'We know you are evil...' ("Ottawa Citizen - Thank You!!! Get Up, Stand Up, Stand Up For Our Rights..." :-)

Hmph.

Well, if this was a waste of time before, it's a hell of a waste of time now.

I mean, I don't even know if this will work.

Oh well, here goes nuthin'...

Honestly, no foolin' here, for the umpteen million words I've written I've only got one thing to say:

Why do you still trust these people or the reason they're still here?

Why do you trust what you read when it doesn't say they're evil?

Aren't they evil?

Isn't this evil?

Yahoo! News

U.S. distances itself from Gitmo remarks

By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer Mon Jun 12, 7:37 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration distanced itself Monday from remarks by a U.S. diplomat that the weekend suicides of three Arab detainees at the Guantanamo Bay military prison were a "good P.R. move."

"I would just point out in public that we would not say that it was a P.R. stunt," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, using the abbreviation for public relations. "We have serious concerns anytime anybody takes their own life."

Colleen Graffy, deputy assistant U.S. secretary of state for public diplomacy, told the British Broadcasting Corp. that the deaths at the U.S.-run camp in Cuba were a "good P.R. move to draw attention."

Graffy also told the BBC the deaths were "a tactic to further the jihadi cause."

Graffy's unscripted remarks threw a monkey wrench in the administration's careful plan to demonstrate concern over the deaths and respond to rising criticism of the U.S. operation of the prison.

Bush expressed "serious concern" Saturday over the suicides, and he directed an aggressive effort by his administration to reach out diplomatically while it investigates.

"He wants to make sure that this thing is done right from all points of view," White House press secretary Tony Snow said Saturday evening.

Graffy's boss, Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes, is charged with improving the U.S. image in the Arab world. The former White House communications adviser and longtime Bush aide heads an office at the State Department that monitors and quickly responds to inaccurate or distorted portrayals of U.S. views and actions in the Arab media.

Graffy's remarks were quickly picked up in the Arab press.

"Her comments quickly appeared to be bad P.R. moves for the U.S. administration,"

an article on the Web site of Lebanon's The Daily Star newspaper said.

Two Saudis and one Yemeni hanged themselves Saturday, the first successful suicides at the base after dozens of attempts.

Military officials said the suicides were coordinated acts of protest, but human rights activists and defense attorneys said the deaths signaled the desperation of many of the 460 detainees held on suspicion of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Only 10 detainees have been charged with crimes after more than four years behind bars.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule this month on whether President Bush overstepped his power in setting up war crimes trials for those detainees.

The administration's controversial detentions at Guantanamo Bay are a point of contention between the United States and many of its allies in Europe and the Mideast, and the suicides renewed international pressure to shut the prison.

The European Union on Monday called the Guantanamo Bay detention center an "anomaly," and said it would urge Bush to shut it down when he comes to Europe for a trans-Atlantic summit next week.

"Humanitarian standards and human rights have to be observed" in the fight against terrorism, Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik told reporters.

"For the United States, a country committed to freedom, the rule of law and due process, this is an anomaly."

A group of prominent religious leaders endorsed a statement, which is set to appear in The New York Times on Tuesday, protesting any American use of torture as "morally intolerable."

The White House has said the U.S. does not condone or practice torture.

"Nothing less is at stake in the torture abuse crisis than the soul of our nation," the ad reads. "Let America abolish torture now — without exceptions."

Among the signers to the statement are the Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals; the Rev. Rick Warren, author of "The Purpose Driven Life"; and retiring Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Organizers say former President Jimmy Carter has also signed onto the ad, along with several Jewish, Muslim and black leaders.

Also, the American Medical Association said Monday the direct involvement of doctors in prisoner interrogation is unethical and violates their oath to do no harm.

"Physicians in all circumstances must never be involved in activities that are physically or mentally coercive. If physicians engage in such activities, the whole profession is tainted," according to the new policy adopted by delegates at the AMA's annual meeting.

The suicides prompted an extraordinary round of global outreach by officials from the White House's National Security Council, the State Department and Bush's congressional liaisons.

Within hours of the deaths, the Bush administration had contacted the United Nations, the European Union, most European nations individually, the embassies of Mideast and near-Mideast countries, the International Committee of the Red Cross, bipartisan members of the congressional leadership and the ranking Republican and Democratic members of the House and Senate Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees, Snow said.

Graffy's remarks were sharper than those of other U.S. officials, but not entirely off-message. The camp commander at Guantanamo, Rear Adm. Harry Harris, told reporters Sunday that the detainees "have no regard for human life, neither ours nor their own."

"I believe this was not an act of desperation but an act of asymmetric warfare against us," Harris said.

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SOURCE - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060612/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_guantanamo_suicides_4

C'mon, we know, it's okay, let's deal...

Peace by staying pissed...
BK

______________________

...

Black Krishna Brand

Philosophy - http://blackkrishna.blogspot.com/

Music - http://www.soundclick.com/bands/0/blackkrishna.htm

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