UN Torture Envoy Confident of Visit to Guantanamo

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=8&u=/nm/20050404/ts_nm/rights_us_torture_dc

~snip~


Some nine months after the request was made, Austrian law professor Manfred Nowak said there were signs the U.S. would agree to let him and other U.N. human rights envoys travel to the naval base in Cuba.


"I should say that I am fairly confident that at least to Guantanamo Bay a visit can still be carried out this year, but there is no invitation yet," he said in a brief statement following a meeting with U.S. officials.


The envoys, including the U.N.'s investigator into arbitrary detention, asked last June to inspect conditions in Guantanamo and prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan, where U.S. forces hold suspected militants.


But a U.S. official in Geneva, where the U.N. Commission on Human Rights is holding its annual session, merely confirmed a meeting had taken place with the envoys and that Washington would consider their request.

lots of luck! :eyes:

I think a UN visit would be completely appropriate. I bet there is a lot going on behind the scenes here - there is no way the US will allow this. I wish I understood the logistics of this better. Can the UN lay any real pressure on the admin to make this happen? Man. I am waiting for the day that the UN or someone calls us out, busts us, hands down some consequences. We won't let them check out the prison where we are detaining people against all protocol? Then why aren't we getting sanctioned? Why are we getting away with this?!
Aaaahhhh!!!

:banghead:

... continuing international pressure would have real political consequences for the Administration, which they would not be likely to resist indefinitely. ("As questions about its torture practices remain unanswered, Washington continues to refuse to allow international observers access to prisoners warehoused at Camp X-Ray, which President Bush's advisers once claimed was beyond the reach of any law. American intransigence is fueling speculation about what really happens behind the razor wire ...")