Human Rights Abuses in the War on Terror

The news about these matters continues to appear in the press. I thought I'd try to catch all of you up on a few of the things out there. Below are some recent articles to help understand this issue. I describe the oldest ones first.

The U.S. has been making statements in response to the pressure that is being put on them about detainees being mistreated. In March, this story got headlines around the country: U.S. Is Examining a Plan to Bolster the Rights of Detainees

What has been disappointing to many of us is that the military continues to maintain that no one of a high level is reponsible for the things that went on at Abu Ghraib prison. A military tribunal cleared a bunch of officers of wrong-doing in a trial last month. The trial seems to have left a lot of unanswered questions. Military tribunal ignored evidence on detainee March 28, 2005
Evidence that the U.S. sent detainees abroad to be tortured is out there. One of the stories that has gotten a lot of attention is that of Maher Arar. From the New York Times:

Maher Arar, a 35-year-old Canadian engineer, is suing the United States,
saying American officials grabbed him in 2002 as he changed planes in New York
and transported him to Syria where, he says, he was held for 10 months in a
dank, tiny cell and brutally beaten with a metal cable.

Now federal aviation records examined by The New York Times appear to
corroborate Mr. Arar's account of his flight, during which, he says, he sat
chained on the leather seats of a luxury executive jet as his American guards
watched movies and ignored his protests.

Meanwhile, the fight overt the Patriot Act continues. Gonzales urges renewal of Patriot Act April 6, 2005.

There was an excellent article in the Seattle Times that described some evidence uncovered about detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. It reminded us:

The government is holding about 550 people at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba.
An additional 214 have been released since the facility opened in January 2002 —
some into the custody of their home governments, others freed outright.

Little information about those held at Guantánamo has been released
through official government channels. But stories of 60 or more prisoners are
spelled out in detail in thousands of pages of transcripts filed in U.S.
District Court in Washington, where lawsuits challenging their detentions have
been filed.

The military released a report saying that they have reviewed the cases of all of the detainees in Guantanamo Bay, and are justified in keeping all of them in detention as "enemy combatents". There are still lawyers fighting to have their cases heard in U.S. Courts. Read this article here.
The U.S. has only convicted low-ranking members of the military in connection with the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison. In a recent article, a human rights attorney explains why she believes Donald Rumsfeld and other high-ranking officials should be invesigated more closely.

A few days ago, news came out that the army is writing a new manual on how to interrogate prisoners (without torturing them). One Senator pointed out that the fact that is had to be re-written is an indication that not enough was being done to train people not to torture prisoners.
Yesterday's paper included a headline that, "Lynndie England to plead guilty to Abu Ghraib abuses." She was in some of the more shocking photos we saw from Abu Ghraib.

Finally, Amnesty International released a press release a few days ago, Abuses Continue One Year After Abu Ghraib.