News.com.au reports:
"The US has floated plans to turn Guantanamo Bay into a death camp, with its own death row and execution chamber. Prisoners would be tried, convicted and executed without leaving its boundaries, without a jury and without right of appeal, The Mail on Sunday newspaper reported yesterday. The plans were revealed by Major-General Geoffrey Miller, who is in charge of 680 suspects from 43 countries, including two Australians. The suspects have been held at Camp Delta on Cuba without charge for 18 months. [...]
The Mail on Sunday reported the move is seen as logical by the US [but] has horrified human rights groups and lawyers representing detainees. They see it as the clearest indication America has no intention of falling in line with internationally recognised justice. The US has already said detainees would be tried by tribunals, without juries or appeals to a higher court. Detainees will be allowed only US lawyers.
American law professor Jonathan Turley, who has led US civil rights group protests against the military tribunals planned to hear cases at Guantanamo Bay, said [...]: 'This camp was created to execute people. The administration has no interest in long-term prison sentences for people it regards as hard-core terrorists.'"
And Horst Prillinger comments:
"Technically, it's now possible (and, if you're paranoid enough, even feasible) that the USA invades any country that they claim is a threat to it, abduct citizens that they claim are terrorists, detain them in a camp located outside any national or international jurisdiction and finally put them to death. With the powers granted by the Patriot Act, just about anybody can find themselves on death row in a US death camp if they're in the wrong place at the wrong time."
The Bush Timer: 1 year 238 days remaining
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