Photo: GUANTANAMO U.S. Tortures Detainees with Impunity !Updated 4:51 pm Sat. Jan 19
Tortured Logic: Thumbscrewing International Lawfrom Amnesty International, Amnesty Magazine
Torturers used to practice their craft behind a wall of secrecy. Now some U.S. officials are defending torture as a necessary tool in the “war on terror.”
“For better or worse, the United States sets precedents and examples,” Oxford scholar Henry Shue says. “We’re very visible. If the most powerful country in the world has to torture, how are we supposed to convince anyone else that they shouldn’t torture?”
CTV NEWS - U.S, On Torture Watch List
Amnesty International Pleased : Prime Minister Harper Embarrassed
And as usual the Harper Regime is quick to kow-tow to the Bush Regime. So Harper believes that when American's torture detainees it is not really torture of course. Since as the Americans claim " detainees " are not " persons " as we have been told .Once again the United States is not to be held to the same International standards as other countries . Which means once again that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to Americans. This is not surprising since even Hillary Clinton has defended certain brutal forms of interrogation of " terrorist Suspects " and " detainees " as not being " torture " and if it is torture that's just too bad for the " detainees ". Therefore, the conclusion is that American security comes before the protection of an individuals human rights. So if Americans set up their own style of Gulags that is their right . America after all is the only truly righteous country in the world . Besides whatever American personnel do is done with God's approval according to most American and it seems most Canadians agree. So those who are imprisoned and tortured by Americans deserve what they get. This is all just part of The New World Order .
Torture watchlist 'wrongly' names Canadian allies: Bernier, January 19, 2008,CBC News
Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier has issued a statement in an effort to pacify allies angry over a training manual for Canadian diplomats that lists the U.S. and Israel as countries where prisoners risk torture and abuse.
Bernier said the manual "contains a list that wrongly includes some of our closest allies."
"I regret the embarrassment caused by the public disclosure of the manual used in the department's torture awareness training," he said in a statement released Saturday.
"The manual is neither a policy document nor a statement of policy," he said. "As such, it does not convey the government's views or positions."
Bernier said he has directed the manual to be reviewed and rewritten, but he did not provide details.
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Anyway this just in ...this is good news if Harper doesn't interfere ...Canada has placed the US on its list of countries which use torture -US is now one of the " Torture States " but it appears Prime Minister Harper is not going to insist that his government stand by such a determination about the United States . If acted upon then no person could be extradited to the United States if it was reasonably believed that the person might be tortured. No prisoners of war could be turned over to American military or to any other United States' personnel.
Will George Bush lean on Harper or threat to use sanctions on Canada or simply invade -or will no one really notice except for a few minutes .
Olbermann on US on Canadian Torture List
US Labeled a Torture State- Jan 18, 2008
Keith Olbermann speaks with retired Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift (whose successful representation of the Hamdan case brought to light many of the atrocities happening at Guantanamo) about the sad and disturbing news that Canada has placed the U.S. on a watch list--along with Iran, China, Syria and others--for being a country that tortures its prisoners, due in no small part to our criminally shameful treatment of Canadians Maher Arar and Omar Khadr (imprisoned in Guantanamo at the age of 15).
What a proud legacy Bush and Cheney will leave this country with
And from Media With Conscience :
MWC Canada puts US and Israel on 'torture list' Global By Agencies,jan.18,2008
Canada said some US interrogation methods, such as sleep deprivation and isolation, were torture [EPA]Canada's foreign ministry has placed the United States and Israel on a watch list of nations where prisoners risk being tortured.
It has also classified some interrogation methods used by the US as torture, including isolation, sleep deprivation and blindfolding, according to an official document obtained by Reuters news agency.
The information comes from a document that forms part of a training course for Canadian diplomats.
However, a foreign ministry spokesman said the paper was a manual for training purposes and not a policy document.
The manual also refers to the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba where a Canadian man, Omar Khadr, is being held on allegations that he killed a US soldier in Afghanistan.
Rights groups say he should be repatriated to Canada but the nation's conservative government, which is allied to Washington's Bush administration, has rejected the move.
Khadr's lawyers said on Thursday that the document countered claims by the Canadian government that he was not being mistreated at the prison.
"At some point ... the Canadian government developed the suspicion [Khadr] was being tortured, yet it has not acted to obtain his release from Guantanamo Bay and protect his rights, unlike every other Western country that has had its nationals detained in Guantanamo Bay," William Kuebler, Khadr's lawyer, told Canadian television.
Court case
The Canadian government mistakenly provided the document to Amnesty International Canada as part of a court case the rights organisation has launched against Ottawa over the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan.
The US embassy in Canada said it did not condone torture "under any circumstances", while an Israeli embassy spokesman said that if Israel were on the list the ambassador "would expect its removal".
Other countries on Canada's watchlist include Syria, China, Iran, Afghanistan, Mexico and Saudi Arabia
and :
Canada puts U.S. on torture watch list: 16 2008 CTV.ca News
Omar Khadr's lawyers say they can't understand why Canada is not doing more to help their client in light of new evidence that Ottawa has put the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on a watch list for torture.
Khadr -- a Canadian citizen who was just 15-years-old when he was captured in Afghanistan more than five years ago and taken to Guantanamo -- has claimed that he has been tortured at the prison. Now, CTV News has obtained documents that put Guantanamo Bay on a torture watch list.
and :
Canada Adds U.S. to List of Nations That Torture,Washington Post ,Jan. 19,2008
The manual is intended to create "greater awareness among consular officials to the possibility of Canadians detained abroad being tortured." Part of the workshop is devoted to teaching diplomats how to identify people who have been tortured. It features a section on "U.S. interrogation techniques," including forced nudity, hooding and isolation.
The 93-page PowerPoint document was inadvertently released to attorneys working on a lawsuit against the Canadian government; it was obtained by The Washington Post from an attorney for defendants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The case of Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen who has been held at the U.S. military prison for more than five years, has generated attention across Canada.
The U.S. ambassador to Canada protested the mention, and the leak appears to have embarrassed Canadian officials.
"The document is a training manual. It is not a policy document or a statement of policy. As such it does not convey the government's views or positions," said Marina Wilson, spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa.
see BBC News Online: Canada puts U.S. On Torture List,Jan 18,2008
take care,
GORD.
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