Trump wasn't the worst US President. Bush2 was. And he is still a guest at late-night TV shows. Incredible.
Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure
31–40 of 356 posts
Re: Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure
#32Among the key figures in the design of American torture programs during the War on Terror were American psychologists James Elmer Mitchell (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Elmer_Mitchell) and Bruce Jessen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Jessen), who were paid $81m for their work.
Irony upon ironies: "Mitchell, who is retired and lives in Land o' Lakes, Florida, spends his free time kayaking, rafting and climbing.[14] He describes himself as an atheist and a supporter of Amnesty International.[10]"
Re: Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure
#33Among the key figures in the design of American torture programs during the War on Terror were American psychologists James Elmer Mitchell ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Elmer_Mitchell ) and Bruce Jessen ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Jessen ), who were paid $81m for their work. Irony upon ironies: "Mitchell, who is retired and lives in Land o' Lakes, Florida, spends his free time kayaking, rafting and…
> He describes himself as an atheist and a supporter of Amnesty International
That's a funny one. Someone should interview him and see how he sees himself and his role, and does he consider himself to be a war criminal.
Re: Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure
#34Abby Martin from Empire Files made a beautiful video about the war in Afghanistan: https://youtube.com/watch?v=C3LFbOSPfrE
Google wants me to submit my passport (“age check”) to watch this video (despite being registered there since 2008). Any other links to it?
Yea, I've been seeing this more and more on what seem from the outside like fairly innocuous vides and was yesterday accomanied by a prompt on my mobile that I 'need' to add my age.
Nope. Go away, Google.
Re: Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure
#35This implies the US population being held responsible because the US is a democratic nation. The idea is, every 4 years the highest position of governance is put on a trial and the population votes if they approve or disprove the way things are done and reconsider alternatives. Besides the 4 year period for the evaluation of the highest ranking officers, there is an ample opportunity for direct intervention through o…
>Whatever happens is up to the US internal politics and the culture of the US nation. If only the US would live by that when looking at other countries. Sanctions, embargos, trade-restrictions, threats are used against other countries by the US, why should they be treated any different themselves?
The US is powerful and can do that. Well, at least up to some extend but even then it turns to be ineffective but as we see with the recent developments.
Re: Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure
#36Among the key figures in the design of American torture programs during the War on Terror were American psychologists James Elmer Mitchell ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Elmer_Mitchell ) and Bruce Jessen ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Jessen ), who were paid $81m for their work. Irony upon ironies: "Mitchell, who is retired and lives in Land o' Lakes, Florida, spends his free time kayaking, rafting and…
Amnesty International answered him: https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/amnesty-responds-t...
Re: Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure
#37What the US is doing to Assange at the moment is a war crime in itself.
These kinds of comments detract from the horror of the crimes in Guantanamo. It reminds me a bit of when Americans opposed to mask mandates liken them to having to wear yellow Stars of David. Guantanamo detainees were tortured with stress positions, sexual abuse (including simulated rape), simulated executions (including being taken out to sea and told they would be thrown overboard), held in cold rooms, and told the…
> This includes detainees who were later exonerated
That's one way of putting it. It would be more accurate to say for the vast majority of the detainees, there was never any tangible proof of crimes and they were fully innocent.
Re: Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure
#38This implies the US population being held responsible because the US is a democratic nation. The idea is, every 4 years the highest position of governance is put on a trial and the population votes if they approve or disprove the way things are done and reconsider alternatives. Besides the 4 year period for the evaluation of the highest ranking officers, there is an ample opportunity for direct intervention through o…
>Whatever happens is up to the US internal politics and the culture of the US nation. If only the US would live by that when looking at other countries. Sanctions, embargos, trade-restrictions, threats are used against other countries by the US, why should they be treated any different themselves?
because for the US, to sanction basically any country is a blip on their economy, but for any other country, indeed blocs of countries to reciprocate that means not only losing your second or third largest trade partners but also shutting you economy off for electronics, software, international financial services, etc
Re: Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most countries, even non-allies would not want to be invaded by the US.
Thanks to US we already know how to handle this - there is a plenty of secret locations in various different countries where the perpetrators can be safely tried and then handled according to the sentence.
I doubt the US would take their citizens suddenly disappearing in a country very well either, and keeping it hidden would be difficult. Maybe you could secretly convict a soldier who desecrated corpses or something, but people like Gina Haspel would be nearly impossible without ramifications.
Re: Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
The US went to war against the entire UN vote and suffered no consequence whatsoever, who is going to hold them responsible for breaking the rules of engagement ?
Its opponents. I can easily imagine eg Russia openly claiming that since the international law doesn’t apply to US combatants, they are to be assumed to be terrorists and not soldiers.
And then what? Set off WW3?