The answer: always. I am thankful that U.S. District Judge Joyce Hens Green ruled against the Defense Department.She found the tribunals they reportedly had with detainees at Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba to be illegal. According to the Washington Times, she said that “the approximately 550 men held as ?enemy combatants? are entitled to the advice of lawyers and to confront the evidence against them in those proceedings.
But, she found, the Defense Department has largely denied them these ?most basic fundamental rights?…in the name of protecting the United States from terrorism.” In many cases people were detained simply for being alleged members of groups that do not like Americans. A spokesperson for the government said they plan to appeal the ruling and the case will be seen in higher courts.
The detention of many innocent people is bad enough. What is even more disturbing comes from the Washington Times. The article states that a military investigation not yet public and newly declassified accounts from detainees, female interrogators at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay repeatedly used sexually suggestive tactics to humiliate and pry information from devout Muslim men.
I wish this were not true. However, we do not know whether or not the facts are absolute or whether these women were simply following commands from higher ranking officials.
It is difficult for me to imagine that there are such cruel people out there. It is even more difficult to imagine women who are cruel, or who would use their sexual power to humiliate and offend these men who believe in very different gender roles. I do not agree with their cultural gender roles. I do not even agree with typical American gender roles, and try to subvert the roles as much as I can. However, this is what these people believe, as much as I may not agree with it. Physical torture is bad enough. Insulting someone?s religious beliefs and using psychological torture is worse.
Since some Middle Eastern religions, specifically Muslim,view certain clothing necessary for women, and specific sexual acts as especially taboo, it seems as though interrogators used these to torture the detainees. The same Washington Times article states that fake blood was put on Muslim men before they intended to pray and the interrogators told them it was their menstrual blood.
This was supposedly done because some Muslims believe that “if a woman touches him prior to prayer, then he?s dirty and can?t pray. Muslim men also believe that contact with women other than their wives diminishes religious purity.”
A pentagon official was quoted as defending the interrogators? behavior by saying “They are trying to find the key that will get someone to talk to them. Using things that are culturally repulsive is okay as long as it doesn?t extend to something prohibited by the Geneva Conventions.” Detainees have complained of physical abuse including routine beatings, painful shackling, and exposure to extremes of hot and cold. I do not believe in torture.
Although I know that it is possible that the detainees could be terrorists, no matter what horrors they have committed, it does not make it excusable for someone to torture them or take revenge. As Ghandi said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” And as Bishop Desmond Tutu said about the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, “There is no future without forgiveness.” These people, although suspected of horrible acts, deserve every bit of American law and order and due process that an American citizen has rights to. There are many people who think that an American life is worth more than an Arab life, or an African life, etc. People everywhere in the world are different.
What makes a human being truly compassionate is being able to accept those differences and still value everyone?s life equally. All women are my sisters, and all men are my brothers. We must all treat each other with respect.