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International-UN-NGOs
US Holding Prisoners on Warships: UN Official
2005-06-29
VIENNA, 29 June 2005 — The UN has learned of “very, very serious” allegations that the United States is secretly detaining terrorism suspects in various locations around the world, notably aboard prison ships, the UN’s special rapporteur on terrorism said yesterday. While the accusations were rumors, rapporteur Manfred Nowak said the situation was sufficiently serious to merit an official inquiry.
"The seriousness of the charge outways the lack of any shred of evidence that it's true"

“There are very, very serious accusations that the United States is maintaining secret camps, notably on ships,” the Austrian UN official told AFP, adding that the vessels were believed to be in the Indian Ocean region. “They are only rumors, but they appear sufficiently well-based to merit an official inquiry,” he added.
Fake, but accurate, Manfred?

Last Thursday Nowak and three other UN human rights experts said they were opening an inquiry into the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where Washington has been holding more than 500 people without trial, and into other such locations. The United States has neither refused nor granted requests by Nowak’s group to visit Guantanamo.

“We have accepted, upon the request of the State Department and Pentagon, to limit our investigation for now to Guantanamo, but even in accepting this we have not had a positive response” to the request for a visit, Nowak said. He said that if the “investigation into Guantanamo leads us to other things, we will follow them. We will bring up all these matters to the US government and expect Washington to say officially where these camps are.”
Don't hold your breath

The use of prison ships would allow investigators to interrogate people secretly and in international waters out of the reach of US law, British security expert Francis Tusa said.
Yes, wouldn't it. Whoever thought it up deserves a medal.
“This opens the door to very tough interrogations on key prisoners before it even has been revealed that they have been captured,” said Tusa, an editor for the British magazine Jane’s Intelligence Review.
Nowak said the prison ships would not be “floating Guantanamos” since “they are much smaller, holding less than a dozen detainees.”
Mental picture of al-Qeada prisoners chained in the hold of a rusting hulk anchored in the middle of a blazing sea with Captain Bligh striding the deck. It's a beautiful thing.
Tusa said the Americans may also be using their island base of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean as a site for prisoners.
Prisoners? What prisoners?
Some 520 people suspected of terrorism are currently being held without trial at Guantanamo (those are the low-value cannon fodder) and others are in camps the United States has refused to acknowledge,
or, as we like to call it; Camp Black Hole
the human rights organization Amnesty International has said.
The United States has said that prisoners considered foreign combatants in its “war on terrorism” are not covered by the Geneva Conventions.
Posted by:Steve

#22  Course change? One of those rare ships where the Greenskeeper and the QuarterMaster are the same maybe.
Posted by: Shipman   2005-06-29 22:59  

#21  But I bet the skeet shooting on those ships is fun (think "History of the World, Part 1"...)
Posted by: Pappy   2005-06-29 19:28  

#20  Nah, you merely ask the Captain for a course change.
Posted by: Pappy   2005-06-29 19:27  

#19  That par 3 into a 35 knot wind looks to be a bitch.
Posted by: Shipman   2005-06-29 17:29  

#18  What I want to know is, are they keeping the jihadis on the same ships as the prostitutes? 'Cause that seems counterproductive to me.
Posted by: Angie Schultz   2005-06-29 17:08  

#17  Noooooo! Dochaya see? If we put them all on prison ships, the UN woulda figgered it out sooner, saying, "Wait a minute! Where are you keeping your illegally-detained prisoners?"

That Karl Rove is a genius!
Posted by: Bobby   2005-06-29 16:13  

#16  Don't they think the US could have afforded space for 500 more prisoners on those fictional ships and avoided the Guantanimo thing all together?

What happened to Politicians having a bit of sense and not giving credence to every single rumor that gets shat out of the tin-foil hat crowd. I think the UNs special rapporteur on terrorism Manfred Nowak should be looking for a job next week. The UN is in trouble and he's just pouring gasoline on the fire with this idiocy.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2005-06-29 15:33  

#15  No more Dramamine for you Mahmoud until you tell us what we want to know.

I read Manfred's report--twice-- and the problem is .... ?
Posted by: GK   2005-06-29 14:53  

#14  Like this Naval Ship?
Posted by: 3dc   2005-06-29 14:24  

#13  Crap, if Manny finds out about the intergalactic prison ships, we're screwed.
Posted by: Captain James T Kirk   2005-06-29 13:58  

#12  Note the scare quotes in the last sentence (around "War on Terror"). Yeah, the jihadis will be storming the streets looking for sheep infidels soon!
Posted by: BA   2005-06-29 13:45  

#11  Rum, sodomy and the lash; some people pay good money for that sort of vacation.
Posted by: SteveS   2005-06-29 13:34  

#10  Hey, I've learned of allegations that Kofi Annan is fucking sheep. There's not much evidence to back that up, but the allegation is serious enough that we should probably bring him down to the station and ask him about it, no?
Posted by: Captain Pedantic   2005-06-29 13:31  

#9  Info must have come from the same "koran flushing" sources used by Newsweak.
Posted by: radrh8r   2005-06-29 13:23  

#8  Oh, good! And it's published in Arab News, so there will be more riots and deaths! And the root of this evil (the deaths, that is, not the figment-of-some-overactive-imagination prison-camp claim) is .....

The American Amnesty International "claim" that there were 70,000 prisoners "somewhere", being held in deplorable conditions. The left kills more innocents.
Posted by: Bobby   2005-06-29 13:21  

#7  I certainly hope we have such ships for the jihadis. And a lot more.

The worthless UN can go piss up a rope.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2005-06-29 12:40  

#6  Aye, Bligh. To much rum and sodomy and not enough lash spoils the crew.
Posted by: Nelson   2005-06-29 12:08  

#5   blazing sea with Captain Bligh striding the deck.

Steal my coconuts and pay the price. Fletcher Christian is an ass and still owes me money. The only thing I lacked on the Bounty was the usual detail of Royal Marines. I was too soft on the trip out.
Posted by: Admiral Bligh   2005-06-29 11:59  

#4  The guy's probably just fishing for a bribe to go away. He got left out of the OFF gravy train, it seems.
Posted by: mojo   2005-06-29 11:55  

#3  Next the UN will accuse us of doing something we should be doing with terrorists - namely keelhauling them!
Posted by: 3dc   2005-06-29 10:59  

#2  An "official inquiry" from the UN? Yeah, I'm real worried...
Posted by: tu3031   2005-06-29 10:38  

#1  Cruise ships and tropical retreats? Where do I sign up? Oh wait thats the Navy!
Posted by: Cyber Sarge   2005-06-29 10:25  

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