Posted on 05/30/2005 10:39:56 AM PDT by quidnunc
By labeling the U.S. anti-terrorism prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the "gulag of our times," the people of Amnesty International must think we're stupid or ignorant.
Stupid or ignorant enough to fall for the assertion that whatever is happening at Guantanamo is the legal and moral equivalent of what happened in the hundreds of slave labor and concentration camps scattered throughout the former communist Soviet Union. Equivalent to a system that brutalized tens of millions, of which untold millions died of starvation, exposure, exhaustion, torture, illness or execution.
OK, maybe in light of this generation's dismal ignorance of history, we deserve to be treated like dummies. But Amnesty International, which purports to speak on behalf of human rights everywhere, ought to know better. And if we let it get away with this historical obscenity, then we are stupid.
Amnesty International might as well have compared the treatment of a few hundred detainees at Guantanamo to the Holocaust. To review the gulag's history: Millions of political dissenters, victims of police state terror, assorted "undesirables," ethnic minorities (e.g. Chechens and Crimean Tartars) and others guilty of doing nothing wrong were shipped to the gulag to mine, build railroads, dig canals, toil in factories, clear forests and perform other slave labor. Until they were too sick to continue or just dropped dead, left to become a part of the permafrost. Millions more were shot or died in Holocaust-style cattle cars before getting there.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Because....
....THEY, the former-Taliban/Terrorists-turned-detainees, Took up Arms against us, the People of the United States and the Rest of the Freedom-Loving World!
Amnesty International, Please put down those Peace Pipes of yours, Please. The Smoke is starting to cloud our (Common) Senses, too.
"and others guilty of doing nothing wrong were shipped to the gulag"
A gulag is a gulag. Five million or five humdred. I don't want my glorious American heritage sullied by being even remotely associated with one such place.
So, are you saying that we shopuld throw open the gates of all our jails and prisons and allow the perps confined there to walk free?
Just out of curiosity can anyone cite one instance where AI complained about the North Vietnamese or the Viet Cong treatment of our men or for that matter the South Vietnamese?
Hell.
How about South Africa TODAY?
Just a thought.
"So, are you saying that we shopuld throw open the gates of all our jails and prisons and allow the perps confined there to walk free?"
Hmm.. Last time i checked, most of those folks were charged, prosecuted and convicted.
Amnesty International was founded in the 1960s but didn't get rolling until after the Vietnam war.
The organization did a lot of good during the Cold War in the 1980s, but it's apparently been taken over by proIslamist morons and Leftwing loons.
Somebody forgot to send the Amnesty Inter'l a copy of the report indicating the the islamic at GITMO lied his head off about qur'an toilet flushing. What I don't understand that makes me madder than H*LL is that groups and people like Amnesty Inter'l conveniently forget that these GITMO POWs had weapons that killed our soldiers and these crazy islamics delighted in that fact. As far as I'm concerned, freedom fry every last one of these crazies and rid the world of a nuisance instead of catering to their every whim.
Well, then ypouj're saying that (1) we should never take prisoners on the battlefield, or (2) every offense against an American should be prosecuted in US courts regardless of where the offense occurred.
Yojur thinking is either that of the addle-pated Kumbaya-singer or of the blame-America-first, one-worlder Utopian.
'Either Amnesty International isn't aware of this history, or it knows of it but is lying for the sake of a good sound bite. In either case, the group has lost credibility to speak on behalf of the victims of human-rights violations. Moreover, Amnesty International has dishonored millions of gulag victims.'
The writer nailed it in these three sentences.
-Regards, T.
"(1) we should never take prisoners on the battlefield, or (2) every offense against an American should be prosecuted in US courts regardless of where the offense occurred."
Er.. I thought the Gitmo "detainees" were NOT prisoners of war.
And, I believe that everyone is to be afforded due process of law.
(1) By the provisions of the Geneva conventions they are not prisoners of war.
(2) They are given due process of law, just not by civil law.
They are being tried by military commissions.
Welllllll...you're new.
Amnesty disrespected all of the victims of the Soviet Gulags when they made that irresponsible statement. But I still respect their work around the world and hope the responsible parties are demoted or fired for tarnishing Amnesty's image.
You're right. Send 'em all back to Karzai to get a taste of Afghan justice.
"So, are you saying that we shopuld throw open the gates of all our jails and prisons and allow the perps confined there to walk free?"
I don't think that was what the poster meant. And you can't compare convicted criminals with prisoners of war.
(1) By the provisions of the Geneva conventions they are not prisoners of war.
(2) They are given due process of law, just not by civil law.
They are being tried by military commissions.
1. Gonzalez ruled otherwise.
2. Military-commisions = not civil law.
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