Hicks claim of Torture

One of the Australian citizens held at Guantanamo Bay, David Hicks has been claimed to have been tortured by his Australian lawyer Stephen Kenny.

One of the Australian citizens held at Guantanamo Bay, David Hicks has been claimed to have been tortured by his Australian lawyer Stephen Kenny.

This is in collaboration with the Red Cross claims, claims of British detainees released from Guantanamo and the Iraq prisoner scandal. It partially confirms my concerns I expressed in letters to U.S. Presidential candidates.

That torture has occurred should be of no surprise to any observer, given the systematic approach of the Bush administration to ignore its human rights obligations. The U.S government executive branch’s very creation of prisons beyond the jurisdiction of the legislative branch and in refusal of its signatory to international human rights laws constitutes a premeditated plan to hold its operations above those laws and to in effect break them.

There are now at least four grounds to impeach the ghoul:

• Premediated intention to deny justice to persons according to U.N human rights obligations, illegal under the Article VI of the U.S. constitution through creation of Guantanamo Bay detention centres.



• Despite reports by Human Rights Watch, the ICRC and the Iraqi Human Rights Minister Turki of torture at Abu Gharaib, a policy of statements of denial was enacted, prolonging torture by sheltering those ordering and perpetrating torture.



• Massive failure in intelligence finding no ties to Al Qaida (prior to invasion) and no WMDs leading to a crime against the peace, the undue invasion of a sovereign nation without provocation.



• Redirecting USD$700m from money appropriated to fight the war in Afghanistan to planning for the invasion of Iraq.