Have we finished construction of the prisoner camp well enough that all the "detainees" will be safe?
Are there plans to evacuate the detainees if not?
What would be the political outcome if some died in the storm, drowning in their open cells, or crushed under a collapsed prison wall?
What is the US Government's moral responsibility to such a situation?
Since the Government is the one that chose to consider these people as neither crimminals or prisoners of war, just captives to be held until we win the war on "terror" (which the President once admitted, could never be completly won), are we responsible for their safety?
Why hasn't anyone in the press asked these question?
posted
Pooka, no. Godwins law would be invoked only if I were to be as tasteless as to call the Guantanamo detention center "Auschwitz Isle" Since we are not exterminating any of the detainees, I would not do that.
Nor would I compare Rumsfeld to Goering or Bush with Hitler. Anyone who does so not only insults these people, but they belittle those who stood against the Nazi Regime.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
Gulag's were Russian internment camps where anyone who disagreed with the government were sent. While it is an exageration to call our detainee camp in Guantanamo a Gulag (there is no forced labor or Siberean winters to survive) there are some simularities.
1) Detention Camps that were neither for crimminals nor prisoners of war.
2) Sentences were at the whim of the government.
3) There were not trials to get in and no appeals to attempt to get out.
4) Besides the barbed wire and men with guns, there were great natural barriers between the detainees and the outside world. This kept the prisoners in, and the press out.
5) Those detained were considered a threat to the state.
6) Those detained were kept from communicating with their families, lawyers, or associates outside the camp, and very limited in what they could do inside the camp.
7) A heavy emphasis is placed on "Breaking" the detainees.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
Yes, but a Gulag would tend to be for oppressed citizens of one's own country. My understanding is that most of the men in Guantanamo are from Afghanistan, where we are still fighting. Hence my stronger association with Hogan's Heroes.
I don't disagree that our treatment of these detainees has been un-American. At least the American I learned about in school :cue violin music: I'm poking fun at myself only. Guantanamo is something to be ashamed of, but it is not Stalinistic.
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posted
It looks like Guantanomo is going to catch the fringes - shouldn't be a problem unless the storm does something very strange and veers West-Northwest.
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