On the NY Times Web page
DOUGLAS JEHL and ANDREA ELLIOTT
write "To date, there have been no accusations of serious prisoner abuse in connection with interrogations at Guantánamo. Most of the criticisms have generally focused on the lack of legal rights and due process and the indefinite nature of the detentions."
This is a very clear and firm statement. They do not write that there have been no accusations demonstrated valid without doubt by photographic evidence. They do not even write that there have been no credible accusations, they write there have been no accusations.
This claim does not pass the Google test. I recalled that British prisoners alleged abuse after they had been relesed and googled "release guantanamo british "
The first hit was an
al Jazeera webb article which contains the assertion
Two former British detainees released from Guantanomo Bay have told Australian television about Habib's treatment.
Jamal al-Harith told the Seven Network that Habib had been subjected to beatings and four days of sleep depravation.
"Blood was coming out of his nose and out of his ears," al-Harith said.
"They were moving him out back and forth, cell to cell every two hours and he wasn't allowed to sleep. He was very tired and sometimes he complained he couldn't walk, but they'd drag him."
Al-Harith, who said he was held in a cell near Habib in Guantanamo claimed that prostitutes were used to humiliate prisoners during interrogations.
Another British former Guantanamo Bay detainee said Habib was abused by his captors.
"I could see him being dragged by chains that were attached to his feet and him screaming in agony," Tariq Dergul told Channel Seven.
.
Theses are clearly "accusation] of serious prisoner abuse in connection with interrogations at Guantánamo"
The simple assertion of fact made by DOUGLAS JEHL and ANDREA ELLIOTT is demonstrably false.
Elapsed time to prove a blatent falsehood was published by the New York times less than 3 minutes. Slow typing means this was posted 15 minutes after I read the claim in the New York Times.
This is supposed to be our newspaper of record. Shouldn't it take more than 3 minutes to prove that it publishes falsehoods ?
update: Dear reader. You almost certainly came here clicking on a link on
Eschaton. Thanks Atrios. I am grateful but greedy so I would like to try to get you to look at more than one page. Atrides might also be interested in
main,
my follow up, a commenter asked where I got the phrase "sleep depravation" I reply in comments but I forgot
this, my definition of
subliminable,
,
The suprising scoops that Bush decided not to attack Ansar al Islam dated 2002, 2003 and 2004,
The Gallup likely voter anomaly,
Blogging against excesses in the war on terror with one hand tied behind my back
Mark Kleiman liked
this comment on
his views of preventing torture, If I am right
this might be a scoop if we can trust Chalabi,
important news on lung cancer plus some statistical innumeracy in the NY Times I agree with Ahmad Chalabi,
I wonder when Safire will denounce the accretion of acrimonious acronyms
the left blogosphere,
weird headlines
.
