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The Green Party of the United States
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MARCH 26, 2003
1:58 PM
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CONTACT:
The
Green Party of the United States
Nancy Allen, 207-326-4576, nallen@acadia.net Scott
McLarty, 202-518-5624, scottmclarty@yahoo.com
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Greens Warn That the Brutal Treatment of Al-Qaeda
Prisoners by the U.S. Places Americans Captured by Iraq in Peril
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| WASHINGTON
- March 26 - Green Party members are warning that the brutal and
humiliating treatment of al-Qaeda prisoners has put American soldiers
captured by Saddam Hussein's army in grave peril.
"The whole
world has seen video footage of shackled and shaved men transported
in plastic containers and confined to cages in Guantanamo," said
Anita Rios, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States.
"The world knows that the Pentagon has sent some captive al-Qaeda
members to other nations to be interrogated under torture. In
November, 2002, six al-Qaeda members were executed by a missile
launched by a CIA drone in Yemen. It's possible that Saddam, a
murderous dictator, will use this as a license to visit similar
treatment on American soldiers taken captive. President Bush,
Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, and Attorney General Ashcroft must
order an end to this kind of treatment immediately."
Greens insist
that torture under any circumstances is immoral, barbaric, and
illegal according to the U.S. Constitution, Geneva Conventions,
and Convention Against Torture. International law forbids torture
of both combatants and civilians, which renders irrelevant Secretary
of State Rumsfeld's change of designation for the prisoners in
Guantanamo Bay from 'prisoners of war' to 'detainees' and 'unlawful
combatants.' Groups like Human Rights Watch note that torture
is notoriously unreliable in extracting useful information.
"We support
our American troops -- we want them sent home, safe and sound,
not delivered on stretchers or in body bags," said Ben Manski,
Wisconsin
Green and co-chair
of the national party. "The only way to support our troops is
to end this illegal war, to stop the waste of human life -- the
lives of U.S., British, and Iraqi soldiers and Iraqi civilians.
That's why we continue to protest the invasion of Iraq. Conquest
and control of Middle Eastern oil resources are not worth the
sacrifice of our young men and women."
###
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