on included deliberate blinding, sexual abuse and rape, and beating at least one prisoner to death/
posted by bearwife at 1:24 PM on November 5, 2009 [1 favorite]

No Legal Remedy for Government-Arranged Torture of Innocent Travelers
posted by homunculus at 1:28 PM on November 5, 2009 [2 favorites]

Guantanamo deserves to go down as one of the darkest pieces of American history, but even in 2009 the media seems too afraid of being called 'weak on terror' to deal with it yet.

I want to believe that the Obama administration is actually dealing with it, rather than scattering the pieces to even more-secret prisons, thus hiding them better. I'd be happier, that is, if the talking points were more about "ending the use of secret prisons" rather than just "closing Guantanamo."

Waterboarding has always been a bit of a shiny distraction, bearwife. The CIA types who designed the Abu Ghraib treatments are the same lot who still sign in to work at Guantanamo today.
posted by rokusan at 2:00 PM on November 5, 2009

The ACLU also has a torture report blog with updates on the situation and PDFs of the documents they've gained from the FOIA.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 2:29 PM on November 5, 2009 [2 favorites]

I know waterboarding isn't all there is, sorry to be unclear. But remember even the ridiculous definition of torture from John Yoo:

Yoo also narrowed the definition of torture so the victim must experience intense pain or suffering equivalent to pain associated with serious physical injury so severe that death, organ failure or permanent damage resulting in loss of significant body functions will likely result

Even under that definition, deliberate blinding and beating a prisoner to death is torture. So there should be no problem with investigating and punshing this conduct, no?
posted by bearwife at 2:33 PM on November 5, 2009

Waterboard Cheney, Gonzales and Yoo until they remember that it is torture.
posted by Jimmy Havok at 8:03 PM on November 5, 2009

It seems as if concern-fatigue has set in. Under Bush, there was widespread discussion among concerned citizens, discussion which went to the heart of what our country stands for, if we continue to tolerate and encourage the use of torture. Today these voices are few and far between. This thread is a perfect example. A handful of comments - under 10, as of this writing. Contrast that with the 300+ comments on waiter etiquette. On the one hand, the torture of bad service, on the other hand, waterboarding. I wonder if we have just accepted torture as part of our SOP, and don't even think we should aspire to anything better. What happened to the American Dream?
posted by VikingSword at 8:44 PM on November 5, 2009