Clipmarks | masbury's 'torture' clips

Rendition suit by innocent man to be re-heard

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:07:38 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Is there justice in the USA? Canadian citizen, detained in error for two weeks at JFK, then flown by US to Jordan for interrogation, held for 10 months. Restitution paid by Canadians, but court in US held it had no jurisdiction, saying that while at JFK, Arar was not technically in the USA. Totally innocent man - all now agree - abducted by the USA, probably tortured in Jordan. Can the USA say "Oops" and not be held responsible for the abduction and torture of an innocent man? Are we different than Stalin only by degree?

Clip Source: www.atimes.com

In what legal scholars describe as a highly unusual move, a federal appeals court in New York last week decided to rehear a case it had decided in June, when a three-judge panel dismissed a lawsuit filed by the man who has arguably become the poster child for the Bush administration's rendition program.

Bringing the suit is Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen who was detained incommunicado for two weeks at Kennedy

Airport in 2002, flown by US authorities to Jordan and then to Syria, where he was held for 10 months and where he has said he was tortured.

The Canadian government issued a formal apology to Arar last year and paid him US$9.75 million

In the original decision, the three-judge panel agreed with a lower court decision

ruling 2 to 1 that the federal courts lacked jurisdiction

one of the three judges dissented, describing as "a legal fiction" the idea that Arar was not in this country when he was apprehended at Kennedy

Arar "was, in effect, abducted

at JFK Airport"

Tags: rendition, war on terror, torture

16 things McCain supports and formerly opposed

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 03:04:23 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Perhaps you can think of more.

Clip Source: am1090.wordpress.com

He’s also FOR Off shore drilling, after being against it for 26 YEARS.

He was Against Torture, now he’s for it.

Against Warrantless Wiretapping now he’s for it

Against Tax Cuts then for tax cuts, then against tax cuts and now is FOR RAISING FICA taxes

Against Privitizing Social Security and now he’s FOR it

FOR protecting Abortion Rights now he’s against it

Against storing Nuclear Waste at Yucca Mountain now he’s for it

Against engaging in diplomacy with Hamas now he’s for it.

Against diplomacy in Syria now he’s for it.

Against going after Al Qaeda in Pakistan now he’s for it.

Against talking to Iran and now he’s for it.

Against talking to North Korea and now he’s for it

For Liberman-Warner to curb Global Warming now he’s Against it.

Thought we were on the RIGHT COURSE in Iraq in 2004 now says he’s always been against Rumsfelds strategy in Iraq.

For Affirmative Action until he was against it

For the troops until he voted

against

R&R at home after a one year deployment and Senator Webb’s GI Bill.

Tags: mccain, politics

Rep. Tammy Baldwin to House Judiciary re: Impeachment

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:48:50 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Americans "wonder whether this administration will forever change what it means to be an American."

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

REP. TAMMY BALDWIN:

Over the past several years, serious questions have been raised about the conduct of high-ranking administration officials in relation to some of the most basic elements of our democracy: respect for the rule of law, the principle of checks and balances, and the fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Bill of Rights.

Americans want to know whether our nation’s highest-ranking officials broke the law to justify the invasion of Iraq

whether today the Bush White House is planning to illegally attack Iran

whether their private conversations are being listened to by government officials unconcerned about restraints placed upon them by the Constitution; whether our nation is holding individuals in secret prisons

who authorized torture and rendition

They wonder whether this administration will forever change what it means to be an American.

Tags: impeachment

Is sleep deprivation torture?

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:56:13 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Menachen Begin tells of getting it from the KGB. From the Wikipedia entry.

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Torture

Sleep deprivation is used as an interrogation technique (for example, in Pinochet-era Chile^{[citation needed]}, the Soviet Union, or by the US on Guantanamo-held prisoners^[23]).^[24] Interrogation victims are kept awake for several days; when they are finally allowed to fall asleep, they are suddenly awakened and questioned. Menachem Begin, the Israeli prime minister from 1977-83 described his experience of sleep deprivation when a prisoner of the KGB in Russia as follows:

In the head of the interrogated prisoner, a haze begins to form. His spirit is wearied to death, his legs are unsteady, and he has one sole desire: to sleep...Anyone who has experienced this desire knows that not even hunger and thirst are comparable with it.

In rats, prolonged, complete sleep deprivation increases both food intake and energy expenditure, leading to weight loss and, ultimately, death.^[26

cruel, inhumane and degrading. If used for prolonged periods of time it is torture."^[24]

Tags: torture, gitmo, war on terror

Gitmo torture: No sleep for 50 days

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:48:28 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Newly released government documents suggest Salim Hamdan was forced to remain awake for nearly two months

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

Gitmo Prisoner Faced 50 Days of Sleep Deprivation

A newly released government document suggests officials at Guantanamo tortured a Yemeni man at the prison by depriving him of sleep for fifty days. Lawyers for Salim Hamdan had previously alleged that Hamdan was beaten and abused, but they said sleep deprivation for fifty days, if proved, would be among the worst abuse he suffered at the hands of his American captors. Hamdan, who was once Osama bin Laden’s driver, is scheduled go before a military tribunal next week.

Tags: torture, gitmo

Red Cross: CIA actions "categorically" constitute torture

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:49:09 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Warned Bush Admin last year that it could make them guilty of war crimes

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

Red Cross: CIA’s Handling of Prisoners Categorically Torture

A secret report by the International Red Cross warned the Bush administration last year that the CIA’s treatment of prisoners categorically constituted torture and could make Bush administration officials who approved the torture methods guilty of war crimes. One prisoner—Abu Zubaydah—told the Red Cross he had been waterboarded at least ten times in a single week. He was confined in a box so small that he had to double up his limbs in the fetal position. The details about the secret Red Cross report appear in a new book by investigative journalist Jane Mayer called The Dark Side.

Tags: torture, cia, bush, politics, news, war crimes

Mother of all McCain flip-flop lists

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 01:56:21 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Just a few samples - references at link - dozens!

Clip Source: www.dailykos.com

Signing of the GI Bill: Now enthusiastically for it... after it passed. Previously attacked the Webb Bill.

Nuclear Waste: No Storing Nuclear waste at Yucca mountain earlier..now flipped

Negotiating with Kim Jong-Il: Negotiating with Kim Jong-Il not acceptable until President Bush did it

Negotiating with Cuba/Castro: With Fidel Castro acceptable in 2000, not 2008

Negotiating with Hamas/Terrorists: ...with terrorists appropriate when Colin Powell went to Syria and in 2006 when McCain said sooner or later we‘ll talk to Hamas, but not appropriate now re: Obama's willingness to use diplomacy

Warrantless Wire-taps: Six months ago, presidents had to obey the law, not anymore.

Estate Tax: 2006, "I agree with President Roosevelt who created it". In 2008, "most unfair".

Privatizing Social Security: This month not for privatizing Social Security, never has been. In 2004, he "didn‘t see how benefits will last without it".

Torture:

wrong in 2003, the right move in 2008.

Tags: mccain, politics

Gitmo torture training based on Korea-era Chinese torture

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:06:09 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Used on US prisoners during Korean conflict

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

Gitmo Trainers Based Interrogations on Chinese Techniques

The New York Times has revealed military trainers at Guantanamo Bay based an entire interrogation class on Chinese techniques used on US prisoners during the Korean War. The techniques have long been considered forms of torture, including “sleep deprivation,” “prolonged constraint,” “exposure,” “semi-starvation," “exploitation of wounds.” Some of the intended effects include “Makes Victim Dependent on Interrogator,” “Weakens Mental and Physical Ability to Resist” and “Reduces Prisoner to ‘Animal Level’ Concerns.” The methods were also seen as widely ineffective, having obtained mostly false confessions. The techniques were outlined in a chart from a 1957 Air Force study entitled “Communist Attempts to Elicit False Confessions from Air Force Prisoners of War.” Some of the methods were used on Guantanamo prisoners until Congress banned the use of coercion in 2005.

Tags: torture

Yoo refuses to rule out "crushing a child's testicles"

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 01:28:02 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Or raping an infant to exert pressure on a terror suspect. Addington also evades.

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

In several public fora heretofore, Yoo has insisted that no law -- neither domestic nor international -- prevents the president from authorizing the crushing of a child's testicles or the raping of an infant as a way of exerting pressure upon a terrorist suspect.

On December 1, 2005, Yoo notoriously contended in a public debate that the legality of crushing a child's testicles "depends on why the President thinks he needs to do that." Yesterday John Conyers tried to ask Yoo point-blank about that claim in that 2005 debate, namely whether Yoo still believes "that the President can order that a suspect's child be tortured in gruesome fashion."

Yoo's hemming and hawing around the question -- and his inability or refusal to say simply no, no, no -- spoke volumes. Addington evaded the question by telling committee members to consult their own in-house lawyers about such "legal opinions" and then refused to talk further about torture because "al Qaeda may watch C-SPAN."

Tags: terrorism, torture

US General: Bush committed war crimes, must be prosecuted

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:53:59 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Maj. Gen. Taguba led the US Army's official investigation into the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal and testified before Congress on his findings in May 2004. Taguba retired in January 2007, later alleging that Pentagon officials had ordered him to retire for being "overzealous" in his criticisms of the military. He writes here, in the Preface to the report "Broken Laws, Broken Lives."

Clip Source: www.truthout.org

This report tells the largely untold human story of what happened to detainees in our custody when the Commander-in-Chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture. This story is not only written in words: It is scrawled for the rest of these individuals' lives on their bodies and minds. Our national honor is stained by the indignity and inhumane treatment these men received from their captors.

The profiles of these eleven former detainees, none of whom were ever charged with a crime or told why they were detained, are tragic and brutal

In order for these individuals to suffer the wanton cruelty to which they were subjected, a government policy was promulgated to the field whereby the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military Justice were disregarded

there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes

The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.

Tags: bush, torture, war on terror

Juan Cole: MANY TORTURED DETAINEES INNOCENT!

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:07:38 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Why habeas corpus is Morality 101: "prisoners were routinely abused even after it became clear that they had no intelligence value" We have no right to imprison and torture innocent people. Apparently, some previously innocent prisoners were so radicalized by US torture that they took up arms after being released.

Clip Source: www.juancole.com

Tom Lasseter of McClatchy reports that the news service has done extensive interviewing with 66 prisoners released from Guantanamo and found that most were either innocent or were lower level Taliban foot soldiers with no ties to international terrorism. McClatchy argues that the prisoners were routinely abused even after it became clear that they had no intelligence value. Some were radicalized by being tortured by the US, so that when they were released as innocent, they turned to attacking US interests.

Tags: gitmo, torture

Law School to plan Bush war crimes prosecution

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 04:50:05 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: A conference for planning how to prosecute Bush, Cheney, John Yoo, and others.

Clip Source: www.opednews.com

Headlined on 6/15/08:
LAW SCHOOL TO ORGANIZE BUSH WAR CRIMES TRIAL

A conference to plan the prosecution of President Bush and other high administration officials for war crimes will be held September 13-14 at the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover .

He noted in the years since the prosecution and punishment of German and Japanese leaders after World War Two those nation's leaders changed their countries' aggressor cultures

"For Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and John Yoo to spend years in jail or go to the gallows for their crimes would be a powerful lesson to future American leaders,"

past practice has been to allow U.S. officials responsible for war crimes in Viet Nam and elsewhere to enjoy immunity from prosecution upon leaving office

Tags: war, terror, torture

US holding terror suspects on prison ships?

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 02:55:02 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Far from prying eyes, treatment said to be worse than Gitmo

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

US accused of holding terror suspects on prison ships

According to research carried out by Reprieve, the US may have used as many as 17 ships as "floating prisons" since 2001. Detainees are interrogated aboard the vessels and then rendered to other, often undisclosed, locations, it is claimed.

Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve's legal director, said: "They choose ships to try to keep their misconduct as far as possible from the prying eyes of the media and lawyers. We will eventually reunite these ghost prisoners with their legal rights.

"By its own admission, the US government is currently detaining at least 26,000 people without trial in secret prisons, and information suggests up to 80,000 have been 'through the system' since 2001. The US government must show a commitment to rights and basic humanity by immediately revealing who these people are, where they are, and what has been done to them."

200 new cases of rendition since 2006, when

Bush declared that the practice had stopped.

Tags: gitmo, torture

Gitmo victim testifies to Congress

Wed, 21 May 2008 15:50:25 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Known innocent, but held, tortured for 5 years.

Clip Source: www.motherjones.com

Murat Kurnaz, a young Turkish citizen born and raised in Germany, traveled to Pakistan to learn more about Islam in October 2001, weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States. In short order, arrested and held by US forces in Kandahar, and then shipped off to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Bad timing was his only crime.

both the US and German governments had determined conclusively that Kurnaz was neither a terrorist

but American military

refused to release him and instead held him in solitary confinement for five years.

for the entire stretch he was subjected to torture.

victim's head is forced into a bucket of water while he's punched repeatedly in the stomach, causing him to inhale water

Additionally, he said, he was subjected to religious and sexual humiliation, administered unknown drugs against his will, and electrocuted via wires attached to his feet.

He was told repeatedly that he'd be held forever unless he signed a statement admitting his role in a suicide bombing

Tags: gitmo, news, war

US grabs 40-60 prisoners per day

Tue, 20 May 2008 05:04:27 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Abu Ghraib and other camps receive many

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

AMY GOODMAN: Very quickly, Clive, did you say that you—that the US is taking prisoners to Iraq?

CLIVE STAFFORD SMITH: Oh, yes, they are. I mean, the US is taking an estimated forty to sixty, on average, prisoners a day around the world. And it doesn’t take a lot of arithmetic to tell you how many people that is each month. And people are being taken to Iraq to be held in Abu Ghraib, even today, and also in other camps in Iraq. And this is a big challenge for us as the lawyers to try to bring—you know, reunite them with their legal rights, because I, for one, am sort of forbidden by my wife from spending too much time going to Iraq and getting shot at.

Tags: torture, gitmo