Russia Bars Entry to 12 Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib-Linked Americans
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Russia responded to US sanctions against its officials and businessmen by banning 12 more Americans from entering the country.
Ten of those in the list are implicated in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, and two are connected to Guantanamo.
“We have mentioned before that it is futile to communicate with us in the language of sanctions. Such measures will not be allowed to pass without consequence,” said a statement on the foreign ministry website.
Among the most high-profile targets are Rear Adm. Richard W. Butler the Commander, of the Guantanamo Joint Task Force, who is accused of “approved the use force to end the hunger strike among inmates”, and Ricardo Sanchez, a retired general who commanded the Coalition Ground Forces in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, who was “directly responsible for the control of Abu Ghraib prison.”
Most of the others on the "stop-list" are military personnel, who were found guilty of self-documented mistreatment and torture of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib, RT reported.
It also includes the high-profile US District Judge Gladys Kessler, who has repeatedly ruled on the legality of force feeding at Guantanamo’s Camp Delta, though ironically, was responsible for the landmark ruling, passed in May, that bans the US Army from force feeding Syrian detainee Abu Wa'el Dhiab.
The Russian foreign ministry says that it is preparing further bans.
“The latest wave of sanctions over Ukraine will necessarily result in counter-measures. Firstly, the border is being closed to multiple American citizens, which they will discover upon submitting a visa application. Meanwhile, economic sanctions will have a boomerang effect, and harm US business interest on Russian territory, In essence, the US is punishing itself.”
The initial round of sanctions and counter-sanctions between Moscow and Washington was set off with the passing of the Magnitsky Act in the US in 2012.The act intended to prevent free entry to several Russian officials connected with the death of Russian lawyer Sergey Magnitsky, who passed away while in police custody in 2009.
Subsequently, more people Russian citizens and Crimean officials have ended up on US blacklists in several waves of sanctions.
