Bush, McCain, Torture
02 Jul 2008 12:31 pm
Is it not a rather fantastic historical irony that the torture techniques that the North Vietnamese used against McCain that forced him to offer a videotaped false confession ... are now the techniques the Bush administration is using to gain "intelligence" about terror networks.
How is it possible to know that everything John McCain once said on videotape for the enemy was false, because it was coerced, and yet assert that everything we torture out of terror suspects using exactly the same techniques, is true? In fact, McCain at least knew somewhere that his own government knew he existed, that there were procedures to eventually release him, that he was on someone's radar. The average prisoner at Gitmo or in the other parts of the detention program believes that no one will ever save him, that he could be disappeared for ever, that there are no procedures for his eventual release and no government to remember him. If McCain uttered lies on tape to stop the torture, why would an Islamist tell the truth?
Nothing more accurately exposes the classic moral error of the Bush administration and its enablers in war crimes. If the enemy tortures, it defines their moral evil and all intelligence gleaned from such coercion is self-evidently false propaganda. If we do it, it isn't wrong, and it leads to good intelligence.
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CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org
NEW YORK - Even while the Bush administration's Guantánamo policy continues to crumble, the U.S. government announced charges today against another detainee. The government is seeking the death penalty for Abd Al-Rahim Hussain Mohammed Al-Nashiri, who is being charged for his alleged involvement in crimes including the USS Cole bombing. The American Civil Liberties Union is sponsoring civilian attorneys to represent Al-Nashiri through its John Adams Project, a partnership with the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers to supplement the under-resourced military defense teams that have been assigned to detainees.
This is the first military commissions case to be charged since the Supreme Court dealt a major blow to the Bush administration's national security policies by ruling earlier this month that the Constitution applies to Guantánamo and that all 270 prisoners there can challenge their indefinite detention in federal court.
"The ACLU has assembled a legal team to represent Al-Nashiri to protect constitutional principles that are the bedrock of American liberty, including the right to a fair trial and a vigorous and properly resourced defense," said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. "This case - like that of other Guantánamo detainees - is being pursued in an unconstitutional and biased system that is a far cry from the tried-and-true American justice system. With the government's continued insistence on using a patently unconstitutional system, we are redoubling our effort to make sure this unlawful farce will not go on unchallenged."
New evidence shows that despite warnings from across the military, former Gen. Richard Myers shut down legal scrutiny of brutal interrogation tactics.
By Mark Benjamin
Jun. 30, 2008 | The former Air Force general and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard Myers, helped quash dissent from across the U.S. military as the Bush administration first set up a brutal interrogation regime for terrorism suspects, according to newly public documents and testimony from an ongoing Senate probe.
In late 2002, documents show, officials from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps all complained that harsh interrogation tactics under consideration for use at the prison in Guantánamo Bay might be against the law. Those military officials called for further legal scrutiny of the tactics. The chief of the Army's international law division, for example, said in a memo that some of the tactics, such as stress positions and sensory deprivation, "cross the line of 'humane treatment'" and "may violate the torture statute."
Myers, however, agreed to scuttle a plan for further legal review of the tactics, in response to pressure from a top Pentagon attorney helping to set up the interrogation program for then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
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The price of the ‘liberation’ of Iraq has been paid with the lives of dozens of thousands Iraqis, of thousands of American soldiers, of thousands of American mercenaries, an cost over 700 billion dollars.
Oil Engineer Ali Kadhim spoke about all these events, and then showed a very shocking film on American crimes, revealing the special role of Iran in the occupation of his country.
- Iran has helped the Americans to enter Iraq, in order to take revenge for the war we led against them at the time of Saddam Hussein. When the Americans had already occupied Iraq, the Iranians personally decapitated our scientists, professors and intellectuals in general. We are talking about almost 10 thousand people, whose names I have written in documents which are available on the internet – said Ali Kadhim, adding that everything Iran and the USA are bring up now is only a play in front of the world. What is really happening takes place under the table
As oil expert, he confirmed the well known story according to which the USA made up everything about weapons of mass destruction in order to seize Iraqi oil.
26.06.08
ImageNablus / Amin Abu Wardeh – Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset, Jamal Zahalka, is using Thursday, the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, to bring the issue of Israeli torture of Palestinian political prisoners to the table.
Zahalka is proposing a full discussion on the report issued by the People’s Committee against Torture in Israel which details the ways in which Israeli soldiers routinely mistreat Palestinians.
“The occupation soldiers are trained in the school of sadism; they torture Palestinian detainees and abuse them.”
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Greg Hampikian
The Idaho Shakespeare Festival should be congratulated on a timely and entertaining reminder of what justice is not. Sitting in the audience recently, seeing "The Crucible" for the first time, I was heartstruck by both its historical accuracy and its immediate relevance.
The Salem witch trials are perhaps the best example of what happens when special courts are convened in times of panic. Imagine being charged by anonymous rumors from witnesses you can not confront. Consider what it was like trying to explain a false "confession" obtained by your own repeated dunking, or pressing (having stones placed on your chest until you confess or die).
See the play, and then read the Supreme Court's ruling last week shutting down the Special Administrative Courts for detainees at Guantanamo, some of whom were "water boarded."
See the play, and then read the Supreme Court’s ruling last week shutting down the Special Administrative Courts for detainees at Guantanamo, some of whom were “water boarded.”
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[ 26/06/2008 - 10:41 AM ]
GAZA, (PIC)-- The ministry of prisoner affairs stated Thursday that Israel is the only country in the world that practices torture under international political and legal cover, pointing out that there are more than 11,700 Palestinians in Israeli jails living in inhuman conditions.
In a report issued by the ministry on the occasion of the world day against torture which marks 26 of June, Dr. Ahmed Shweideh said that the IOA has escalated its torture policy against prisoners, where from the first moment of arrest, the IOF troops use tight plastic stripes to shackle their victims and blindfold them before starting to beat them brutally with batons and rifle butts and to trample them underfoot.
Dr. Shweideh underscored that the Israeli general committee against torture revealed that there are 90 cases of torture against Palestinian prisoners including children who are supposed to be protected by international law.
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Wed Jun 25, 7:18 PM ET
The National Security Agency does not need to tell lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainees whether their phones were tapped as part of the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
The NSA has refused to say whether it listened in on the conversations of the lawyers who are advising detainees being held at the U.S. naval facility in Cuba. The NSA says even confirming the existence of such wiretaps would jeopardize national security.
A federal judge in New York agreed, saying the super-secret agency can't be forced to disclose information about the program.
"Confirming or denying whether plaintiffs' communication with their clients has been intercepted would reveal information about the NSA's capabilities and activities," U.S. District Judge Denise Cote wrote.
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· Amnesty issues 'Six-point Plan' to combat 'torture flights'
· New letter to David Miliband on UK rendition victim Binyam Mohamed
Amnesty International has today accused European governments of complicity and inaction over US-led rendition and secret detention, as it published a new report on European renditions and a 'Six-point Plan' for their prevention.
The report focuses on a number of notorious rendition cases, one of whom is Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian national and UK resident, rendered in 2002, allegedly tortured in Morocco and now detained for nearly fours years without trial at Guantánamo Bay.
Mr Mohamed's US military lawyer is extremely concerned for his physical and mental health and Amnesty International has today written to the Foreign Secretary David Miliband seeking his urgent intervention. In particular, Amnesty is urging that Mr Miliband request Binyam Mohamed's immediate transfer from the harsh environment of Guantánamo's 'Camp 5' to a less oppressive camp at Guantánamo.
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SABIN WILLETT (PARHAT’S LAWYER): Boy what a great question that is because my client doesn’t know about this ruling because I’m not allowed to tell him. […] He’s sitting in solitary confinement today. He has no idea what’s happened as far as I know.
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Youssef Nada 
Silvia Cattori : Once he knew, in detail, your incredible story, Mr. Dick Marty denounced the injustice which is inflicted on you. He reported on your case, 19th March 2007 to the Council of Europe [1]. Despite his report, you remain on the « black list » of people suspected of assisting terrorism, deprived of freedom because my country continues to uphold the UN sanctions against you. You are living in Italy, yet being kept as hostage by Switzerland?! I want to tell you that many of us are outraged by the martyrdom that Switzerland continues to inflict on you.
Youssef Nada : You can’t say that it is “the country, Switzerland”. The citizens are one thing, and politics is another. It is true that, in Switzerland, the people here are tolerant and peaceful, and neutral. Not only is the Government neutral, but the people themselves are neutral. But Mr. Dick Marty proved that he is one of the best Swiss citizens. Really, you feel when you read and hear what he says, that he is a humanitarian. The risk he took when he followed the “Extraordinary Renditions” case [2], nobody took before him. All the politicians know what is going on, but no one has the courage to speak. He was the only one who had the courage. Although I respect all the Swiss people, I respect Mr. Marty more, and not only because of the attitude he had towards me. His courage when he talks about people who are helpless in front of the biggest power is unique.
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Guantánamo has exposed the Bush regime's disdain for human rights. But there's nothing uniquely American about this
- The Guardian,
- Monday June 23, 2008
Before his show trial in Hungary in 1948, Robert Vogeler spent three months in a cell sleeping on a board that hovered just above two inches of water. Day and night a bright light bathed his cell, and even then someone would bang on the wall next door just to make sure he couldn't get any sleep. "It is just a question of time before you confess," he said afterwards. "With some it takes a little longer than others, but nobody can resist that treatment indefinitely."
And so Vogeler, who was arrested for spying, buckled under the pressure and played his role in the gruesome farce of Stalin's postwar purges in eastern Europe. "To judge from the way our scripts were written," wrote Vogeler shortly after his forced confession, "it was more important to establish our allegorical identities than to establish our 'guilt'. Each of us in his testimony was obliged to 'unmask' himself for the benefit of the [Soviet-led] press and radio."
A similar script, it has long been clear, has been written at Guantánamo Bay, although this time the lines were for the prosecution rather than the defence. The point of these detentions has never been to see justice done, but rather to provide a teachable moment about the lengths and depths the American state would go to pursue its perceived interests in the war on terror. It was to find a place in which America could operate above and beyond not only international law but its own - a display of unfettered power not merely indifferent to, but openly contemptuous of, global and local norms.
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Posted 32 minutes ago
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A federal appeals court has ruled a Guantanamo detainee was improperly classified as an enemy combatant in the first civilian court decision giving a detainee a chance to win release, SCOTUSblog reports.
The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was not released because it contains classified material, the blog says. The court issued a one-page notice of its decision (PDF posted by SCOTUSblog) and promised to issue a redacted version of the ruling.
The court ruled on behalf of detainee Huzaifa Parhat pursuant to procedures under the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005. The court ordered the government to release Parhat or to hold a new tribunal hearing consistent with its opinion.
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Entire Palestinian village threatened with expulsion
22.06.2008
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel
New Report by PCATI - No Defense: Soldier Violence against Palestinian Detainees
A report by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) published this morning reveals the widespread phenomenon of violence against bound Palestinian detainees by IDF soldiers and the almost absolute indifference of the IDF, the Ministry of Defense and the Knesset towards the existence of this phenomenon and the need to take action in order to eradicate it completely.
The report titled “No Defense: Soldier Violence against Palestinian Detainees” focuses on a large number of incidents of violence against detainees after they had been arrested, bound, and no longer present a danger to the soldiers. Abuse occurs at various junctions - immediately following arrest, in the vehicle transporting the detainees, and during the time they are held in IDF military camps prior to their transfer to interrogation and detention facilities. At times abusive practices involve dogs that are employed by the military forces during arrest operations and transported in vehicles along with Palestinian detainees. On certain occasions, the ill treatment of Palestinian detainees is highly violent resulting in serious injury. At other times, abuse manifests itself in a routine of beating, degradation and additional abuse. Minors, who must be granted special protection under both Israeli and International Law, are also victims of abuse. The soldiers who carry out arrests do not treat minors with special care and at times – as revealed by various testimonies – exploit their weakness.
The report reveals that although the phenomenon of violence against Palestinian detainees by soldiers is blatantly illegal, it is reinforced by a weak legal system which conducts only a small number of investigations and legal proceedings that concern cases of abuse by soldiers. Particularly prominent is the almost absolute indifference to the phenomenon of the authorities, including the military hierarchy, the Minister and Ministry of Defense, the Knesset and the State Comptroller. The report also discloses that the IDF has no directives which regulate the treatment of Palestinian detainees in the period of time between their arrest and their placement in detention and interrogation authorities.
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http://www.stoptorture.org.il/
Itamar Sharon , THE JERUSALEM POST
"IDF soldiers routinely abuse bound and defenseless Palestinian detainees," a new report by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) asserted on Sunday.
The abuse alleged in the report - which was written based on 90 testimonies of Palestinians and IDF soldiers and covered arrests made between 2006 and 2007- included beatings, degradation and other acts of violence, as well as acts directed at minors and some which resulted in serious injury.
The group stressed that such ill treatment of the detainees was carried out after they had been bound and no longer presented a danger to the soldiers.
"Abuse occurs at various junctions - immediately following arrest, in the vehicle transporting the detainees, and during the time they are held in IDF military camps prior to their transfer to interrogation and detention facilities," the PCATI stated.
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LONDON: Britain has turned over classified material to U.S. military prosecutors at Guantánamo Bay about a British prisoner's allegations that he was interrogated and tortured in Morocco after secretly being taken there by the CIA, according to the British Foreign Office.
The prisoner, Binyam Mohamed, was charged by U.S. military prosecutors last month with conspiracy and material support for terrorism, and the Foreign Office said in a letter to his lawyer that the evidence it gave to the Pentagon could be "exculpatory and relevant."
In the letter, which has not been made public, the Foreign Office acknowledged that it had previously denied - to the defendant's lawyers and to a parliamentary committee - having had any information pertaining to Mohamed.
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Last Updated: Tuesday, 28 June, 2005, 19:46 GMT 20:46 UK
US faces prison ship allegations
The UN wants to investigate torture allegations at the camp
The United Nations says it has learned of serious allegations that the US is secretly detaining terrorism suspects, notably on American military ships.
The special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, said the claims were rumours at this stage, but urged the US to co-operate with an investigation.
He said the UN wants lists of the places of detention and those held.
The comments come five days after the UN accused the US of stalling on their requests to visit Guantanamo Bay
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Fri Jun 20, 2008 1:27pm EDT
By James Vicini
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal appeals court ruled on Friday it cannot act on an appeal by a young Canadian until after his case has been decided at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp where he faces charges of murdering a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan.
The unanimous three-judge panel dismissed the appeal by Omar Khadr, who is scheduled to go on trial before a war crimes court on October 8.
The appeals court ruled that a 2006 law limits its jurisdiction to cases only after final judgments have been made by a military commission.
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Phoenix Program - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tom Hayden
Meet the New Dr. Strangelove
Posted June 20, 2008 | 11:43 AM (EST)
In the depths of the Cold War, Stanley Kubrick created a notoriously-mad scientist character, Dr. Strangelove, whose passion was for dropping atomic bombs. Now there is a rising media and Beltway fascination with a new Dr. Strangelove, whose passion is imposing a mad science of counterinsurgency on Iraq.
His name is David Kilcullen, an Australian academic and military veteran whom the Washington Post's Thomas Ricks once described as Gen. David Petraeus' "chief adviser" on the counterinsurgency doctrine underlying the surge in Iraq.
Kilcullen advocated a "global Phoenix program" in an obscure military journal, Small Wars, in 2004. For the ahistorical or uninitiated, Phoenix was a largely off-the-books detention, torture and assassination program aimed at tens of thousands of South Vietnamese who were identified by informants as the Vietcong's "civilian infrastructure." The venture was so discredited that the US Congress denounced and disbanded it after hearings in the 1970s.
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UPDATED: 10:39 AM EDT June 18, 2008
WASHINGTON (CNN)
Former terrorist suspects detained by the United States were tortured, according to medical examinations detailed in a report released Wednesday by a human rights group.
The Massachusetts-based Physicians for Human Rights reached that conclusion after two-day clinical evaluations of 11 former detainees, who had been held at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Afghanistan.
The detainees were never charged with crimes.
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