Lakhdar Boumediene has completed his horrible sentence. Laura Ling
and Euna Lee are just beginning theirs. In a perverse twist of fate,
both stories appeared today.
Lakhdar Boumediene was flown from
Guantanamo to Paris last month, free after serving seven and a half
years in detention. Mr. Boumediene was accused in October 2001 of
plotting an attack against the U.S. Embassy in Bosnia. Following his
arrest, the charges were dropped for lack of evidence by the Bosnian
authorities. Under pressure from the Bush Administration, he was
transferred into American custody and shipped to Guantanamo in January
2002.
Lakhdar Boumediene was under the impression that, once
transfered into U.S. custody, the benevolent Americans would surely
understand he was innocent and release him. No such luck. What
followed was horrific.
said he endured harsh treatment for more than seven years. He said he
was kept awake for 16 days straight, and physically abused repeatedly.
Boumediene
described being pulled up from under his arms while sitting in a chair
with his legs shackled, stretching him. He said that he was forced to
run with the camp's guards and if he could not keep up, he was dragged,
bloody and bruised.
He described what he called the "games" the
guards would play after he began a hunger strike, putting his food IV
up his nose and poking the hypodermic needle in the wrong part of his
arm. (Link)
year the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the release of Mr. Boumediene and
four other detainees, ruling there was no credible evidence that
warranted their continued detention.
An exclusive ABC News interview with Lakhdar Boumediene appeared today here.
And
in North Korea, it was announced today that two American journalists,
Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were sentenced to 12 years hard labor after
being convicted of illegally entering North Korea and engaging in
"hostile acts".
International sharply criticized the legal procedures behind the
sentencing and called for the journalists� immediate release. �No
access to lawyers, no due process, no transparency: the North Korean
judicial and penal systems are more instruments of suppression than of
justice,� said Roseann Rife, Amnesty International�s Asia-Pacific
deputy director. (Link)
Via Spencer Ackerman comes this U.S. State Department report on North Korean human rights:
periods of exposure to the elements; humiliations such as public
nakedness; confinement for up to several weeks in small �punishment
cells� in which prisoners were unable to stand upright or lie down;
being forced to kneel or sit immobilized for long periods; being hung
by the wrists; being forced to stand up and sit down to the point of
collapse.
It's likely alot of Americans read the
story today of Laura Ling and Euna Lee and were horrified at the
injustice and terrible fate these two young women face.
And
it's equally likely it won't occur to most of those folks that, in
light of U.S. detention and interrogation policies, the U.S. no longer
has the moral authority to protest Lisa Ling's and Euna Lee's
sentences.
God willing these two don't suffer the same fate as Lakhdar Boumediene.
'detention' -- sounds so innocuous, doesn't it? Like being told to sit quietly in study hall for an hour, or being led by a teacher into the forest to search for a wounded unicorn.
ReplyDeleteExactly, the U.S. A. has lost its moral authority. And has been reduced to just another garden variety authority.
ReplyDelete