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Guantanamo 'better than Belgian jails'
Herald Sun ^ | 7 March 2006

Posted on 03/06/2006 2:43:58 PM PST by Aussie Dasher

INMATES at Guantanamo Bay prison are treated better than in Belgian jails, an expert for Europe's biggest security organisation said today after a visit to the controversial US detention centre in Cuba.

But Alain Grignard, deputy head of Brussels' federal police anti-terrorism unit, said holding people for many years without telling them what would happen to them is in itself "mental torture".

"At the level of the detention facilities, it is a model prison, where people are better treated than in Belgian prisons," said Mr Grignard.

He served as expert on a visit to Guantanamo Bay last week by a group of politicians from the assembly of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Mr Grignard's comments came less than a month after a UN report said Guantanamo prison detainees faced treatment amounting to torture.

Many of the 500 inmates in the prison at the US naval base in Cuba have been held for four years without trial. The prisoners were mainly detained in Afghanistan and are held as pat of President George W. Bush's "war on terror".

Mr Grignard told a news conference prisoners' right to practice their religion, food, clothes and medical care were better than in Belgian prisons.

"I know no Belgian prison where each inmate receives its Muslim kit," Mr Grignard said.

Mr Grignard said Guantanamo was not "idyllic", but he had noticed dramatic improvements each time he visited the facility over the past two years.

The head of the OSCE lawmakers in the delegation said she was happy with the medical facilities at the camp, adding she believed they had been improved recently.

Anne-Marie Lizin, chair of the Belgian Senate, told reporters at the same news conference she saw no point in calling for immediate closure of the detention camp.

"There needs to be a timetable for closure," said Ms Lizin, but asking for immediate closure would have been unrealistic.

UN investigators last month demanded that the US government close the prison without further delay, alleging a host of violations of human rights and torture.

They did not visit the site because they were not allowed to conduct interviews with prisoners.

Ms Lizin said the OSCE parliamentary delegation was also unable to talk to prisoners but had discussed the situation with the International Red Cross, which has access to them.

The OSCE plans to prepare a report by the end of May, touching on the delegation's concerns including the legal situation of detainees, Ms Lizin said.

The US is a member of the 55-country OSCE.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: belgium; campxray; clubgitmo; guantanamobay; jails
How does AI like them apples???
1 posted on 03/06/2006 2:44:02 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
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To: Aussie Dasher
"There needs to be a timetable for closure," said Ms Lizin, but asking for immediate closure would have been unrealistic.

There is a timetable.

They will all be released a few years after the war on terrorism is concluded.

They should be about 350 years young by then.

2 posted on 03/06/2006 2:46:38 PM PST by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: Aussie Dasher; Coop; Dog; Pukin Dog; Darksheare; stephenjohnbanker; Lady Jag
But Alain Grignard, deputy head of Brussels' federal police anti-terrorism unit, said holding people for many years without telling them what would happen to them is in itself "mental torture".

I got yer mental torture right here....


3 posted on 03/06/2006 3:16:04 PM PST by StarCMC (Old Sarge is my hero...doing it right in Iraq! Vaya con Dios, Sarge.)
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To: StarCMC
http://www.GlitterMaker.com/ - Glitter Graphics
4 posted on 03/06/2006 3:18:10 PM PST by StarCMC (Old Sarge is my hero...doing it right in Iraq! Vaya con Dios, Sarge.)
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To: StarCMC; Aussie Dasher; Coop; Dog; Pukin Dog; Darksheare; stephenjohnbanker
The Truth #1



The truth #2



ETC.




5 posted on 03/06/2006 3:30:24 PM PST by Lady Jag ( All I want is a kind word, a warm bed, and world domination)
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To: Lady Jag

LOL!!!! The first one is more true than ANY of the media will admit!!!


6 posted on 03/06/2006 3:31:53 PM PST by StarCMC (Old Sarge is my hero...doing it right in Iraq! Vaya con Dios, Sarge.)
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To: Aussie Dasher

"How does AI like them apples???"

Sounds like we need an investigation into human rights abuses in Belgium prisons (snicker).


7 posted on 03/06/2006 3:31:58 PM PST by Owl558 (Pardon my spelling)
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To: StarCMC

Spread it around.


8 posted on 03/06/2006 3:35:13 PM PST by Lady Jag ( All I want is a kind word, a warm bed, and world domination)
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To: Aussie Dasher
But Alain Grignard, deputy head of Brussels' federal police anti-terrorism unit, said holding people for many years without telling them what would happen to them is in itself "mental torture".

In other words, despite all of the hyperventilating, there is no torture at Guantanamo, and there has not been any torture either. Therefore it is necessary for people like me to invent a new meaning for the word "torture" so that we can continue to accuse the United States government of using torture.

9 posted on 03/06/2006 3:58:39 PM PST by Zeppo
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To: Aussie Dasher

Gitmo is the gulag. Dick Durbin says so.


10 posted on 03/06/2006 4:01:18 PM PST by popdonnelly
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To: Aussie Dasher

Everyone at Gitmo enjoys better treatment than George Clooney's housekeeper or Baba Streisand's gardener.... of that I am reasonably confident!! Oh, except for the small matter of confinement behind bars, but hey, we're keeping these Islamo-fascists from getting themselves killed! Since they wouldn't really receive "72 virgins" but only "72 raisins" (there was an article awhile back about how the Koranic word really referred to white raisins, not virgins) we are doing them a huge favor by keeping them alive and feeding them 3 square meals a day in a tropical paradise..........

The comparison I would really like to see made by some leading commentators and pols is between the SMALL prison camp on the tip of Cuba called Gitmo and the HUGE prison camp that is Castro's Cuba, with 10 million or so inmates. All the Euro-twit "human rights" agitators ought to be raising hell about Castro's imprisonment and abuse of millions of innocent people instead of the US imprisonment and non-abuse of 500 or so TERRORISTS.


11 posted on 03/06/2006 4:09:49 PM PST by Enchante (Democrats: "We are ALL broken and worn out, our party & ideas, what else is new?")
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To: Lady Jag
RE: "Truth #1"


12 posted on 03/06/2006 10:11:42 PM PST by Seadog Bytes (OPM - The Liberal 'solution' to every societal problem. (...Other People's Money))
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To: Aussie Dasher; StarCMC; Boot Hill; AdmSmith; jmc1969; Cap Huff; Wiz; GOPJ; Ernest_at_the_Beach; ...
"There needs to be a timetable for closure," said Ms Lizin, but asking for immediate closure would have been unrealistic.

Sounds good. I propose the following timetable:


13 posted on 03/07/2006 5:05:54 AM PST by Coop (FR= a lotta talk, but little action)
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To: Coop

Works for me! I applaud you for putting so much thought into this schedule. You have really outdone yourself and I can't think of one thing you have left out!!

*G*


14 posted on 03/07/2006 5:17:40 AM PST by StarCMC (Old Sarge is my hero...doing it right in Iraq! Vaya con Dios, Sarge.)
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To: StarCMC

Consider it a labor of love. :)


15 posted on 03/07/2006 5:42:05 AM PST by Coop (FR= a lotta talk, but little action)
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To: Coop

He he he!!


16 posted on 03/07/2006 5:52:45 AM PST by StarCMC (Old Sarge is my hero...doing it right in Iraq! Vaya con Dios, Sarge.)
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To: Aussie Dasher

Old but interesting BUMP!


17 posted on 07/10/2006 1:07:44 PM PDT by Publius6961 (Multiculturalism is the white flag of a dying country)
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