2008 Woodie Awards
From the Editor
At what point is torture wrong?
Sally Cramer
Issue date: 2/15/05 Section: Forum
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The answer: always. I am thankful that U.S. District Judge Joyce Hens Green ruled against the Defense Department.
She found the tribunals they reportedly had with detainees at Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba to be illegal. According to the Washington Times, she said that "the approximately 550 men held as ?enemy combatants? are entitled to the advice of lawyers and to confront the evidence against them in those proceedings.
But, she found, the Defense Department has largely denied them these ?most basic fundamental rights?...in the name of protecting the United States from terrorism." In many cases people were detained simply for being alleged members of groups that do not like Americans. A spokesperson for the government said they plan to appeal the ruling and the case will be seen in higher courts.
The detention of many innocent people is bad enough. What is even more disturbing comes from the Washington Times. The article states that a military investigation not yet public and newly declassified accounts from detainees, female interrogators at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay repeatedly used sexually suggestive tactics to humiliate and pry information from devout Muslim men.
I wish this were not true. However, we do not know whether or not the facts are absolute or whether these women were simply following commands from higher ranking officials.
It is difficult for me to imagine that there are such cruel people out there. It is even more difficult to imagine women who are cruel, or who would use their sexual power to humiliate and offend these men who believe in very different gender roles. I do not agree with their cultural gender roles. I do not even agree with typical American gender roles, and try to subvert the roles as much as I can. However, this is what these people believe, as much as I may not agree with it. Physical torture is bad enough. Insulting someone?s religious beliefs and using psychological torture is worse.
She found the tribunals they reportedly had with detainees at Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba to be illegal. According to the Washington Times, she said that "the approximately 550 men held as ?enemy combatants? are entitled to the advice of lawyers and to confront the evidence against them in those proceedings.
But, she found, the Defense Department has largely denied them these ?most basic fundamental rights?...in the name of protecting the United States from terrorism." In many cases people were detained simply for being alleged members of groups that do not like Americans. A spokesperson for the government said they plan to appeal the ruling and the case will be seen in higher courts.
The detention of many innocent people is bad enough. What is even more disturbing comes from the Washington Times. The article states that a military investigation not yet public and newly declassified accounts from detainees, female interrogators at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay repeatedly used sexually suggestive tactics to humiliate and pry information from devout Muslim men.
I wish this were not true. However, we do not know whether or not the facts are absolute or whether these women were simply following commands from higher ranking officials.
It is difficult for me to imagine that there are such cruel people out there. It is even more difficult to imagine women who are cruel, or who would use their sexual power to humiliate and offend these men who believe in very different gender roles. I do not agree with their cultural gender roles. I do not even agree with typical American gender roles, and try to subvert the roles as much as I can. However, this is what these people believe, as much as I may not agree with it. Physical torture is bad enough. Insulting someone?s religious beliefs and using psychological torture is worse.
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