Stateless persons and misuse of words

Somehow I found this featured story at English Wikipedia heartening, in that at least America is not the only nation committing evil in these ways (now there's a great example of Benjamin's evil twisted logic!). It seems that Australia's high court decided that Al-Kateb, a "stateless" person, could legally be "detained" indefinitely. Two thoughts:

1. I wonder how much of the crap I complain about would go right out the window if I were to be more generally aware of the number and present reality of people who are currently "stateless". Just try to get your head around what this adjective means. In fact, if anyone has any further information and/or knows of any way we can help such people/get involved, please let me know. I'd love to add a link to my A.M.C. section about this subject.

2. How do we get away with using a word that seems so very gentle--"detain"--to talk about something so awful? I guess the same way that Christians use "communion", "eucharist", or "the Lord's Supper" to talk about a cannibalistic feast. Our language as human beings seems to me to be often tilted in such a way as to avoid the unpleasant/horrific realities of the the things we are talking about.