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June 1, 2005Varifrank tells it to Amnesty InternationalI admit it, I used to contribute to AI - haven’t in a while, say six years - but their recent report calling Gitmo a “gulag” has earned them some scorn, and Frank Martin heaps in on a-plenty, giving them an “around the world” tour of places they might better vent their spleens. It is my contention that our prisoners are cared for with greater care and with less harm than that of any other country in the world. So, to make my case and just for grins I decided to spend just 15 minutes compiling the following list. So here’s a ‘round the globe look at some recent prison atrocities in countries other than the US that the press would like us all to overlook in light of our oh-so-obvious crimes against humanity in Cuba. Mexico: Death of inmates and guards, use of deadly force by government. MEXICO CITY Jan 26, 2005 — Federal agents and soldiers seized the top-security Matamoros prison near the Texas border Wednesday, a week after six prison employees were slain and their bodies dumped outside the facility’s gates amid growing violence in Mexico’s prison system. The prison raid was the second in a month as President Vicente Fox’s government tries to regain control of the nation’s penitentiaries, where a volatile mix of corruption and vendettas among imprisoned drug lords has corroded security and led to escapes and the deaths of inmates and guards. France : Prisons in shoddy shape. Prisoners refer to it as a “descent into hell”. Prisoners using helicopters and explosives to break out of prisons. The escape was the second time in 18 months that a helicopter freed prisoners at the Luynes prison. Frederic Impocco and Pascal Mayet escaped in October 2001, though both were recaptured quickly. More recently, Corsican murder suspect Joseph Menconi escaped Corsica’s Borgo prison March 7 with the help of accomplices using a fake bazooka to get past guards. Five days after Menconi’s escape, gangster Antonio Ferrara was sprung from Fresnes Prison, outside of Paris, in a military-stye commando operation. Accomplices used assault rifles and explosives to blast their way into an inner courtyard, where Ferrara’s ground-floor cell was located. Read the whole thing. Then go see what Greyhawk discovered: the MSM is beginning a re-write of Korangate - before our eyes. …And here’s what they read: Washington’s defense of its detention and interrogation practices comes after weeks of international criticism and violent protests by Muslims outraged at reports which the Pentagon says are false that an interrogator at Guantanamo had flushed pages of the Quran down a toilet. Emphasis added. In fact, let’s see it again: …an interrogator at Guantanamo had flushed pages of the Quran down a toilet. We can write that and repeat it countless times, but that won’t make it true. Let’s take a quick look back at Newsweek’s story: Among the previously unreported cases, sources tell NEWSWEEK: interrogators, in an attempt to rattle suspects, flushed a Qur’an down a toilet Not pages, not “threw a Qur’an into a toilet”, but flushed a Qur’an down a toilet. Of course, one could claim Newsweek didn’t really mean exactly what they said, except they followed up their story with another one explaining that they meant exactly what they said. At NEWSWEEK, veteran investigative reporter Michael Isikoff’s interest had been sparked by the release late last year of some internal FBI e-mails that painted a stark picture of prisoner abuse at Guantanamo. Isikoff knew that military investigators at Southern Command (which runs the Guantanamo prison) were looking into the allegations. So he called a longtime reliable source, a senior U.S. government official who was knowledgeable about the matter. The source told Isikoff that the report would include new details that were not in the FBI e-mails, including mention of flushing the Qur’an down a toilet. Of course, anyone with half a brain would dismiss such a story outright. I suppose it’s possible that there are toilets capable of that in Guantanamo, in the same sense that it’s possible that the Texas Air National Guard was using Microsoft Word in the early 1970s. To caveat my own opinion, however, I note that anything is possible, Inshallah. (H/T Michelle.) UPDATE II: Publius Pundit has a little game for you. It relates to Varifrank’s post. http://theanchoressonline.com/2005/06/01/varifrank-tells-it-to-amnesty-international/trackback/ 6 Responses to “Varifrank tells it to Amnesty International” |
June 1st, 2005 at 5:26 pm
I wrote on this- from first hand experience with AI.
http://sigcarlfred.blogspot.com/2005/05/truth-about-amnesty-international-lies.html
and here: http://sigcarlfred.blogspot.com/2005/05/amnesty-international-and-other.html
I’m taking the liberty of posting the links because the AI reports are now more than simply ‘out of hand. They have become a travesty. It’s important that people understand how AI operates.
Forgive me if I’ve overstepped a boundry.
June 1st, 2005 at 6:04 pm
I quote an extract from one of the official records of a Gitmo tribunal:
The presiding tribunal officer accuses Idr of associating “with a known Al Qaeda operative.” The detainee says, reasonably enough: “Give me his name.” The tribunal president says: “I do not know.” Idr understandably asks: “How can I respond to this?” The tribunal president asks: “Did you know of anybody that was a member of al Qaeda?” Idr says: “No, no …”
“This is something the interrogators told me a long while ago,” Idr complains during his so-called trial. “I asked the interrogators to tell me who this person was. Then I could tell you if I might have known this person, but not if this person is a terrorist. Maybe I knew this person as a friend. Maybe it was a person that worked with me. Maybe it was a person that was on my team. But I do not know if this person is Bosnian, Indian or whatever. If you tell me the name, then I can respond and defend myself against this accusation.”
The tribunal president then responds, presumably with a straight face: “We are asking you the question and we need you to respond to what is on the unclassified summary.”
I am old enough to remember the Soviet show trials. I fail to see the difference. Perhaps my discernment is too coarse.
June 1st, 2005 at 6:13 pm
“Now, you may want question SC&A about how we know all this. Well, we do. Really. Neither AI or the media can dispute anything we have written. None of it.” From the first of citations by S,C,&A above.
-Give me a break! Since you won’t submit credible evidence of it, why should anyone argue with it. This is the classic rhetorical tactic know as the “wife-beating question.”
June 1st, 2005 at 6:48 pm
No Joe, that is not the case at all. I worked alongside AI, on a project. I’ve been inside- have you?
Further, if the only critique you have is of me personally, rather than of anything I said, well, that too, speaks volumes.
June 1st, 2005 at 9:23 pm
AI to a farmer is a whole different thing. I know nothing of this AI. I did catch Isskoff (why do I always want to call him Kissoff?) on PBS one afternoon on the Charlie Rose show, I guess. I DO understand body language and that fella acted guilty as hell. Adamantly in denial. I should have paid closer attention to all he was saying. I just figured… it’s PBS, after all. And Rose was as much in denial as that ratty little Kissoff. I couldn’t stomach it for that long. Sorry.
June 2nd, 2005 at 9:41 am
Gitmo Update
The Anchoress gives a round up of prisons Amnesty International should really be paying attention to:
Mexico: Death of inmates and guards, use of deadly force by government.
France : Prisons in shoddy shape. Prisoners refer to it as a descent in…