Category: Torture

Enough about Assange: What WikiLeaks has Revealed

December 29, 2010: J. Rosencrantz

By focusing on the personalities or philosophy behind Wikileaks, in addition to the Imperial and Corporate reactions to its successes thus far, it is easy to lose focus on the actual substance of the leaks themselves. So here is an incomplete list of significant revelations emerging from Wikileaks in 2010, summarized from a list of headlines compiled by G. Greewald:

UPDATE: Here is another round-up of what Wikileaks revelations, compiled by CBS news.

Swedish Documentary about Wikileaks

December 15, 2010: J. Rosencrantz

Here is an informative Swedish documentary on Wikileaks:

Iraq War Logs

October 26, 2010: J. Rosencrantz

This weekend Wikileaks released the Iraq War Logs – 40,000 “Significant Incident Reports” from the period of 2004-2009 that together tell the most detailed story of the war in Iraq during that time.

As was the case with the Afghan War Logs, a number of news media outlets received advanced access to the documents and extensive competing coverage can be found in the The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Der Spiegel, and last and least, The New York Times, which decided to lead with a hit piece on the personality of the founder of Wikileaks, rather than on what the war logs themselves reveal.  CNN played the same game.  (Not suprising, of course, from an institutions that were essential to enabling the war itself.)

Like Afghan War wikileak, there is so much to read, so video summaries can be useful:  The Guardian has a short video on prevalence of “Frago 242″, which is a “fragmentary order” not to investigate torture, and some of the consequences thereof. Al Jazeera presents an hour long special here.  And here is good highlight reel from U.K. Channel 4′s current affairs program, “Dispatches“:

The U.N.’s chief torture investigator thinks there is torture to investigate, and reminds Obama of his legal obligation to do so.  Dig through the logs yourself here.

Unaccountable Rice: More of Obama’s “Looking Forward” and Stewart’s Sycophancy

October 19, 2010: J. Rosencrantz

In 2003, acting as W. Bush’s “National Security Advisor”, Condoleeza Rice was one of the most vocal and mendacious fear mongers pushing for the “pre-emptive” invasion of Iraq:

We know that he has the infrastructure, nuclear scientists to make a nuclear weapon…. we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.

Around the same time, Rice also chaired the White House meetings in which “combined interrogation techniques”, i.e. torture, were approved:

Then-National Security Advisor Rice, sources said, was decisive. Despite growing policy concerns — shared by Powell — that the program was harming the image of the United States abroad, sources say she did not back down, telling the CIA: “This is your baby. Go do it.”

Thus did Rice help to unleash a shameful decade of war and torture. At least  a hundred thousand people, perhaps as many as a million and a half, died as a result of the war that she enabled, not to mention the untold numbers of wounded and displaced; Torture is now as American as apple pie, to the enduring shame of us all.

But that doesn’t stop President “Look Forward, Not Backward” from inviting the war criminal to advise him.

And it doesn’t stop corporate shill and professional “moderate” sycophant John Stewart from playing patty-cake with her on the Daily Show, helping the should-be-disgraced Rice reinvent herself and promote her new autobiography.

See also here.

CONTINUITIES 3

May 19, 2009: J. Rosencrantz

Obama cheers at his daughter’s soccer game while children of lesser consequence recover from the deadly U.S. air strikes by unmanned drones in the Farah province of Afghanistan.

Honestly, it is hard to keep up with all of the ways the Obama administration represents continuity with the Bush Administration. Here are some more things to add to the list….

Under the Obama administration, as under the Bush administration,attack on Afghan villages by U.S. drones are still a common occurrence– and it looks like these attacks will only increase.

Here is a report about another instance of a drone strike in North Waziristan, where 29 people were killed in the village of Mirali on May 16.

These deadly robots are remote controlled by brave soldiers sitting in air conditioned trailers at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada.(USA today posted a softball piece about the training program here.)

Prisoners at Guantanamo are still being stripped of their rights and tortured by brutal extrajudicial “Immediate Reaction Force” thugs.  See here and especially here.

Obama is resorting to a modified version of Bush style military commissions to try Guantanamo detainees, instead of in civilian courts which suffer from an inadmissibility of evidence beaten out of those who would be presumed innocent. See also here.

Obama is continuing the cover-up Bush crimes. I have already posted about how Obama’s DOJ has been been trying to evoke the “state secrets privilege” to block evidence of the U.S. torture regime under Bush.

Now he is refusing to release another batch of “prisoner abuse” photos. See also here. (John Dean thinks that Obama was forced to block release of the photos by “National Security” bereaucrats.)

The Obama administration has also threatened the British government to keep torture evidence concealed.

CONTINUITIES 2

May 2, 2009: J. Rosencrantz

After 100 days in office it is clear that the candidate who ran on “change” is continuing, and even amplifying, many of the worst policies of the Bush years: continued war and occupation of Iraq, escalation of war in Afghanistan, expansion of war into Pakistan, increased military funding, using “state secrets” to block torture victims from having their day in court, continuing the practice of rendition, expanding the American gulag at Bagram, and arguing against prosecution for war criminals.

Regarding this last point, Obama has rendered himself as incoherent as his predecessor ever was.  Upon the release of the torture memos, he issued a statement that included the following two contradictory claims:

  1. “The United States is a nation of laws. My Administration will always act in accordance with those laws, and with an unshakeable commitment to our ideals.”
  2. “In releasing these memos, it is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution.”

You can’t coherently maintain that the U.S. is a nation of laws AND that U.S. government officials who break the law should not be subject to prosecution.  (Even if they were torturing people “in good faith”.)

And it is mind numbingly hypocritical to say that your administration “will always act in accordance with those laws” and in the very same speech assert your intention to break them. Here are the relevant quotes from Article 2 of the U.N. Convention Against Torture, signed by Reagan in ’88 and ratified by Congress in ’94:

“No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or athreat of war, internal political in stability or any other publicemergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.”

“An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.”


In his remarks to the C.I.A., Obama has (again) exposed himself as a liar, a hypocrite and, now, a criminal.

CONTINUITIES

March 19, 2009: J. Rosencrantz

So far, there are at least 6 legal cases in which Obama’s Department of Justice has embraced Bush’s positions on civil liberties and executive power:

1. I have already posted on Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan, where Obama’s DOJ sought to use the “state secrets privilege” to block (alleged) victims of rendition and torture from suing the transport company used by the CIA.

2. The Obama DOJ again invoked the state secrets privilege in the case of Al-Haramain v. Obama, this time in order to block a judicial ruling on Bush’s illegal surveillance program.

After this argument was rejected by the court Obama appealed again – this time embracing Cheney / Addington theories of executive power and asserting that no court can challenge the President’s decision to withhold classified documents.

Here is Glenn Greenwald’s exegesis:

In the context in which Obama is now invoking this theory, think about what it means:  if, as happened here, the President breaks the law,then he can just label the relevant evidence “classified” and refuse toturn it over to a court which is attempting to rule on the legality of the President’s actions.  Once the President decrees that a court isbarred from reviewing the relevant evidence because the President claims it is “classified,” that’s the end of that.

In both of the above cases, Obama adopted the Bush innovation of using the state secrets privilege to throw out entire lawsuits, rather than just sensitive pieces of evidence.

3. In the case of Al-Marri v. Spagone, Obama’s DOJ successfully blocked a Supreme Court ruling on the legality of Bush’s practice of detaining U.S. residents as “enemy combatants” indefinitely without charges or trial.

They blocked the ruling by finally bringing criminal charges against Al-Marri, and then convincing the Supreme Court that the questions regarding the legality of his 6 year detention were thereby rendered moot.

On the positive side, Al-Marri is finally getting his day in court. Here is a video update from Al-Marri’s lawyer.

4. On top of all of this, last month Obama sided with Bush in asserting that “enemy combatants” held at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan  have no rights to challenge their detention in U.S. courts.

This means that Obama’s promise to close Guantanamo becomes almost irrelevant,since detainees can now just be taken to Bagram for indefinite,extralegal detention. About 600 prisoners are now held at Bagram, and it is about to undergo a $60 million expansion. Bagram threatens to become Obama’s Guantanamo.

5. Then there is the email case,where Obama’s DOJ is siding with the former administration in “trying to kill a lawsuit that seeks to recover what could be millions of missing White House e-mails.”

6. And finally the DNA case,where Obama’s DOJ “turned down a request… to disavow a Bush Administration stance on prisoner’s access to DNA evidence in post-conviction proceedings.”

RENDITION, TORTURE AND STATE “SECRETS”

February 17, 2009: J. Rosencrantz

Obama’s administration is following Bush’s in using sweeping “state secret” privileges to block victims of the CIA’s illegal rendition and torture program from having their day in court.  (Embedded map of CIA rendition flights by T. Paglen)

From the LA Times:

A Justice Department attorney, Douglas Letter, told the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that the Obama administration was taking “exactly” the same position as the previous White House in calling for dismissal of a lawsuit by five terrorism suspects snatched by U.S. agents in foreign countries and delivered to secret detention sites in other countries.

The suit, Mohamed et al vs. Jeppesen DataPlan Inc. of San Jose, accused the flight services company of knowingly “participating in the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program” and delivering dozens of men to foreign venues where they were subjected to torture and other treatment impermissible under U.S. law.

From the N.Y. Times:

“Is there anything material that has happened that might have caused the Justice Department to shift its views,” asked Judge Mary M.Schroeder, an appointee of President Jimmy Carter, coyly referring to the recent election.

“No, your honor,” Mr. Letter replied.

Judge Schroeder asked, “The change in administration has no bearing?”

Once more, he said, “No, Your Honor.” The position he was taking in court onbehalf of the government had been “thoroughly vetted with the appropriate officials within the new administration,” and “these are the authorized positions,” he said.

…

The court papers describe horrific treatment in secret prisons. Mr.Mohamed claimed that during his detention in Morocco, “he was routinely beaten, suffering broken bones and, on occasion, loss of consciousness.His clothes were cut off with a scalpel and the same scalpel was then used to make incisions on his body, including his penis. A hot stinging liquid was then poured into open wounds on his penis where he had been cut. He was frequently threatened with rape, electrocution and death.”

The lead plaintiff in the case is Binyam Mohamed.  The ACLU is representing him and presents Mohamed’s narrative on their website:

In July of 2002, Ethiopian native Binyam Mohamed was taken from Pakistan to Morocco on a Gulfstream V aircraft registered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as N379P. Flight and logistical support services for this aircraft were provided by Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. In Morocco, Mohamed was handed over to agents of Moroccan intelligence who detained and tortured him for the next 18 months. In 2004, Mohamed was rendered to a secret U.S. detention facility in Afghanistan. Flight and logistical support services for this aircraft, a Boeing 737 business jet, were also provided by Jeppesen. In Afghanistan Mohamed was tortured and inhumanely treated by United States officials. Later that same year Mohamed was rendered a third time by U.S. officials, this time to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba where he is presently.

Read more about Mohamad here, and more analysis here and here.

UPDATE (Feb 23):

Binyam Mohamad has finally been released from Guantanamo, although Obama’s Dept. of Justice is still trying to block him from suing the companies that rendered him to other countries for torture.  He has released a statement through his lawyers.  Here is a short quote:

“I have been through an experience that I never thought to encounter in my darkest nightmares. Before this ordeal, “torture” was an abstract word to me. I could never have imagined that I would be its victim. It is still difficult for me to believe that I was abducted, hauled from one country to the next, and tortured in medieval ways – all orchestrated by the United States government.”
Here is an interview with his sister.

OBAMA TAKES THE REINS

January 28, 2009: J. Rosencrantz

After U.S. foreign policy blew back in the form of suicide airline hijackers on Sept 11, 2001, a shocked country looked to the Bush Administration for leadership. How would the United States respond?

The answer came on October 7, 2001 in the form of an aerial bombing campaign that killed over a thousand civilians, with many thousands more dying of starvation, exposure and injuries in the following months.

The government called this “Operation Enduring Freedom,” a first step in the much wider “War on Terror”.

Once on the ground, the U.S. forces rounded up a bunch of people and sent them to extra-legal prisons where they could be tortured at leisure. Many innocent people rot there still, even seven years later, as the Obama Administration takes the reins of executive power.

On January 22, two days after being inaugurated, Obama initiated a clear shift away from Bush policies on torture and rendition by signing four executive orders, one of which ordered the closing of Guantanamo within one year.

However, while Obama’s shift on torture and rendition policies are certainly worthy of approbation, he is continuing Bush’s policy of aerial bombings of villages. On January 24, just four days after taking power, Obama approved air strikes by unmanned Predator drones against two villages in Waziristan, killing at least 15 people, three of them children. (Video here.)

PEOPLE WHO ARE FIXING TO GET AWAY WITH MASS MURDER, TORTURE, AND OTHER WAR CRIMES

January 24, 2009: J. Rosencrantz

As newly sworn-in president Obama paraded toward the White House, former president George W. Bush flew to Midland, Texas where he attended a “welcome home” rally. He told an adoring crowd of 20,000 that during his presidency he had maintained “faith in some fundamental truths” and that he had “followed a set of clear principles”, first among which were this:

Watch it here.

This man, who lied the country into an expensive war of aggression against Iraq, resulting in the untold suffering of millions and the death of many, and who approved the use of torture, resulting in the enduring shame of us all, said that he will not regret what he sees when he looks in the mirror. Then he talked about his plans “to make Laura coffee, skim the newspaper, call some friends, read a book, feed the dogs, go fishing, and take a walk.”

Iraq Body Count web counter

Not everyone gets away with murder, however. Back when Bush was governor of Texas, he signed the execution warrants for 152 prisoners – more people than any other Governor in the history of that fair minded state.