US Democrat Senator urges Guantanamo shutdown

[nana]

www.abc.net.au/news/justin/

Last Update: Monday, June 6, 2005. 12:21pm (AEST)

Leading US Democrat Senator urges Guantanamo shutdown

The leading US Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has urged the Bush administration to close its prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, calling it more trouble than it was worth..

The facility has been plagued by charges of prisoner abuse and improper behavior by prison guards, including the latest admission by the Pentagon that one copy of the Koran, Islam's holy book, was once kicked by guards and another was sprayed with urine.

"I think we should end up shutting it down, moving those prisoners," Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware told the American Broadcasting Corporation.

He said inmates who still have intelligence value should be moved to other locations, but all the rest should be sent back to their home countries.

The detention center at a US naval base in Guantanamo Bay was set up in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks for terrorism suspects captured in Afghanistan and other parts of the world.

Australian David Hicks is being held at Guantanamo and has been charged by the US but no date has been set for his trial.

About 550 detainees have been held there on average since the beginning of the war on terror.

In its recent report, human rights group Amnesty International characterised the Guantanamo Bay detention camp "the gulag of our times."

Senator Biden did not agree with that description, but said the facility was doing the United States more harm than good.


"The bottom line is I think more Americans are in jeopardy as a consequence of the perception that exists worldwide with its existence than if there were no Gitmo," he stated, using Pentagon jargon for the name of the base.

- AFP
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This is unbelievable: "said the facility was doing the United States more harm than good."

..... "doing the United States more harm than good"?????

Hello?
The facility has been plagued by charges.... the poor poor facility.

What about the human beings held within it? They've not only been 'plagued, they've been kidnapped and tortured and held without charges for YEARS!

Why is it always about the 'harm' that is being done to the USA and it's image and credibility?

Why in the name of all that's holy is it never about the harm (torture and even murder) that is being done by our military and private 'contractors', DELIBERATELY to other human beings?

Torture, abuse, kidnapping, is always wrong and imprisoning people based on nothing more than suspicions is wrong.

Why does everything get trivialized down to America's image?

But I guess 'detainees' don't count as human beings just like us, because they're not Americans.

Pardon me while I puke.

[Moses]

Biden must be a Tom Friedman fan-- I think I read commentary on Friedman's suggestion that Guantanamo be shut down because it was hurting the" war on terror"--- oh it was Bob Schiefer, who wrote that it should be shut down because of what it was doing to us.

[nana]

Narcissistic Personality Disorder seems to be a condition that not only individuals can have, but also millions of people in a society/culture/country/religion. I find it interesting that the following is called
Narcissistic Personality Disorder, American Description. Even its description is, linguistically, narcissistic.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder - American Description
Diagnostic Criteria

A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

1. has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)

2. is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love

3. believes that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)

4. requires excessive admiration

5. has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations

6. is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends

7. lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others

8. is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her

9. shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes



source: www.mentalhealth.com/dis1/p21-pe07.html

[Moses]

Yes, and this is a PATHOLOGY. Bush is definitely pathologically narcisistic, but as you say, he (and the media?) seems to have caused this to become a national pathology, with the pathological sense of entitlement being very prevalent among those elites who identify themselves as Republicans.

[Moses]

Hey! You were right again! From the Post:

US Leads in Mental Illness, Lags in Treatment