fire in wire
the official blog of amnesty international at the university of nebraska-lincoln
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Cassie's Letter in the Journal Star
Blatant disregard
A man once said, "We must scrupulously guard the civil rights and civil liberties.... We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization."
Today, this man's words are being blatantly disregarded. For the past five years, the civil liberties and civil rights of hundreds of people have been taken away. For the past five years, oppression, injustice and hatred have, indeed, attacked our civilization. Sixty years later, his words are still valid.
The president was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And the victims today are detainees at the naval base, Guantanamo Bay.
It has been four years since the first men were transferred to Guantanamo, and today, 500 men are unlawfully held and tortured at the detention facility. They have had little or no contact with the outside world. To escape their torture, they have embarked on prolonged hunger strikes. They have attempted suicide.
The torture taking place at Guantanamo is illegal, it is ineffective and
most of all it is immoral.
To put a stop to this, an independent commission of inquiry into the United States' detention policies and practices must be put into place. Detainees should be released; Guantanamo should be closed; torture should be officially and publicly condemned.
Cassie Fleming, Lincoln
Read the letter and post your feedback at the Lincoln Journal Star's web site: journalstar.com. Great work, Cassie, and we look forward to seeing other AI-UNL members' letters published soon.
