BUSH'S SECRET DETENTION DEHUMANISES EVERYONE

I have been reading the report of Dick Marty for the Council of Europe on the secret detention centers set up in Poland and Romania for "high value targets" captured by the United States. Marty says rightly that the current U.S. administration of George W. Bush "has created a dangerous precedent of dehumanisation."

"232. The policy of secret detentions and renditions pursued by the current US administration has created a dangerous precedent of dehumanisation. Many of the people caught up in the CIA’s global spider’s web are rightly described as “ghost prisoners” because they have been made invisible for many years.

"233. Meanwhile the US Government’s descriptions of its captives in the “war on terror” can only serve to exacerbate this dehumanising effect. The Administration routinely speaks of “aliens”, “deadly enemies” and “faceless terrorists,” with the clear intention of dehumanising its detainees in the eyes of the American population. The NGO community, for its part, calls them “ghost prisoners”."

Marty criticises the way Bush and his cronies talk about the "enemy," as if the jihadists were not human beings, or as if they were "dehumanised."

"234. By characterising the people held in secret detention as “different” from us – not as humans, but as ghosts, aliens or terrorists – the US Government tries to lead us into the trap of thinking they are not like us, they are not subjects of the law, therefore their human rights do not deserve protection."

"235. President Bush has laid this trap on multiple occasions as a means of diverting attention from the abusive conditions in which certain detainees in US custody are being held.211 Our team heard first-hand how distinctions are drawn in the mind of guards and interrogators: in an interview with one of our CIA sources who has extensive knowledge of detainee treatment, we asked whether a known form of detainee treatment should be considered as abusive. “Here’s my question,” replied our source.

“Was the guy a terrorist? ‘Cause if he’s a terrorist then I figure he got what was coming to him. I’ve met a lot of them and one thing I know for sure is that they ain’t human – they ain’t like you and me.”

Marty talks about every person's right to be treated fairly and humanely, even if that person is accused of the worst horrific crime. I agree with Marty - this is what makes us a civilised society.

"236. Yet what has struck me most often as I have examined the cases of scores of people held in secret detention – some of whom I have met – is precisely the opposite: these detainees’ ordeals have affected me profoundly as I have always thought of them as fellow human beings. The worst criminals, even those who deserve the harshest punishment, must be given humane treatment and a fair trial. This, moreover, is what makes us a civilised society.

"237. It is for these reasons that we must combat their being seen as “ghost prisoners” by
repeatedly pointing out that persons detained in the course of counter-terrorist operations are and remain human beings whose human rights must be protected and who are entitled to humane treatment . . ."