Posts Tagged ‘torture’
December 1, 2009
By Tom Eley, wsws.org, Dec 1, 2009
Recent media reports reveal that the US military continues to carry on torture and illegal detention in Afghanistan at a dungeon known to inmates as “the black prison.”
The jail, located on the Bagram Air Base next to the notorious Bagram prison north of Kabul, operates under the executive order of President Obama. After entering office, Obama ordered the closure of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) prison “black sites”—which were in fact no longer active—but exempted those prisons run by the military’s Special Operations, which was headed from 2003 until 2008 by General Stanley McChrystal, now US commander of the Af-Pak theater.
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Tags:abuse of prisoners, Afghanistan, “the black prison”, escalating Afghan war, jail, torture, US military
Posted in Afghanistan, Commentary, crime, Human rights, Muslims, President Barack Obama, torture, Uncategorized, US policy, USA, war | Leave a Comment »
November 25, 2009
British Government should Stop Stonewalling
Human Rights Watch, Nov 24, 2009
(London) – The UK government should immediately order an independent judicial inquiry into the role and complicity of British security services in the torture of terrorism suspects in Pakistan, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
The 46-page report, “Cruel Britannia: British Complicity in the Torture and Ill-treatment of Terror Suspects in Pakistan,” provides accounts from victims and their families in the cases of five UK citizens of Pakistani origin – Salahuddin Amin, Zeeshan Siddiqui, Rangzieb Ahmed, Rashid Rauf and a fifth individual who wishes to remain anonymous – tortured in Pakistan by Pakistani security agencies between 2004 and 2007. Human Rights Watch found that while there is no evidence of UK officials directly participating in torture, UK complicity is clear.
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Tags:Ali Dayan Hasan, British government, Human Rights Watch report, Pakistan, torture, U.K. complicity in torture
Posted in Human rights, Pakistan, torture, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
November 23, 2009
By Robert Verkaik, Law Editor, The Independent/UK, Nov 20, 2009
AFP/GettyThe judgement revealed Binyam Mohamad was treated the same way as an al-Qa’ida suspect tortured by the CIA
Britain knew that American agents were using barbaric torture techniques on terror suspects, including British resident Binyam Mohamed, it emerged yesterday. Secret reports sent between MI5 and the CIA in 2002 reveal that the American security services were using torture practices which included waterboarding, facial slaps and stress positions.
Tags:Abu Zubaydah, Binyam Mohamad, Britain, memo, Robert Verkaik, torture, U.S agents
Posted in Commentary, crime, Human rights, torture, Uncategorized, US policy, USA | Leave a Comment »
November 2, 2009
By Maria J. Dass, The Sun Daily, Nov. 1, 2009
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Former Guantanamo detainee, Moazzam Begg, aided by Sami
Al-Hajj(standing) demonstrates how he was shackled at the camp. |
KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 30, 2009): The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission today heard harrowing testimonies about the atrocities committed against the Guantanamo Bay detainees, which included psychological torture and routine humiliation.
A total of seven detainees including Sudanese journalist Sami Al’Hajj, and British nationals Moazzam Begg and Rahul Ahmed testified today about the atrocities that took place in the camps including how they were shackled, stripped naked in front of female soldiers, thrown naked into makeshift cells made with barbed wires, injected with substances and subjected to mental torture to the point they hallucinated.
Begg was detained in January 2002 in Pakistan, said he was told that there was no specific reason for his arrest except for the fact that he “fit a profile”.
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Tags:Al Qaeda, atrocities, British government, Guantanamo Bay detainees, journalist Sami Al’Hajj, Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission, Moazzam Begg, Rahul Ahmed, torture
Posted in crime, Human rights, torture, Uncategorized, USA, war, war crimes | Leave a Comment »
October 12, 2009
Law Violates Basic Rights, Fails to Protect Victims of Sexual Violence
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Stoning and flogging constitute torture in any circumstances. Imposing these draconian punishments on private, consensual conduct means the government can dictate people’s intimate lives.
said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch
(New York) – A new criminal bylaw passed by the provincial parliament of Aceh imposes torture, violates basic rights to privacy, and fails to protect victims of sexual violence, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch urged the Indonesian government to review and reject all provisions relating to the death penalty, stoning, and flogging, and called on the Ministry of Home Affairs to overturn the law immediately.
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Tags:Aceh, Human Rights Watch, Indonesia, new Aceh law, stoning and flogging, torture, victims of sexual violence, violence
Posted in Commentary, Human rights, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
September 27, 2009
By Garry Wills | The New York Review of Books, Volume 56, Number 15, October 8, 2009
George W. Bush left the White House unpopular and disgraced. His successor promised change, and it was clear where change was needed. Illegal acts should cease—torture and indefinite detention, denial of habeas corpus and legal representation, unilateral canceling of treaties, defiance of Congress and the Constitution, nullification of laws by signing statements. Powers attributed to the president by the theory of the unitary executive should not be exercised. Judges who are willing to give the president any power he asks for should not be confirmed.
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Tags:Barack Obama, Congress, Diego Garcia, executive powers, Leon Panetta, military tribunals, torture, U.S. Constitution, United States
Posted in Commentary, Human rights, President Barack Obama, torture, Uncategorized, US policy, USA | Leave a Comment »
September 22, 2009
Intimidation Intensifies Ahead of Second Anniversary of Crackdown
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The stories told by monks are sad and disturbing, but they exemplify the behavior of Burma’s military government as it clings to power through violence, fear, and repression. The monks retain a great deal of moral authority, making principled stands by monks very dangerous for a government that doesn’t.
Brad Adams, Asia director
(Bangkok) – Buddhist monks in Burma face continuing repression, intimidation and harsh prison sentences two years after the military government’s brutal crackdown on peaceful demonstrations, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
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Tags:arrests and deaths, Buddhist monks, Burma, Human Rights Watch report, military repression, torture, U Gambira
Posted in Commentary, Human rights, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
September 16, 2009
Washington’s “good war”
Bill Van Auken, wsws.org, Sept 16, 2009
As the Obama administration prepares a major escalation of the so-called AfPak war, reports from Pakistan’s Swat Valley, near Afghanistan’s eastern border, provide a gruesome indication of the kind of war that the Pentagon and its local allies are waging.
While touted by Obama and his supporters as the “good war,” there is mounting evidence that the Pentagon and the CIA are engaged in a war against the population of the region involving death squads, disappearances and torture.
The Pakistani army sent 20,000 troops into Swat, part of the country’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP), last April to wage war against ethnic Pashtun Islamist movements (routinely described as the Pakistani Taliban) that have supported fellow Pashtuns across the border who are resisting the US-NATO occupation of Afghanistan.
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Tags:AfPak war, America, Barack Obama administration, Bill Van Auken, civilian killings, military operations, Pakistan, Pakistani army and militants, Swat valley, torture
Posted in Afghanistan, Commentary, Human rights, imperialism, Pakistan, President Barack Obama, Uncategorized, US policy, war | Leave a Comment »
September 16, 2009
Zeidi Reports Torture in Prison
Just over six months after the Iraqi government sentenced journalist Muntadar al-Zeidi to a three-year prison term the reporter turned international celebrity was released from an Iraqi prison today, and promptly fled the nation.
Zeidi, a relatively anonymous reporter who rose to fame in December when he pelted outgoing President George W. Bush with shoes, had his sentence eventually reduced to a single year, and then was released three months early on the basis of his failing health.
The journalist delivered a brief statement before reporters regarding his mistreatment in Iraqi custody, then boarded a private flight to Syria, his first stop on the way to Greece where he will seek treatment for torture.
Though his brother Uday had previously reported that Zeidi had been subjected to torture in government custody, including being forced to write an “apology” letter publicly delivered by Prime Minister Maliki which claimed there was a secret “mastermind” behind the plot, this was the first time Muntadar himself had been heard on the matter.
Zeidi, who is missing a tooth since his arrest in December, says he was whipped and electrocuted, and even subjected to waterboarding by Iraqi security forces in the wake of his arrest. The reporter now says he fears for his safety and is concerned that either Iraqi government forces or US intelligence services will attempt to have him “liquidated.”
Tags:Iraq, mistreatment in jail, Muntadar al-Zeidi, shoes at Gerge W Bush, torture
Posted in Iraq, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
September 15, 2009
By Mutadhar al-Zaidi, Counterpunch, Sep 15, 2009
Mutadhar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi who threw his shoe at George Bush gave this speech on his recent release.
In the name of God, the most gracious and most merciful.
Here I am, free. But my country is still a prisoner of war.
Firstly, I give my thanks and my regards to everyone who stood beside me, whether inside my country, in the Islamic world, in the free world. There has been a lot of talk about the action and about the person who took it, and about the hero and the heroic act, and the symbol and the symbolic act.
But, simply, I answer: What compelled me to confront is the injustice that befell my people, and how the occupation wanted to humiliate my homeland by putting it under its boot.
And how it wanted to crush the skulls of (the homeland’s) sons under its boots, whether sheikhs, women, children or men. And during the past few years, more than a million martyrs fell by the bullets of the occupation and the country is now filled with more than 5 million orphans, a million widows and hundreds of thousands of maimed. And many millions of homeless because of displacement inside and outside the country.
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Tags:dead and homless in Iraq, Iraq, massacres, Mutadhar al-Zaidi, occupation and oppression, occupation and sectarian conflicts, occupation of Iraq, President George W. Bush, shoes at Bush, torture
Posted in Human rights, Iraq, torture, Uncategorized, US policy, USA, war, war crimes | Leave a Comment »
Peace and Justice Post 
Torture continues at US prisons in Afghanistan
December 1, 2009By Tom Eley, wsws.org, Dec 1, 2009
Recent media reports reveal that the US military continues to carry on torture and illegal detention in Afghanistan at a dungeon known to inmates as “the black prison.”
The jail, located on the Bagram Air Base next to the notorious Bagram prison north of Kabul, operates under the executive order of President Obama. After entering office, Obama ordered the closure of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) prison “black sites”—which were in fact no longer active—but exempted those prisons run by the military’s Special Operations, which was headed from 2003 until 2008 by General Stanley McChrystal, now US commander of the Af-Pak theater.
Continues >>
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Tags:abuse of prisoners, Afghanistan, “the black prison”, escalating Afghan war, jail, torture, US military
Posted in Afghanistan, Commentary, crime, Human rights, Muslims, President Barack Obama, torture, Uncategorized, US policy, USA, war | Leave a Comment »