Guantanamo Bay: A "Gulag Of Our Times" or a "Model Facility"?

Last week, Amnesty International issued a damning report blasting the Bush administration for ignoring international law and mistreating detainees held at military prisons. The report stated that human rights are in retreat worldwide and the United States bears most of the responsibility. It called the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, "the gulag of our times." Amnesty called on foreign governments to uphold their obligations under international law by investigating all senior U.S. officials involved in the torture scandal. And, the group says, if those investigations support prosecution, the governments should arrest any official who enters their territory and begin legal proceedings against them.

This past weekend, General Richard Myers, and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice all dismissed Amnesty's report. And on Monday night Larry King aired an interview with Vice President Dick Cheney who said about the report, “Frankly, I was offended by it. For Amnesty International to suggest that somehow the United States is a violator of human rights, I frankly just don”t take them seriously.” He went on to say that "Occasionally there are allegations of mistreatment, but if you trace those back, in nearly every case, it turns out to come from somebody who had been inside and released to their home country and now are peddling lies about how they were treated."

At a press conference yesterday, President Bush dismissed the report as well:

"I'm aware of the Amnesty International report, and it's absurd. It's an absurd allegation. The United States is a country that is -- promotes freedom around the world. When there's accusations made about certain actions by our people, they're fully investigated in a transparent way. It's just an absurd allegation.

"In terms of the detainees, we've had thousands of people detained. We've investigated every single complaint against the detainees. It seemed like to me they based some of their decisions on the word of -- and the allegations -- by people who were held in detention, people who hate America, people that had been trained in some instances to disassemble -- that means not tell the truth. And so it was an absurd report. It just is."

??Joining us on the phone from New York is the executive director of Amnesty International USA, William Schulz. Also in our D.C studio is David Rivkin. He is is a partner in the Washington office of Baker & Hostetler He also served served in a variety of legal and policy positions in the Reagan and George H. W. Bush Administrations, including stints at the White House Counsel's office, Office of the Vice President and the Departments of Justice and Energy.

* David Rivkin, a partner in the Washington office of Baker & Hostetler LLP, a Visiting Fellow at the Nixon Center, a Contributing Editor of the National Review magazine and a member of the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights which as an expert body, supporting the UN Human Rights Commission.
* William Schultz, Executive Director, Amnesty International USA

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/01/1441204