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Red Cross: U.S. May Have Committed War Crimes at Guantanamo
Bay
Liberty in the Balance: Security Collides with Civil Liberties
The Modern-Day Rosenberg Case: A Look Back At How the Gov't
Framed Chinese-American Scientist Wen Ho Lee
Talk Radio Host Joe Madison: Why I Am On A Hunger Strike
To Protest the Sudanese Government
Red Cross: U.S. May Have Committed War Crimes at
Guantanamo Bay
Michael Ratner, from the Center for Constitutional Rights,
outlights a new report on how three British detainees were
tortured in U.S. detention. The men said they were beaten,
shackled, photographed naked and in one incident questioned
at gunpoint while in US custody.
The Red Cross said yesterday that the U.S. may have committed
war crimes at Guantanamo Bay if reports of detainees being
tortured at the military base are true. This according to
a report in the Guardian of London. The comment by the Red
Cross comes a day after three former detainees from Britain
revealed they were the victims of systemic abuse at the hands
of their US captors both in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo
Bay. A Red Cross spokesperson told the Guardian "Some
of the abuses alleged by the detainees would indeed constitute
inhuman treatment." And that "Inhuman treatment
constitutes a grave breach of the third Geneva convention
and these are often also described as war crimes."
The former detainees, Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal and Rhuhel
Ahmed, released a 115-page
report yesterday that claimed they were beaten, shackled,
photographed naked and, in one incident, questioned at gunpoint
while in US custody. The three young men are from Tipton,
a poor neighborhood in the West Midlands of England with a
small community of Pakistani and Bangladeshi people. All three
were detained in Northern Afghanistan on November 28, 2001.
In March of 2004, after 2 ½ years of being held in
extreme conditions, they were released to the British government.
They were never charged with any crime and were released shortly
after they returned. The three men compiled the report of
their experience with their attorney, British civil rights
lawyer Gareth Pierce.
Following these latest reports on conditions at Guantanamo,
a leader in Britain/s Liberal Democrats party called on the
Foreign Office to launch an investigation into the treatement
of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Meanwhile, U.S. Navy Secrtary Gordon England defended the
military tribunals being held for Guantanamo detainees. The
tribunals come in response to a Supreme Court ruling requiring
that detainees have the ability to challenge their detentions.
Five of the eight prisoners reviewed so far have refused to
take part in the process. We're joined from our New York studio
by human rights lawyer Michael Ratner, president of the Center
for Constitutional Rights and attorney for several Guantanamo
detainees. He is the co-author of a new book called "Guantanamo:
What the World Should Know."
Liberty in the Balance: Security Collides with Civil
Liberties
We talk to Sacramento Bee reporter Emily Bazar about her
paper's muli-part series examining post 9/11 civil liberties
issues. We speak to Bazar at the UNITY 2004 conference.
We are broadcasting from the UNITY journalism conference
here in Washington DC, which is sponsored by the 4 leading
journalist of color organizations-the National Association
of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic
Journalists, the Association of Asian American Journalists
and the Native American Journalists Association. There are
some 7,500 journalists here. In fact it is the largest conference
of journalists in the history of the United States. Today
Demiocratic Presidential candidate John Kerry addresses the
conference, as well as General Colin Powell. Tomorrow, President
Bush will be here.
One of the journalists we met yesterday is Emily Bazar, who
covers immigration issues for the Sacremento Bee. She was
one of the lead writers on a major series the paper did last
September called "Liberty
in the Balance" which examines the increased powers
of the federal government in the aftermath of 9-eleven. Emily
Bazar joins us here in our Washington DC studio.
The Modern-Day Rosenberg Case: A Look Back At How
the Gov't Framed Chinese-American Scientist Wen Ho Lee
Journalist Helen Zia joins us at the UNITY 2004 conference
to discuss the book "My Country Versus Me: The First-Hand
Account by the Los Alamos Scientist Who Was Falsely Accused
of Being a Spy" which she co-wrote with Wen Ho Lee.
We move from post 9/11 stories to a pre-9/11 story and that
is the story of Wen Ho Lee, the American scientist who was
born in Taiwan. He had devoted almost his entire life to science
and to helping improve US defense capabilities. Then, suddenly
everything changed and he found himself in the spotlight,
accused of espionage by members of Congress and the national
media and portrayed as the most dangerous traitor since the
Rosenbergs.
- Helen Zia, Journalist and activist. Author of "Asian
American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People"
and "My Country Versus Me" about Los Alamos scientist
Wen Ho Lee.
Talk Radio Host Joe Madison: Why I Am On A Hunger
Strike To Protest the Sudanese Government
Madison has been on a hunger strike since July 12. He is
demanding an immediate end to the Sudanese government’s
obstruction of humanitarian aid to victims of the Sudanese
genocide.
The situation in the Darfur region of the Sudan continues
to grow more serious. Over the past year and a half, More
than a million people have been driven from their homes and
over 35,000 people have been killed. Yesterday, the Sudanese
government organized a rally of 100,000 people to condemn
a UN Security Council resolution setting a 30-day deadline
for Sudan to disarm the Janjaweed militias responsible for
the killings in Darfur. At yesterday"s rally, the demonstrators
accused Secretary General Kofi Annan of collaborating with
the United States and Israel.
Although no Western government has threatened to invade Sudan,
Annan has mentioned the possibility of intervention. In neighboring
Ethiopia yesterday, the African Union said it would send 1,600
to 1,800 peacekeepers to Darfur, but it is unclear when the
force would be sent. Meanwhile, daily protests continue in
front of the Sudanese embassy in Washington DC, where a coalition
of human rights groups and church groups are calling on President
Bush to condemn the Sudanese government and to label what
is happening in Darfur genocide. In late June, the coalition,
which is called the Sudan Campaign, launched a campaign of
civil disobedience at the embassy. Among those who have been
arrested are: Rep. Charles Rangel, New York; Fmr. Rep. Bob
Edgar, current President of the National Council of Churches;
Rep. Bobby Rush, Illinois; Rep. Joe Hoeffel, Pennsylvania;
Activist Dick Gregory and Fmr. Congressional Delegate Walter
Fauntroy. Meanwhile, radio talk show host and civil rights
activist Joe Madison is on his third week of a hunger strike.
This week he was arrested for the second time in front of
the embassy. Last night, we sat down with Madison at the UNITY
Conference here in Washington DC.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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