UN rejects Guantanamo visit offer

[I am ashamed as an American that my nation has engaged in torture -- the horror that confronted us in the Nazi and that continued with Stalin and the Cold War. My gut reaction is that we are being run by a bunch of gangsters in and around the White House. This is the spawn of our right wing think tanks set running by William Buckley straight out of the fascist model of his second home back when in Franco's Spain. It is time that we got rid of these neo-fascists who are, I hope, now disallusioning the public as they attempt their last grab from our national resources. Stay tuned for the tax relief plotted for the super wealthy following upon last night's Republican House vote, 217-215, slashing basic budget items -- food, medicine, affordable housing, student loans -- for those Americans who need them. The eyes of the world (if not CNN and FOX news) are upon us. Ed Kent]

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UN rejects Guantanamo visit offer
Some 500 terror suspects are being held at Guantanamo
The UN has formally rejected a US invitation to visit the Guantanamo prison camp, saying it cannot accept the restrictions imposed by Washington.

UN human rights experts said the US had refused to grant them the right to speak to detainees in private.

This was needed to make a "credible, objective and fair assessment of the situation of the detainees", they said.

Some 500 terror suspects are being held at the US military camp. Only the Red Cross has been given access to them.

The International Committee of the Red Cross reports its findings only to the detaining authorities.

Pentagon refusal

Human rights campaigners have expressed growing concern about the treatment of the inmates at Guantanamo, a number of whom are on hunger strike.

We deeply regret that the US government did not accept the standard terms of reference
UN monitors' statement.

Calls for it to be opened to human rights monitors increased this year, as more allegations surfaced of abuse at the prison camp.

UN officials have been trying to visit the camp since it opened in January 2002.

Last month, the Pentagon said the UN monitors would be allowed to visit the camp on 6 December.

The UN agreed to limit the visit to one day, rather than three, and to send three monitors and not five.

But it remained adamant that the inspectors would not visit if they were not allowed to talk to detainees privately.

The UN monitors have said that to visit the camp under such restrictions "would undermine the principles" under which they work.

"It is particularly disappointing that the United States government, which has consistently declared its commitment to the principles and of independence and objectivity of the fact-finding mechanism, was not in a position to accept these terms," a UN statement said.
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