Human Rights Law

Open Thread: 2,464 Days of Illegal Imprisonment

By Alexa

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it.

While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, urgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war--seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation.

Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.

One of my very favorite speeches in American history, this is from March 4, 1865. The last paragraph especially gives me chills. The power of these words is their truth. The same words could be said in our lifetimes. I remember the first time I read this. It seemed beyond belief, beyond imagination. Now? Not so much.

News from today follows.
From Guantánamo to the United States: The Story of the Wrongly Imprisoned Uighurs by Andy Worthington.

We've had excellent coverage of this story right here at NION by smintheus, Valtin, Gary, possum and Mentarch. For those who want more background on the Uighurs, check out Andy Worthngton's comprehensive summary.

Suspected US missile strike reported in Pakistan (AP), 4 hours ago.

Bombings targeting police killed 10 people and wounded 14 in Pakistan's volatile northwest and the capital on Thursday - vivid reminders of the challenge facing the U.S.-allied country as its lawmakers pursue a national consensus on battling terrorism.

If this is, as I suspect, George W. Bush's final flick of the finger to us, it's lunacy. Yes, I said lunacy. Pissing off Pakistan is reckless and dangerous, but "we" seem very determined to do exactly that. Patricidal behavior (as in la patria, not the first President Bush) isn't in the DSM-IV because well, there ain't but one person who would play with this fire.

Guantanamo techniques applied on US soil - (AP)

"But this is not even Guantanamo. We are talking about creating prisons beyond the law right here in America."

Yes, that's right. Two US citizens, Jose Padilla and Yaser Hamdi, and a legal resident, Ali al-Marri. No tinfoil jokes, please. I think these are not the only three because the Guantanamo techniques (SERE) have been used at a military base in the southern United States as well.

Documents Released by Defense Department Regarding Solitary Military Detention - ACLU.
Is anyone surprised that George W. Bush tried to recreate Guantanamo inside the United States? I remember Mathew Scaleno aka Private Sincere, who allegedly committed suicide at the PTR base in Colorado after a year long hospitalization for a shoulder injury - yes, a rotator cuff tear - and yes, one year in military hospital detention. Mathew Scaleno, por Dias, knew about harsh interrogation and coercive techniques. The way we treat our wounded veterans and active military sometimes isn't much better than the way we treat "enemy noncombatants."

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui's Missing Years - Cage Prisoners.

Siddiqui was unable to explain to the four Pakistani lawmakers, including one of the country's leading lawyers, SM Zafar, where exactly she had been for the last five years. Her sense of time and place appeared to be out of sync. She said she was on her way to the Karachi airport in 2003 with her children when she was taken. She remembers being given an injection and when she came to she was in a cell. She said she was being brainwashed by men who spoke perfect English. They could be Afghan or others. She did not think they were Pakistanis.

She said she was being forced to admit things she had allegedly done. She was made to sign statements, some of which included information on phone calls she was said to have made. She also stated that she had been tortured but she provided no details. She was told by her captors that if she did not co-operate, her children would suffer.

Sound familiar to you?

Her account of the five years she had been missing remained incoherent, unsequenced and extremely vague. Her visitors did not press her hard but they returned unsatisfied with what they had been told. She said she did not know where her children were. Her son, allegedly arrested with her in Ghazni, has since been returned to Pakistan. She was vague about her other two children and it was not clear if they had been with her during her captivity.

This is a riddle inside a mystery. Please continue to watch for news on Dr. Aafia and post here.

Full post as published by Never In Our Names on October 09, 2008 (boomark / email).