Quote For The Day

"There are bound to be casualties when any nation veers from its domestic and international obligations to uphold human rights and international humanitarian law. Those casualties are etched on the minds and bodies of many of the 62 former detainees interviewed for this report, many of whom suffered infinite variations on physical and mental abuse, including intimidation, stress positions, enforced nudity, sexual humiliation, and interference with religious practices.

Indeed, I was struck by the similarity between the abuse they suffered and the abuse we found inflicted upon Bosnian Muslim prisoners in Serbian camps when I sat as a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, a U.N. court fully supported by the United States. The officials and guards in charge of those prison camps and the civilian leaders who sanctioned their establishment were prosecutedoften by former U.S. government and military lawyers serving with the tribunal for war crimes, crimes against humanity and, in extreme cases, genocide," - Patricia M. Wald, foreword, Human Rights Center's report on former Gitmo detainees.

Wald served on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1979–99) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (1999–2001). Judge Wald was also a member of the President’s Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the U.S. Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction (2004–05).

The report (PDF) can be downloaded here.