Over the weekend, two
Saudis and a Yemeni committed suicide in their cells at Guantanamo.
"They were the first prisoners to have died at Guantanamo since the United
States began sending suspected Al Qaeda & Taliban captives there in
2002." Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, Colleen
Graffy described the suicides as a "good
PR move to draw attention." (The State Department immediately pulled
back from Graffy's statement, with a spokesperson saying, "I would just
point out in public that we
do not see it as a PR stunt.")  

Putting aside questions as to the doubtless
limited future now faced by Ms Graffy & her extraordinarily important
title, the incident has refocused the world's attention on the torture issue
& has "triggered
increased international pressure on President George W. Bush to close the
prison at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba." Bush will travel
to the European Summit next week where he "will hear new
calls to shut the facility."  

In the US, religious leaders & doctors
are reiterating their opposition to torture.  

Through the National
Religious Campaign Against Torture, a group of twenty-seven distinguished
religious leaders have signed a statement urging the United States to "abolish torture now - without exceptions."  

The statement, being published in
newspaper advertisements starting today, is the opening salvo of a new
organization called the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, which has
formed in response to allegations of human rights abuse at U.S. detention
centres in Iraq, Afghanistan & Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. 

Titled "Torture is a Moral
Issue," the statement says that torture "violates the basic dignity
of the human person" & "contradicts our nation's most cherished
values." "Nothing less is at stake in the torture abuse crisis than
the soul of our nation. What does it signify if torture is condemned in word
but allowed in deed?" it asks. 

The signers come from a broad
range of denominations & include notable religious conservatives, such as
the Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals;
Archbishop Demetrios, primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America;
& the Rev. William J. Byron, former president of Catholic University.’ 

Meanwhile, the American Medical Association
(AMA) "on Monday voted to refine its ethical guidelines that forbid
doctors from participating in torture or 'coercive' interrogations of
prisoners." An AMA report recommended that doctors
"must not conduct, directly participate in, or monitor an interrogation
with an intent to intervene, because this undermines the physician's role
as healer." 

in the wake of this world-wide
condemnation, today …… 

‘The US Defence Department has
suspended all military trials for "war on terror" suspects at the
Guantanamo prison camp in Cuba. 

The decision, announced after the
weekend suicide of three detainees, came as the US Supreme Court was expected
to rule imminently on the military tribunals' legality. 

"All sessions in all cases
currently referred to trial by Military Commissions are stayed until further
notice," the Pentagon said in a statement posted on Monday but dated
Saturday, the day the three detainees were found hanged in their cells. 

The statement does not explain
the reasons behind the suspension. 

Only 10 of the 460 inmates held
as "enemy combatants" have been formally charged since the camp
opened in early 2002 at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.' 

US
Suspends All Guantanamo Military Trials 

and the Sydney Morning Herald’s
editorial offered ….. 

‘The suicide of three prisoners
held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba makes the case for prompt
repatriation of the remaining Australian prisoner, David Hicks, only more
urgent. Even if the apparently concerted suicides were conceived as "a
good PR move" or an act of asymmetrical "warfare" - in the
distasteful, self-excusing words of some American officials - they were
despairing acts, and contradicted the Islamic faith these alleged fanatics are
said to be pursuing.

We now have an absurd argument
about Hicks's mental state between non-specialists. On one side, the US
military lawyer defending Hicks, Major Michael Mori, says the prisoner is in a
seriously depressed state after 4½ years of detention, which has included
stretches of solitary confinement in a windowless box for as long as 10 months.
On the other, the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister and the Attorney-General
report the latest consular visit from New York, which found Hicks to be in
sound physical and mental condition. 

This is absurd. It would be
surprising if Hicks, already a troubled and alienated young man when he began
his Islamist odyssey in Kosovo, Pakistan and Afghanistan, was not disturbed by
his long, oppressive detention, and the rank injustice of the quasi-legal
processes facing him. Although he was captured, or handed over by bounty
hunters, while fighting for what was effectively the government of Afghanistan
at the time, he is denied the protection of the Geneva Conventions applying to
prisoners or war. Instead, the Bush Administration constructed a constitutional
void, in which torture up to the pain threshold of organ failure was deemed
acceptable, and eventual sentence on vague conspiracy charges would be passed
by a dubious military tribunal.’ 

Hicks Detention Now
Australia's Indignity

of course, not a word from the rodent,
flabby fishnets or the mute keepers of our aussie moral & spiritual values
….. no indeedy ….

This morning all reporters were
expelled from Guantanamo Naval Base by a directive from the Office of Secretary
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, rescinding an invitation from the admiral in charge
of the prison to cover the recent deaths of three detainees. The deceased
detainees were represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and
co-counsel, which have called for an emergency, independent investigation of
the deaths. 

Today CCR forcefully condemned
the expulsion of reporters from the base, and the human rights organization
emphasized that the administration's crackdown on the press was particularly
disturbing given the significant questions about this weekend's deaths. 

"At a time when the
administration must be transparent about the deaths at Guantanamo, they are
pulling down a wall of secrecy and avoiding public accountability. This
crackdown on the free press makes everyone ask what else they are hiding down
there?" said Gitanjali Gutierrez, a CCR attorney who is preparing to visit
the base to meet with clients next month. "This press crackdown is the
administration's latest betrayal of fundamental American values. The Bush
Administration is afraid of American reporters, afraid of American attorneys
and afraid of American laws." she added.

‘President
Bush stated this week that he wants to close Guantánamo, that he wants to give
the men trials. Well, let's have them - immediately. The US has had over four
years to gather evidence against the men. Surely that is enough time to prove
guilt. And now it is time to show the world the evidence. As Harriet Harman,
the British constitutional affairs minister, said yesterday, Guantánamo must be
opened up to review or shut down. Will Britain do what is necessary to make
this a reality? Because this is about even more than the fate of 460 people, it
is about whether the US and its allies will lead the world by democratic
example, or whether they will continue to give lip service to human rights and
open societies, while denigrating those cherished notions with their actions. 

If
the men in Guantánamo (and the other US prisons around the world, such as the
one at the Bagram air force base in Afghanistan, where over 600 men languish in
Guantánamo's hidden twin) did something wrong, by all means punish them. But if
they did not, they must be sent home. 

Mohammed
El Gharani, our client at Reprieve, was only 14 when he was seized in a mosque
in Pakistan. He was only 15 when he arrived in Guantánamo Bay. Already twice
this year he has tried to kill himself, once by hanging, once by slitting his
wrists. Let us pray there is movement by the US to finally do justice, before
Mohammed, truly only a child, or anyone else in Guantánamo Bay commits
suicide.’ 

A Tunnel
Without End

‘Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and now
a new name on the roster of shame, Haditha. 

Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st
Marine Regiment was patrolling the Iraqi town of Haditha last November when a
roadside bomb killed one of its members. Kilo's men allegedly burst into the
nearest house and gunned down 24 men, women and children cowering inside. 

Accused of initially trying to
cover up this killing (and other civilian killings in Iraq), the military last
month began conducting a criminal investigation. 

Many Americans are outraged and
are demanding the Marines involved and superior officers face prosecution. 

The U.S. military responded with
sensitivity sessions about "core values." What a sick joke. Anyone
who needs such instruction belongs in jail, not the armed forces.’ 

Massacre Of
Civilians Was Inevitable

From the ABC

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT
LOCATION: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2006/s1676206.htm
Broadcast: 30/06/2006
Lawyer calls for Hicks' return
Reporter: Maxine McKew

MAXINE MCKEW: Well, let's go now to Washington where we've been joined tonight by David Hicks' military lawyer, Major Michael Mori. Thanks for joining us. You've probably heard the comments there, but certainly Prime Minister John Howard is refusing to call for the repatriation of David Hicks back to Australia. He is now saying the US needs to find an alternate way of trying David Hicks in America, as speedily as possible.

MAJOR MICHAEL MORI, HICKS' MILITARY LAWYER: Yeah, unfortunately I wish he had said this two and a half years ago when we told him that the military commission system was unfair, the Law Council told him, everybody recognised the system was unfair. He claims to have gotten advice it was a fair process. I think he should go ahead and disclose that advice because I don't think any exists. I think he was just following what the Americans told him to do.

MAXINE MCKEW: He still maintains the view that David Hicks is someone charged with serious offences and those offences still need to be heard, within the US system.

MAJOR MICHAEL MORI: I really challenge that as well. The Australian Government from the beginning has said David Hicks has not violated Australian law, so how serious could his conduct have been? David Hicks is not charged with injuring anyone. The Supreme Court really criticised the conspiracy charge being used at the commissions. There is no serious offences David committed, and I just heard that comment that he claims that David has committed some of the serious offences of those at Guantanamo. That is a complete fabrication and lie. David hasn't injured anyone and for this political spin...

MAXINE MCKEW: One of the charges, as I understand it, of association with Al Qaeda and training with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

MAJOR MICHAEL MORI: Yes, that's part of the conspiracy charge that the Supreme Court has criticised as not being a valid offence under the laws of war. Other charges - David is charged with guarding a tank. You take the charges for - go ahead.

MAXINE MCKEW: I was just going say what is the most likely option now for the Bush administration as you see it, to consider the option of what either civil trials or military court martials?

MAJOR MICHAEL MORI: Well, I'd be very happy with a military court martial and, again, we asked for that two and a half years ago and that was never followed through. Unfortunately the creators of the military commission system have just a vested interest in convictions that whatever system they create, if it's the same people in charge, we will end up with a corrupt system biased towards convictions.

MAXINE MCKEW: Is there any way of telling how quickly this might be resolved?

MAJOR MICHAEL MORI: It's very difficult. It's been four and a half years already. We've seen how slow the progress has been, how the system has failed initially. Unfortunately, only those countries that have pushed hard and said, "We want our citizens back," and demanded fair trials for them, they've been released. To say that David Hicks needs to be locked up at Guantanamo, look at what's going on here. In the United States, a Taliban spokesperson is attending Yale University and yet David Hicks has been locked up for four and a half years in Guantanamo charged with supposedly aiding the Taliban. Where is the justice in that? The hypocrisy is so rampant in this process because it's a political system. Unfortunately the Australian Government wants to stick plain politics instead of looking out for the basic fundamental rights of its citizens, something that as an American it's hard to imagine how a government would do it because I know an American government would never tolerate it.

Read the rest at the ABC

-----------------------------

From the ABC

JOHN HOWARD, PRIME MINISTER: Our advice had been, as had the American Government's advice had been, that it was lawful. Now the court has said no - well, we accept that.

KIM BEAZLEY, OPPOSITION LEADER: This is John Howard's golden opportunity to approach the US Government and make absolutely certain that David Hicks receives a fair, civilian trial.

NARDA GILMORE: But others say the situation has gone on long enough. And after four and a half years at Guantanamo, David Hicks should be brought home.

BOB BROWN, GREENS LEADER: It undermines Australian law. It flouts international law. It is the Prime Minister acting illegally.

LEX LASRY QC, LAWYER: The Australian Government ought to reconsider its position, which has been to refuse to request his return, and now say to the American Government, "We want you to send David Hicks home."

NARDA GILMORE: The Prime Minister agrees it's gone on too long, but he says he has no sympathy for someone who's trained with Al Qaeda. He says David Hicks couldn't be tried here and if he was brought home, he'd go free.

JOHN HOWARD: He has, amongst those that are held in Guantanamo Bay, committed more serious offences than most.

NATASHA STOTT DESPOJA, AUSTRALIAN DEMOCRATS: He has not been convicted. He has not been proven to have committed any offence under the military commission process or any other, and for the Prime Minister to convict him is an outrage.

read more at the ABC
----------------------
GUS is flabagasthingyted...

""""JOHN HOWARD: He has, amongst those that are held in Guantanamo Bay, committed more serious offences than most. """""

According to Major Mori: """""That is a complete fabrication and lie. David hasn't injured anyone and for this political spin... ... Yes, that's part of the conspiracy charge that the Supreme Court has criticised as not being a valid offence under the laws of war. Other charges - David is charged with guarding a tank. """"

Only 10 out of nearly 500 people held at guano bay have been charged with flimsy offences only one is charged with injuring someone. And that is not Hicks.

Rotten hypocrite grocer...

From Al Jazeera

US military in Guantanamo scandal

Guantanamo Bay detainees have had their letters and legal papers confiscated by military authorities investigating three apparent suicides at the prison three weeks ago, according to lawyers.

Attorneys for prisoners at the facility said at least one detainee claimed the documents were taken because prison officials suspected the lawyers might have had advance knowledge of suicide attempts, or even encouraged them as a form of protest - an allegation the lawyers deny.

"They think that they are going to find letters from us suggesting suicide. It's ludicrous," said Clive Stafford Smith, legal director for Reprieve, a British human rights group that has filed legal challenges on behalf of about 35 men held at the prison for terrorism suspects.

Bill Goodman, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which has filed challenges on behalf of about 200 detainees, said the group planned to have one of its attorneys look into the seizure and press for the return of papers during a visit to the jail next week.

"This is a huge breach of attorney-client privilege," he said.

"They think that they are going to find letters from us suggesting suicide. It's ludicrous"

Clive Stafford Smith, legal director, Reprieve.

US military officials declined to discuss whether papers were seized.
_____________

From our ABC, still...

A-Gs demand immediate action on Hicks trial
State and territory attorneys-general have signed a declaration demanding the Commonwealth take action to ensure Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks is immediately brought to trial.

The federal Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, was heckled by dozens of protesters as he arrived at a meeting of the nation's attorneys-general in Fremantle in WA today.

The detainee's US military lawyer, Major Michael Mori, addressed the attorneys-general.

He expressed disappointment that Mr Ruddock declined an invitation to attend the presentation.

"It's disheartening that federal ministers won't fight for an Australian citizen to have the same rights as an American," he said.

The ministers signed what they are calling the Fremantle Declaration, which urges judicial fairness be applied in Hicks's case.

They say it is needed to protect the legal rights of Australians at home and abroad.

The Prime Minister, John Howard, says Hicks cannot be brought home without trial.

But he says he will again ask the United States to speed up Hicks's trial.

From our ABC, still...

Massive rescue effort saves 40 stranded whales
A huge rescue effort by conservation staff and volunteers has succeeded in saving about half the pilot whales stranded on a beach on New Zealand's North Island.

About 80 pilot whales stranded themselves on Ruakaka Beach, south of Whangarei, this morning and a massive rescue effort has been under way throughout the day.

Rescue coordinator Sue Campbell says about 40 of the whales were refloated near Ruakaka, but the remainder died on the beach.

About six boats are shepherding the pod safely out to sea, while the Department of Conservation and the local Maori tribe make arrangements to bury the dead whales near Marsden Point.

New Zealand has one of the world's highest rates of whale strandings.

According to historical records, more than 5,000 whales and dolphins have beached on the New Zealand coast since 1840.