Re: Guantanamo Bay
Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2004 6:36 am
Lets remember that it was not that long ago that several people were released from prison after their convictions were overthrown for terrorism in the UK (Guildford and Birmingham, everyone!). These people were convicted with the full checks and balances of the legal system to prevent miscarriages of justice. Under the current "fear" climate, our governments are trying to make it legitimate to convict people with less proof and circumstantial evidence.
None of us know anything about why these individuals are in Camp Delta because no information about why they are there has been placed in the public domain. We don't know the circumstances of why they were picked up. We don't know even if they were fighting or not. We don't know anything. So we can't pre-judge if they are guilty or not. Lets stick up for the values of our democratic society which must be preserved otherwise Osama has won. And a value worth preserving his innocent until PROVEN guilty.
IF in the event anyone who does get released from Camp Delta and our own police investigations can find nothing on them to even mount a prosecution then questions will be asked about why they were arrested in the first place. And if it was you who this happened to I bet you would want to sue for compensation.
I wonder what the Americans would have said if during the 1970s, the UK started arresting and putting into a Guantanamo Bay type in carceration American citizens it thought might have been contributing to the IRA cause (and lets face it we know US citizens were funding IRA causes at this time). And that those arrested had no lawyers, no contact with the outside world and no information was passed to the US government on why and how their citizens were arrested.
None of us know anything about why these individuals are in Camp Delta because no information about why they are there has been placed in the public domain. We don't know the circumstances of why they were picked up. We don't know even if they were fighting or not. We don't know anything. So we can't pre-judge if they are guilty or not. Lets stick up for the values of our democratic society which must be preserved otherwise Osama has won. And a value worth preserving his innocent until PROVEN guilty.
IF in the event anyone who does get released from Camp Delta and our own police investigations can find nothing on them to even mount a prosecution then questions will be asked about why they were arrested in the first place. And if it was you who this happened to I bet you would want to sue for compensation.
I wonder what the Americans would have said if during the 1970s, the UK started arresting and putting into a Guantanamo Bay type in carceration American citizens it thought might have been contributing to the IRA cause (and lets face it we know US citizens were funding IRA causes at this time). And that those arrested had no lawyers, no contact with the outside world and no information was passed to the US government on why and how their citizens were arrested.