 GENEVA - A UN human rights body told Washington on Friday that any “secret detention” centres the United States was operating abroad violated international law and should be shut immediately.
Saying it had “credible and uncontested” reports of such jails, the Human Rights Committee said the United States appeared to have been detaining people “secretly and in secret places for months and years”. “The state party should immediately abolish all secret detention,” it said, echoing a similar demand in May by the UN Committee Against Torture.
What secret detention? Oh, that secret detention? No problem, it's closed!
Hokay boys, close Guantanamo and open up Ice Station Zebra, quick! |
In its findings on US observance of the UNÂ’s main political rightsÂ’ treaty, the committee said that the International Committee of the Red Cross must be given access to anybody held during armed conflict.
It could not accept WashingtonÂ’s argument that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights does not apply to anyone not held on US soil, it added.
| It doesn't accept anything we say, and why should they? It's not like they're accountable to anyone. |
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, plane hijackings, the United States has been accused by human rights groups of operating secret detention centres in its so-called war on terrorism.
| All based on the reports of terrorists, but if you can't trust an al-Qaeda dope on torture, who can you trust? |
A report last month for the Council of Europe, the European human rights watchdog said more than 20 European states had colluded in a web of secret CIA jails and flight transfers of terrorism suspects from Asia to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
| He didn't have any proof, but he's sure it happened. |
In an initial reply to the committee’s 39-paragraph report, Washington stuck to its view about territorial limits and said the committee had spent too much time on the United States. “The recent committee conclusions on North Korea were about half the length of that on the United States,” the US mission to the United Nations in Geneva said in a statement.
| And they're embarrassed about how much time they spent on the NKors. |
“The state party (the United States) should review its approach and interpret the covenant in good faith,” said the committee, in its first US review for 11 years. The US report to the committee, submitted in October, was seven years late.
“We consider that the major violations were to do with the fight against terrorism,” said French magistrate Christine Chanet, who chairs the committee which is made up of 18 internationally recognised independent experts.
The committee asked the United States to respond to its comments within a year. Asked what would happen if Washington took no notice, Chanet, speaking in French, said: “There is a strong chance that they will ignore many of the recommendations. They are so certain about their position (but) we can always hope for a change of attitude.” The next US review is not due until 2010.
| And we shouldn't respond until 2017. |
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