Today’s Washington Post is a must-read if you want to understand why America’s reputation as a defender of human rights is in shreds.
hold prisoners in such isolation in secret prisons in the United
States, which is why the CIA placed them overseas, according to several
former and current intelligence officials and other U.S. government
officials. Legal experts and intelligence officials said that the CIA’s
internment practices also would be considered illegal under the laws of
several host countries, where detainees have rights to have a lawyer or
to mount a defense against allegations of wrongdoing.
Host countries have signed the U.N. Convention Against Torture and
Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, as has the
United States. Yet CIA interrogators in the overseas sites are
permitted to use the CIA’s approved "Enhanced Interrogation
Techniques," some of which are prohibited by the U.N. convention and by
U.S. military law. They include tactics such as "waterboarding," in
which a prisoner is made to believe he or she is drowning.
Some detainees apprehended by the CIA and transferred to foreign
intelligence agencies have alleged after their release that they were
tortured, although it is unclear whether CIA personnel played a role in
the alleged abuse. Given the secrecy surrounding CIA detentions, such
accusations have heightened concerns among foreign governments and
human rights groups about CIA detention and interrogation practices.
Keep in mind how many of the people have turned out to be innocent.
Check out this report on two guys who were among what Rumsfeld called
"the worst of the worst" — recently released after three years in Guantanamo simply for writing a misunderstood piece of satire.
Incidentally, UN human rights investigators want to talk with the remaining Gitmo prisoners. Rumsfeld told them, basically, to screw themselves.
The longer these people are in power, the more enemies we will have.