 | British Soldiers in Iran Expose Guantanamo Sham |
After they were released from Iranian custody, 15 British soldiers contradicted their earlier televised confessions of having entered Iranian territory. The Los Angeles Times reports that the soldiers claim to have been forced to make false confessions by the Iranians because they were “blindfolded and threatened” while held prisoner over a two-week period.
Keep in mind that the British prisoners are professional soldiers who are trained to be tough. If these professionals were forced so easily to make false confessions just by being blindfolded and talked to roughly in a brief period of imprisonment, how warped and twisted must the confessions be of prisoners who are subjected to even harsher treatment, over years of imprisonment?
The experience of the 15 British soldiers in Iran exposes the brutal folly of the American system of secret torture prisons at Guantanamo Bay and around the world. These prisons, and the testimony coerced by torture that they produce, have been made legal by the Military Commissions Act, which strips away habeas corpus, the right to a fair and speedy trial, repeals enforcement of the Geneva Conventions, and makes torture legal.
Because of the Military Commissions Act, we now are seeing people put through show trials in kangaroo courts where the proceedings are secret and confessions forced through torture are allowed as testimony. The sham trials allowed under the Military Commissions Act are really no better than the Salem Witch Trials.
The twisting of 15 British soldiers under coercive treatment much milder than the techniques used by the American government at places like Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib exposes the depravity of the military tribunals being conducted by the Bush Administration. Progressive recognize the disturbing connection. Right wingers pretend that it doesn’t exist and continue to insist on one set of legal standards for the United States and its allies, and another legal standard for everyone else.
Please, contact your U.S. senators and your representative in the U.S. House. Urge them to co-sponsor and vote for S. 576 and H.R. 1415, the Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007, which repeals most of the worst aspects of the Military Commissions Act.
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You are evidently insane. As a former U.S. Marine officer, I take offense at your basic stance, and consider you an uneducated and basically useless individual. By the way, you may wish to go back to school and learn how to type, spell, and deal with grammar. Not to mention content.
Comment by Richard — 5/21/2007 @ 4:58 pm
Any particular points to make? Any actual evidence/proof contradicting him? No? Then sit down and shut up.
Comment by The Animist — 5/21/2007 @ 6:30 pm
I don’t see anything wrong with jClifford’s spelling or grammar–I suspect it’s the content that has Richard in a tizzy. But I don’t think telling him to “sit down and shut up” is any more appropriate than calling jClifford “insane and useless”.
We’re going to be seeing more and more former soldiers who come back upset but have a hard time articulating the problem or adjusting to civilian life.
Comment by Iroquois Honky — 5/21/2007 @ 10:42 pm
The soldiers underwent dummy/mock executions, which are recognised as one of the more severe forms of mental torture. check out the numerous sites on the web that specialise in torture and the rehab of victims. There is nothing insiginificant about what the British soldiers went through. Check the facts before you belittle ANYONE’S suffering. However, I agree with your points in general. There are too many people in denial despite vast amounts of evidence exposing torture under U.S governance.
Comment by Nic — 5/15/2008 @ 5:43 pm