onsdag den 5. september 2007

New York Times leder: Abu Ghraib fejes under gulvtæppet

For en uge siden kunne man i en leder i New York Times læse at man redaktionens side ikke godtager Bush-administrationens udtalelser om at handlingerne der foretoges mod de indsatte i fængslet, ikke var forbundne hændelser, men foretaget af sociopater.

I stedet mener man fra NYTimes redaktionelle hold at:

"The abuses grew out of President Bush’s decision to ignore the Geneva Conventions and American law in handling prisoners after Sept. 11, 2001."

"Abusive interrogations, many of them amounting to torture, were first developed for Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, after Mr. Bush declared that international and American law did not protect members of Taliban or Al Qaeda, or any other foreigner he chose to designate as an “unlawful enemy combatant.” Once the signal was sent that prisoners in the “war on terror” were not entitled to decent treatment, cynical lawyers, including Alberto Gonzales, who was then the White House counsel, conjured up perverse legal arguments to ensure that the jailers’ bosses would not be prosecuted for abusing them. The techniques and attitudes developed in Guantánamo Bay were exported to Afghanistan, and then to Iraq."

"Pentagon officials say they have learned the bitter lessons of Abu Ghraib, but their civilian bosses clearly have not. The Military Commissions Act of 2006 did not provide adequate protection to military prisoners, and it gave the Central Intelligence Agency carte blanche to run overseas prisons to which anonymous men are sent for indefinite detention and abuse. In July, Mr. Bush issued an executive order reaffirming his policy of ignoring the Geneva Conventions when he chooses, and approving abusive interrogations at C.I.A. prisons."

kilde: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/30/opinion/30thu1.html

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