When will the civilized nations of the world determine that this kind of behavior can no longer stand? The United States need to be ostracized on an international level, and invaded if necessary, to punish the people responsible for these crimes against humanity and to rescue the unfortunately individuals who are being tortured. It needs to stop. The world needs to stop it. Please.

ondelette brought this to my attention earlier today [I'll copy the whole comment]:

I have decided that if President Obama really wants to convince people he is ending everything Guantanamo stands for, he should sign this little thingy here:

http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/disappearance-convention.htm

The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

It's a far cry from the old days when Albania has signed and ratified a human rights treaty that the U.S. hasn't even signed. People (including me) bitch and moan about sharia law, but Burkina Faso can sign this and the United States of America, Land of the free home of the brave can't? How brave and free.

Note: there was already an adopted declaration on enforced disappearance in the U.N. in 1992, and it is considered illegal in all circumstances currently under customary international law. I wonder what prompted them to put together a more formal document in 2006?

I don't agree with the invasion part of your comment; but there's no way other countries can force the US to sign it...We The People have to do that.

I've been reading this:

http://ccrjustice.org/files/Report_GTMO_And_Its_Aftermath.pdf

At one point, it describes the interaction of a detainee with a ICRC worker. From page 21:

Other respondents believed the ICRC was incapable of improving their situation. “The Red Cross had no power whatsoever to help us,” said one respondent. Another recalled, when he complained of the constantly blaring music detainees were subjected to, the ICRC delegate gave a helpless laugh and told him his organization was “unable to do anything” about the situation.

I see your point...something I hadn't really though about. It could be quite effective. But, I agree, it's not likely to happen.

Too bad I was just eating my lunch....ughhh

So much for '24', which DCLaw1 correctly pegged as the conservative myth show.

I read DCLaw1's insightful post. I don't think he mentioned the following piece by Jane Meyer, so I thought I would [2/19/07]:

Whatever It Takes

The politics of the man behind “24.”

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/02/19/070219fa_fact_mayer?currentPage=all

This article shows just how much of a "conservative myth" the show is. There's a little bit about his life as a young, relatively poor "latch key" kid in a wealthy town in California.

The presiding officer of West Point and several military interrogators went to talk to him, to tell him the show was having a negative effect on the young men and women they were training to become officers. They told his collegues [he wasn't there as his ADD wouldn't let him sit in a meeting for that long...besides, he had other more lucrative things to do] they had the wrong idea about how interrogation works [or, rather, doesn't], and was having a deletrius effect on the troops.

But...it's all just entertainment, donchaknow?

I would like to know that, too. I think things changed radically during the Reagan-Iran-Contra years, but am not well versed.

In case you're reading...Thanks for all that information [on the other thread] from the talk you went to. Maybe we are witnessing a shift.

February 15, 2006- A group of UN experts state that “the conditions of [Guantanamo detainee] confinement have had profound effects on the mental health of many of them.… These conditions [including long periods of solitary confinement] have led in some instances to serious mental illness, over 350 acts of self-harm in 2003 alone, individual and mass suicide attempts and widespread, prolonged hunger strikes.” [Situation of the Detainees at Guantánamo, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/2006/120 (2006)] [92, p. 49] Note: The DoD does not isolate and report suicide attempts, which are included under a broader category called “manipulative self-injurious behavior.” Guantanamo Commander Rear Admiral Harry Harris characterized the three suicides of June 2006 as acts of “asymmetrical warfare” by committed fighters. [92, p55]

[92] Guantanamo and its Aftermath, Center for Constitutional Rights, November 2008 http://ccrjustice.org/files/Report_GTMO_And_Its_Aftermath.pdf