:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::
"Everything is being compressed into tiny tablets. You take a little pill of news every day - 23 minutes - and that's supposed to be enough." -Walter Cronkite, RE TV news. The Web has changed that for many, however, and here is an extra dose for your daily news cocktail. This prescription tends to include surveillance and now war-related links, along with the occasional pop culture junk and whatever else seizes my attention as I scan online news sites.:: 10.27.2004 ::
:: "Guantanamo four plan to sue US" ::
From BBC News online
Four British men held at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp for nearly three years are suing the US government.
The ex-detainees are alleging torture and other human rights violations.
In the first action of its kind, Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal, Rhuhel Ahmed and Jamal al-Harith each demanded £5.5m, in the suits filed in Washington DC.
But a Pentagon official said the allegations were false and the men were not entitled to a pay out because they had been captured in combat.
Among the defendants named are US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers.
'Beatings' claim
The former detainees - three from Tipton in the West Midlands and Mr al-Harith, 37, from Manchester - filed the suits in Washington DC on Wednesday.
The men were released from the US naval base in Cuba in March.
They claim they were subjected to beatings and abuse during their "arbitrary" detention at Guantanamo Bay prison camp.
After they were freed, all the men were questioned by British police but released without charge.
The lawsuits were filed in Washington by the men's lawyers at Baach Robinson and Lewis.
The action is being brought under the Alien Tort Claims Act, Geneva Conventions, and Religious Freedom Restoration Act, according to a statement from the Center for Constitutional Rights.
The New York-based centre is supporting the four men.
'Un-American'
The four former detainees are seeking damages but primarily want Rumsfeld and other defendants to be held accountable for their actions, said Eric Lewis, the lead lawyer in the case.
"This is a case about preserving an American ideal - the rule of law," Lewis said at a news conference.
"It is un-American to torture people. It is un-American to hold people indefinitely without access to counsel, courts or family. It is un-American to flout international treaty obligations."
Read more here.
posted by me
:: 9:23:00 PM [+] ::
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