UN Special Rapporteur Urges Justice for 9/11 Victims on 23rd Anniversary – Sri Lanka Guardian

UN Special Rapporteur Urges Justice for 9/11 Victims on 23rd Anniversary

MY SAY: There was no "wrongful detention" of unlawful combatant Islamists who want to kill us at the US military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Even lawful combatant POWs may be held without charge or trial "until the end of hostilities," according to the Geneva Conventions and the Law of War. Just under 800 detainees have been held at Gitmo, but over 745 have been RELEASED, and NONE have been beheaded, executed, blown up, hacked to death, dragged naked and lifeless through the streets, drowned or burned alive. All things our enemies have done to us and/or our allies. There is no moral comparison between Gitmo and how our enemies treat their captives. The Global War on Terror is ongoing, and all live unlawful combatants in that war belong at Gitmo, the finest such facility on earth. ICRC physicians I worked with there told me, "No one does [detention operations] better than the US." The conditions at Gitmo are superb, and include FREE Qurans, prayer rugs/beads, directions to Mecca, white robes, services of US military Muslim chaplains, halal and special Muslim holy holiday meals, world class health, vision and dental care, psychiatric services, correspondence, recreation, books, DVDs, video games, TV, sports and more. Only a handful of detainees were waterboarded, which was approved and legal at the time and did not meet the internationally accepted definition of torture at the time, in order to obtain valuable information that saved many lives. The problem with prosecuting those accused of war crimes lies in the Military Commissions Acts of 2006 (Bush) and then in 2009 (Obama), which gives these detainees virtually the same rights an American would enjoy in a federal court of law. This is ridiculous and unprecedented. Detainees should have no more or no fewer rights than an American soldier would have under the UCMJ, as per the Law of War.