U.S. Mideast policy fails – Iran’s supreme leader

TEHRAN, April 6 (RIA Novosti) – U.S. policy in the Middle East has failed dismally, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Friday.

“The plans of the arrogant powers, led by the United States, in the Middle East have collapsed, especially in Palestine [PNA], Iraq, and Lebanon,” Iranian television quoted Khamenei as saying.

He called on Muslims all over the world to stand up to the “arrogant powers” that are striving to ferment interethnic and communal discord among the followers of Islam.

He said despite the long-running “intrigues and plots by its enemies,” Iran is becoming stronger every day.

A senior aide to Iran’s supreme leader said Thursday the U.K.’s intrusion into Iran’s territorial waters was an attempt by the West to test the republic’s defense capabilities.

Iran detained 15 British Navy personnel in the Gulf March 23 for allegedly violating its maritime border with Iraq. Britain has insisted the servicemen were in Iraqi waters under a UN mandate, and were returning in dinghies to HMS Cornwall after patrolling oil platforms.

“By trespassing into our country’s territorial waters, the occupation forces in Iraq sought, among other things, to test Iran. But considering Iran’s political and military wisdom, they met with a firm rebuff,” said Ali Akbar Velayati, international affairs advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

He said that Iran, like the Islamic world as a whole, “is not afraid of Western power.”

“Muslims must know that they can stand up to the strongest enemies of Islam,” he said.

The 15 British Navy personnel, released by Iranian authorities Wednesday after almost two weeks in custody, returned to the United Kingdom Thursday.

Source: (Ria Novosti)

Guantanamo conditions ‘worsening’

 Source: BBC

Conditions for detainees at the US military jail at Guantanamo Bay are deteriorating, with the majority held in solitary confinement, a report says.

Amnesty International said the often harsh and inhumane conditions at the camp were “pushing people to the edge”.

It called for the facility to be closed and for plans for “unfair” military commission trials to be abandoned.

Many of the 385 inmates have been held for five years or more, unable to mount a legal challenge to their detention.

“While the United States has an obligation to protect its citizens… that does not relieve the United States from its responsibilities to comply with human rights,” the report said.

“Statements by the Bush administration that these men are ‘enemy combatants,’ ‘terrorists’ or ‘very bad people’ do not justify the complete lack of due process rights,” the group said.

Amnesty reiterated its call for detainees at the prison camp in Cuba – many of whom are suspected Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters – to be released or charged and sent to trial.

‘Already in despair’

The report, published on Thursday, said about 300 detainees are now being held at a new facility – known as Camp 5, Camp 6 and Camp Echo – comparable to “super-max” high security units in the US.

The group said the facility had “created even harsher and apparently more permanent conditions of extreme isolation and sensory deprivation”.

It said the detainees were reportedly confined to windowless cells for 22 hours a day, only allowed to exercise at night and could go for days without seeing daylight.

The organisation’s UK director, Kate Allen, described the process at Guantanamo as “a travesty of justice”.

“With many prisoners already in despair at being held in indefinite detention… some are dangerously close to full-blown mental and physical breakdown.

“The US authorities should immediately stop pushing people to the edge with extreme isolation techniques and allow proper access for independent medical experts and human rights groups.”

‘Serving justice’

The provision that stripped detainees of their right to mount a legal challenge to their confinement was upheld by a US federal appeals court in Washington in February.

Pushing the anti-terror legislation through Congress last year, Mr Bush said he needed the new law to bring terror suspects to justice.

It allows for the indefinite detention of people as “enemy combatants”.

The US has said it plans to use the military tribunal system to prosecute about 80 of 385 prisoners remaining at the camp.