Posted on 01/07/2006 6:08:02 AM PST by mcg2000
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in an interview published days before her first visit to the United States, said Washington should close its Guantanamo Bay prison camp and find other ways of dealing with terror suspects.
"An institution like Guantanamo can and should not exist in the longer term," Merkel said in an interview with the weekly magazine Der Spiegel published on Saturday. "Different ways and means must be found for dealing with these prisoners."
Merkel has vowed to repair ties with the United States, severely strained over the U.S.-led Iraq invasion, which her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder strongly opposed.
But her comments to Der Spiegel -- also covering ties with Moscow and the European Union -- suggested she would not shy away from speaking out on issues where disagreement exists.
There is widespread skepticism in Germany about the way the United States is fighting its "war on terror", compounded by the recent scandal over the CIA's abduction and detention of German citizen Khaled el-Masri -- later acknowledged to be a mistake.
Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. detention center in Cuba denounced by human rights activists and many governments, is deeply unpopular in Germany.
Merkel travels to Washington next week for her first visit since becoming chancellor in November, and will meet U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday.
Merkel told Der Spiegel she expected to speak to Bush about the fight against terrorism. "But I want to accentuate that our relationship with the U.S. will not be reduced to talking about fighting terrorism and the Iraq war," she added.
NO FRIENDSHIP WITH RUSSIA
Merkel described relations with the United States as a "friendship", but said the term "strategic partnership" would be more fitting to describe Germany's relationship with Moscow.
"I don't think we share as many of the same values yet with Russia as we do with the United States," she said. "But we have a huge interest in seeing Russia develop in a sensible way." Continued ...
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Merkel give whole new meaning to "Panty Waisted Germans"
Sounds like she is as bad as the jerk she replaced. Read the other day where she wants to raise the Value Added Tax from 16% to 19%.
Not only when you move to a new home. Even if you spend a night in a hotel you have to fill in a so called "Meldeschein". I refused to do register for several years until a friend of mine who is working in the local town hall came with the documents into my house not letting me out. I had no chance...
;-)
Besides of this friendly pressue I am completely against the practice since I believe it is part of the individual freedom that the state is not informed about the whereabout of his common members (there must be some exceptions of course).
It is new to me that the registration happens in the police station. In Baden-Wuerttemberg where I live this is going to happen in the town halls. Maybe your horrible Oberbuergermeister in Berlin (und das ist gut so...) was so often in the police office that it is much more familiar than the town hall to him since he is meeting some gay buddys from the red-light district there. BTW - The police officers could do the gay marriages too. The drunk tank would have the right romantic ambience. Since I know many nice German policemen I am sure that they would paint it in pink for Wowereit.
Life in a German prison means 15-18 years. No longer. Our constitutional court has ruled that Art. 1 I of our constitution ("The dignity of man is untouchable.") also applies to murderers. That means that a life sentence must not mean "life". A criminal has the right to get a 2nd chance. So, usually after 15-18 years, killers are released. In Hammadis case, it was after 19 years. Neither am I making these laws nor do I approve them, I just tell you how it is like. I advise you, if you wanted to kill someone, do it here.
To be correct, Merkel wasn´t granted a meeting with Bush (protocol). I think the US didn´t want to risk more embarrasment for Schröder. Merkel just met with VP Cheney in 2003, but Bush showed up when Hessian Governor Koch met with Cheney.
I don´t know why you should go to the police. It´s state legislation, maybe it´s different in Berlin. We in Hamburg or Northrhine-Westphalia register at the city hall. But don´t feel insulted, it´s perfectly normal.
Amish Dude expressed it very well, that Merkel´s response was quite diplomatic. But you know, the headline points it out as if she was shouting "DICTATOR BUSH: TEAR DOWN THAT *UCKIN´ CAMP IMMEDIATELY!!" The Left is enthusiastic and probably hopes that she will cause another clash with the US like Schröder. It ain´t gonna happen. As we say here, between Bush and Merkel isn´t space for a sheet of paper.
I am sorry for my inaccuracy. All I remembered was the left boiling in anger when the (in their sight) "traitorous" Merkel went to Washington to (in their sight) "backstab" Schroeder. They all were "deeply ashamed". It was sick.
Although this leftist BS-party was ridicolous it left much damage on (now) Mrs. chancellor Merkel. This is one of the reasons why her outcome in the last elections was that disappointing.
Yep. And you´re right. Many haven´t forgotten that Iraq affair. The SPD willfully told everybody that the CDU had sent our soldiers to Iraq (which is a lie, btw, we had supported the war politically but hardly with forces). In the end, Kirchhof and VAT-rising were the main factors that have lead to the loss of the decisive 4%.
We used to have such phony life sentences. Most states eliminated them after popular protest. So even if no death penalty the man stays in prison for good. You need the death penalty that most sober minded American states have. Stupid self glorifying liberals always try to eliminate the death penalty to show how morally superior they are. When reality is they are morally inferior and mock the victims &victim's family who never see proper justice meted out.
"Those who are kind to the cruel end up being cruel to the kind"
From internet:
A panel of German judges sentenced Hammadi to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 15 years. Victoria Toensing, a former Justice Department official in the Reagan administration who oversaw efforts to extradite Hammadi in 1987, said German authorities threw obstacles in the way of U.S. prosecutors at that time and only reluctantly cooperated. "They were not open at all," she recalled. "We knew he would be released early, way back then."
I disagree with your comments about the death penalty. As a Christian, I don´t believe in revenge through death. And our constitution forbids the death penalty explicitly. I think it´s a good thing. A Governor in the US has ordered a DNA test for an executed. It will show us whether an innocent man was killed by the state.
However, I believe in lifelong imprisonment. Really, really, really lifelong. :)
""An institution like Guantanamo can and should not exist in the longer term," Merkel said in an interview with the weekly magazine Der Spiegel published on Saturday."
Merkel's key words here are "longer term." She has to publicly oppose Gitmo in order to placate her coalition partners (the SPD) and the German public, but notice she does not call for Gitmo's immediate closure. Believe it or not she appears to be giving Bush as much room as she can.
As I noted before, the Geneva Convention avoids quibbling about such semantics in this matter by using the phrase "persons, having committed a belligerent act ".
Note the use of the term "PERSONS". In Article 5, the Geneva Convention does not limit itself to servicemembers of a state-sponsored armed force.
As far as "crimminal" is concerned, you can have "crimminal" behavior in anything from how you drive a car to how you treat a pet dog to how you "commit a belligerent act".
The language of Articles 4 and 5 of the Geneva Convention is clearly tailored to include individuals such as those belonging to al Qaeda.
The U.S. military has been trying to procede with the military tribunals in a timely manner and has been met with opposition every step of the way by left-wing lawyers winning victories in lower civilian U.S. Courts.
Lawyers Defend Ruling that Guantanamo Tribunals are Unconstitutional
That means that the entire issue now needs to work its way up the U.S. legal system until the issue gets to the U.S. Supreme Court for the final ruling that the military tribunals can proceed.
As you can see, the U.S. military is put in a "No-Win" situation. The Geneva Convention specifically mandates that rulings regarding Articles 4 and 5 be made in a Military Court. Such Military Courts are blocked by legal maneuverings in U.S. civilian lower Courts. Then the same people that have blocked these Military Courts from performing their duties complain that these "persons" are not getting their day in Court.
Germany and the rest of Europe seem to be seriously out of their minds.
What did we save by winning the second world war for them??
The E.U. just looks like more of the same moronic crap.
Lovely. I think I´m with Chancellor Merkel when I say that I´m confident you´ll find a better solution "in the longer term". God bless you!!
That's an easy one. The "shared values of the West" were easily defined and served as a rallying call all through WWI, WWII, and the Cold War:
1. Democratic government. You and the French are still with us on that one.
2. Principles of personal liberty for citizens (not limits on our own citizens in favor of entrenched bureaucracies like the EU, or limits to avoid offending unassimilated aliens as in Denmark and Sween).
3. Judeo-Christian principles valuing life and family as a foundation of society (not the arid secular religion of abortion, eugenics, and "cradle to grave" control by government).
4. An open economic system emphasizing competition and free markets (not concentration of the means of production in government's hands).
5. A willingness to recognize threats to the princiles and fight them if necessary (not "soft power" that turns out to be useless).
As I said above, these principles rallied the US, Britain and France in WWI, rallied the US and Britain and many of the occupied nations in WWII, and rallied the NATO during the Cold War. Not that citizens of the West were always in agreement during those conflicts, but we knew the enemy of our principles when we saw it. Today, parts of America (luckily more than 50%) and Britain see the enemy and are prepared to confront it. Much of the rest of the West is asleep.
Agreed. The problem with capital punishment it the possibility of a fault. My father (RIP) always said that the capital punishment would be okay if the judge is also going to executed if it turns out that he was fatally wrong. The number of executions would be very limited then.
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