Cuba Attacks Guantanamo Use for Prisoners

Associated Press ^ | Dec 26, 2003 | ANITA SNOW

[optimistically_conservative]

HAVANA - Cuba charged Friday that the U.S. base on the east end of the communist island had become a "concentration camp," deriding its use as a holding center for terrorism suspects.

"In the territory illegally occupied by the Guantanamo Naval Base, hundreds of foreign prisoners are subjected to indescribable humiliations," said a statement released Friday by Cuba's National Assembly.

Cuba has long opposed the presence of the American base, which operates in the eastern part of the island under a treaty signed long before the 1959 revolution that brought Fidel Castro (news - web sites) to power.

But until Friday, Cuba had withheld criticism and even offered the first prisoners medical assistance when they arrived two years ago.

The statement said the prisoners are "totally isolated, without the possibility of communicating with their families or access to appropriate legal defense." It added that "some of the very few who have been freed have narrated the horrors of that concentration camp."

However, U.S. officials have repeatedly argued that the prisoners were being well treated.

"Should our servicemen and women be in the same position, I would hope they would be treated in the same humane manner," Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, commander of the detention mission at Guantanamo, told The Associated Press in an interview earlier this year.

The U.S. government currently holds more than 600 men on the base, detained in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and Pakistan and elsewhere on suspicion of terrorism.

Because they are being held on foreign land, the Bush administration has maintained the men have no rights to the American legal system.

Miller says that the prisoners are treated humanely under many of the principles of the Geneva Conventions. Because the U.S. government has classified the men as "enemy combatants" rather than prisoners of war, they are not entitled to the same protections under the conventions.

[U S Army EOD]

Cuba has been using Cuba as a consentration camp for years, why are they upset now??

[Spruce]

Come kick us out, Fidel.

[Trailerpark Badass]

Cuba's just jealous that the food's better at Camp X-Ray.

[Prime Choice]

Contrary to the claims of the Cuban government and their Useful Idiots, Cuba ain't even close to being a bastion of freedom.

They are in no position to point out the mote in our use of Guantanamo Bay until they tend to the beam in their own nation.

In short, shove it up your anal orifice sideways, Mr. Castro.

[Jackson Brown]

Hey, Fidel!

The one time you were "at war", when the people you were fighting during "la Revelucion" surrendered, or were captured, they simply got summarily executed in the hills above Havana...so butt out, you commie puke!

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.

...as the Cold Dead Eyes of Little ELIAN now sit in a corner of Communist Dictator FIDEL CASTRO's Cuba..?

.

[Semper911]

No headline should ever start with "Cuba Attacks" unless they mean it.

[IronJack]

I'll bet it's heartbreaking for the prisoners to see the Cubans hanging around outside the wire, begging to be let in.

[Just Lori]

I have a few military links. Most of these prisoners are getting better treatment than they ever had in their lives. Clean beds, medical care, good food, the regular prayer times. Many of them, upon arrival, behaved worse than most animals do. Someone very close to me was tasked to clean up a C-17 after it returned from transporting a group of these "people". (No, you won't hear about this in any news report) There was human excrement all over the inside of the airplane. It had been flung all over... ceiling, walls, EVERYWHERE. They were actually trying to CHEW wires and cables in an attempt to sabotage the aircraft. The captain had to partially depressurize to put them out long enough to land safely and get them to their destination. These people are animals. And CUBA has the unmitigated GAUL to say they are being mistreated? Maybe Cuba wants these "prisoners" for their own police force!

[optimistically_conservative]

Yeah, I'm not too worried about their care.

"totally isolated, without the possibility of communicating with their families or access to appropriate legal defense."

Anyone heard from the folks Castro rounded up lately?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

You know damn well what Cuba would do if these characters were in his general populattion.

[Marauder]

It really does my heart good to hear that Cuba is now concerned about human rights.</sarcasm>

[Chu Gary]

Fidel should demand the opportunity to see Gitmo for himself so he can check the conditions.

[gooleyman]

Come kick us out, Fidel.

-----
Yeah. And give us a reason to kick you out. It'll be a great day when he assumes room temperature. Why to jerks like Fidel live so long? People never get the punisments they deserve fast enough for me.

[alameda]

Attack! Go ahead El Comandante, make our day.

[BerniesFriend]

As I have posted before..it is time for castro to go..if President Bush is re-elected comfortably.. he should blockade Cuba..demand that castro go back to spain and a new cuba be reborn..one can always hope..

[squidly]

Quite right. I almost wish Cuba would attack. Then we'd have an excuse.

[Luis Gonzalez]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1046627/posts

[NMFXSTC]