Clipmarks | masbury's 'torture' clips

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!

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

Gitmo "a diversion" - US holds 27,000 around the world

Tue, 20 May 2008 05:01:53 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: 100 times the Gitmo population held on prison ships, in Iraq, and other nations. God only knows what's been done to them.

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

we’ve been trying to do is track down the real ghost prisoners

according to the most recent official figures, the United States is currently holding 27,000 secret prisoners around the world. So that means that 99 percent of these folk are not in Guantanamo Bay

a huge number of people being held in Iraq

the US is bringing people into Iraq

the media—and

lawyers, away from the prisoners

there’s a huge camp, Camp Lemonier in Djibouti

And we’ve identified thirty-two prison ships, sort of prison hulks you used to read about in Victorian England, which have been converted to hold prisoners, and we’ve got pictures of them in Lisbon Harbor, for example.

And there’s a bunch of proxy prisons—Morocco, Egypt and Jordan

the world focus is on Guantanamo Bay, which really is a diversionary tactic i

most of these people who have been severed from their legal rights are in these other secret prisons around the world.

Tags: torture, gitmo, news

Crouching in a corner, covered with a sheet for hours - tragic!

Thu, 15 May 2008 18:37:49 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Your tax dollars at work: Most evidence against so-called "20th hijacker" comes from torture-induced statements. He appears to have lost his mind at the hands of his torturers; no case against him has ever been made; his internment continues indefinitely. It's the Spanish inquisition, by medieval American government. We'll never know if he's guilty or not, just that he was hurt badly enough to confess before he became too crushed to face trial. This is as completely criminal as 9/11 itself.

Clip Source: www.truthdig.com

a battered man with signs of diminished mental capacity, a man who authorities concede was so badly abused

that

The Pentagon has formally dropped charges

conceding that most of the evidence it has came from Qahtani’s own coerced statements

No case that details Qahtani’s supposed role in the 9/11 plot ever has been presented

his abuse at the hands of American military interrogators is well known

By late November, the detainee was evidencing behavior consistent with extreme psychological trauma (talking to nonexistent people, reporting hearing voices, crouching in a corner of the cell covered with a sheet for hours on end)

still considered an “enemy combatant” and so can be held at Guantanamo under the Bush administration’s unique theory that it may hold whomever it wants for as long as it wants

the next president may bring us relief, but not absolution for having condoned the unconscionable

Tags: gitmo, torture, news

ACLU members double during Bush years

Tue, 13 May 2008 21:50:21 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: he ACLU counted about 250,000 members in the final year of Bill Clinton’s presidency. Today, the organization has about 500,000 card-carriers

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

ACLU Says Membership Has Doubled — Thanks To Bush Presidency

Surveillance. Rendition. Torture.

By many measures, the Bush administration has been bad for civil liberties.

Yet the past seven years have been particularly good for the American Civil Liberties Union. National membership in the organization, which fights for freedom of speech and religion, equal protection, due process and privacy, has doubled since Bush took office in 2001 - an extraordinary spurt of growth for the 88-year-old institution.

“I think it’s very much a reflection of the fact that there was a very aggressive assault on civil liberties,” said ACLU national deputy executive director Dorothy Ehrlich. “Over the past seven years, many Americans felt their own cherished values were under attack, and they didn’t want to sit by.”

The ACLU counted about 250,000 members in the final year of Bill Clinton’s presidency. Today, the organization has about 500,000 card-carriers, 2,500 of them in Utah.

Tags: civil rights, human rights, news

Journalist released from Gitmo in serious condition

Tue, 13 May 2008 00:15:02 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Held for 6.5 years, tortured, no charges or trial, now seriously ill. Arrested while traveling thru Pakistan to an assignment for Al Jazeera. "I'm very sad because of the condition of our brothers who remain." Flown home in chains, faces no charges there.
"True peace," he says, "does not come through military force ... Justice comes from lifting oppression ..." Unbelievable. Outrageous. Who will be called to account for this crime?

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj has been released from Guantanamo. He arrived in his home town of Khartoum, Sudan early this morning. He was detained

for nearly six-and-a-half years without a trial or any charges

Today, he was flown into Sudan on a US military aircraft

blindfolded, handcuffed and chained to their seats during the flight home.

taken to a hospital immediately after landing in Khartoum. After a tearful reunion with his family, he spoke out against the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo

in a very grave condition and is suffering from several health problems

Our human condition, our human dignity was violated, and the American administration went beyond all human values, all moral values, all religious values

true just peace does not come through military force

or to threaten with economic sanctions. Justice comes from lifting oppression and guaranteeing rights and freedoms

Tags: gitmo, torture, war, news, iraq

Judge bars General from Gitmo trial

Sat, 10 May 2008 04:48:30 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "too closely aligned with the prosecution"

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

In a new blow to the Bush administration’s troubled military commission system, a military judge has disqualified a Pentagon general who has been centrally involved in overseeing Guantánamo war crimes tribunals from any role in the first case headed for trial.

The judge said the general was too closely aligned with the prosecution, raising questions about whether he could carry out his role with the required neutrality and objectivity.

The judge, Capt. Keith J. Allred of the Navy, directed that Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann of the Air Force Reserve, a senior Pentagon official of the Office of Military Commissions, which runs the war crimes system, have no further role in the first prosecution, scheduled for trial this month.

Colonel Davis has said the general interfered in the work of the military prosecution office, pushed for closed-door proceedings and pressed to rely on evidence obtained through techniques that critics call torture.

Tags: gitmo, tribunals, news, war

More evidence torture doesn't work

Thu, 08 May 2008 04:19:31 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: UK experts - left and right - now believe it prolonged the IRA conflict by 15 to 20 years.

Clip Source: thinkprogress.org

Yesterday, the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties held a hearing on the Bush administration’s use of torture

Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) scoffed at what he called the “Oprah Winfrey methods” of interrogations built on long-established relationships

International lawyer Philippe Sands

replied by stating simply, “Coercion doesn’t work.”

The thinking in the British military and the thinking across the board politically — it’s really not a left right issue, it is a broad consensus in the United Kingdom — is that coercion doesn’t work. That the experience of the United Kingdom, which moved in the early 1970’s to use techniques that were very similar to those that were used on Detainee 063, putting stress positions, humiliation, and so on and so forth, didn’t not work. The view is taken in the United Kingdom that it extended the conflict with the IRA probably by between 15 and 20 years.

Tags: torture