Torture

Health Professionals’ Central Role In The CIA Torture Program

December 18, 2014 Allen Keller, MD, Sarah Dougherty, JD, MPH, Scott A. Allen, MD, FACP, Stephen Soldz, PhD, Steven Reisner, PhD, Vincent Iacopino, MD, PhD, Widney Brown, Nathaniel A. Raymond, PHR research ethics advisor, and Megan Granski, Bellevue/ NYU Program for Survivors of Torture, www.physiciansforhumanrights.org Organize! CIA, Health Care, Torture

This analysis by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) report’s executive summary builds on years of investigation and research documenting the systematic use of torture by the United States following the September 11, 2001 attacks. A detailed review of the 500-page SSCI executive summary was conducted by a team of PHR experts. The torture report’s executive summary describes in detail the acts and omissions of CIA health professionals who violated their professional ethics, undermined the critical bond of trust between patients and doctors, and broke the law. Based on PHR’s detailed review of the SSCI summary, health professionals who participated in the CIA torture program violated core ethical principles common to all healing professions, including the following obligations. . .

US Becoming Isolated In Support For Death Penalty

December 18, 2014 Natasja Sheriff, www.america.aljazeera.com Educate! Death Penalty, Human Rights, Torture, United Nations

The United Nations General Assembly is expected on Thursday to vote once again on a draft resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty, with the United States likely to become even more isolated in its support for capital punishment. The resolution was first adopted by the General Assembly in 2007; this is the fifth time member states will vote. On Nov. 21, 114 of the 193 U.N. member states voted “yes” on the draft resolution at a session of the Third Committee, which is responsible for social, humanitarian and cultural issues. Thirty-six countries opposed the resolution. The U.S. has repeatedly lodged “no” votes alongside countries with troubling human rights records — including China, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, the top four executing countries in 2013. The United States ranked fifth.

Tell DOJ To Uphold Law By Prosecuting Torture

December 16, 2014 Hans Christof von Sponeck, www.brusselstribunal.org Petitions and Online Actions Accountability, DOJ, Rule of Law, Torture

The UN Special Representative on Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights, Ben Emmerson QC has reminded us that “torture is a crime of universal jurisdiction” The U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Raad al-Hussein, said it is "crystal clear" under international law that the United States, which ratified the U.N. Convention Against Torture in 1994, now has an obligation to ensure accountability. He further added: “If they order, enable or commit torture, recognized as a serious international crime, they cannot simply be granted impunity because of political expediency”. US President Obama must be aware that not holding the perpetrators accountable is a victory for impunity and will have far-reaching implications for global security

Torture Turned US Government Into A Criminal Enterprise

December 16, 2014 Rebecca Gordon, www.tomdispatch.com Educate! CIA, Congress, Human Rights, Law, Torture

So now we can finally consider the partial release of the long-awaited report from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence about the gruesome CIA interrogation methods used during the Bush administration’s “Global War on Terror.” But here’s one important thing to keep in mind: this report addresses only the past practices of a single agency. Its narrow focus encourages us to believe that, whatever the CIA may have once done, that whole sorry torture chapter is now behind us. In other words, the moment we get to read it, it’s already time to turn the page. So be shocked, be disgusted, be appalled, but don’t be fooled. The Senate torture report, so many years and obstacles in the making, should only be the starting point for a discussion, not the final word on U.S. torture. Here’s why.

Snowden Lawyer Calls On Europeans To Prosecute US Torture

December 15, 2014 Kate Connolly, www.theguardian.com Organize! Human Rights, Obama, Torture, usa

A leading German human rights lawyer has called on prosecutors across Europeto “get active” and prepare to seize any CIA agents and US officials involved in torture who enter their territories. Wolfgang Kaleck said the US Senate committee report on CIA torture was giving new impetus to European resolve to hold those in positions of power responsible for the use of unacceptable interrogation techniques. “We’re preparing reams of dossiers, and demanding of prosecutors that they do the same for those who are named in the report and those known as the higher-ups who directed and conducted this system,” said Kaleck, the director of the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) in Berlin.

The US Has Still Not Admitted The Historic Truth Of Torture

December 14, 2014 Henry Giroux, www.counterpunch.org Educate! Torture, Wars and Militarism

The United States has a long record of inflicting torture on others, both at home and abroad, although it has never admitted to such acts. Instead, the official response has been to deny this history or do everything to hide such monstrous acts from public view through government censorship, appealing to the state secrecy principle, or deploying a language that buried narratives of extraordinary cruelty in harmless sounding euphemisms. For example, the benign sounding CIA “Phoenix Program” in South Vietnam resulted in the deaths of over 21,000 Vietnamese. As Carl Boggs argues, the acts of U.S. barbarism in Vietnam appeared both unrestrained and never ending, with routinized brutality such as throwing people out of planes labeled as “flying lessons” or “half a helicopter ride,” while tying a field telephone wire around a man’s testicles and ringing it up was a practice called “the Bell Telephone Hour.” Officially sanctioned torture was never discussed as a legitimate concern; but, as indicated by a few well-documented accounts, it seems to be as American as apple pie.

Newsletter: Respect Our Human Rights Or We’ll ‘Shut It Down’

December 13, 2014 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Newsletter Bankers, Climate Justice, Corruption, Education, FCC, Finance and Economy, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, GMOs, Healthcare, Human Rights, Internet Freedom, Monsanto, Net Neutrality, Police abuse, Racism, Torture, TPP, Undercover police, Worker Rights and Jobs

This week we marked the 66th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was signed by the United States at its inception but has never been ratified. Perhaps because we live in a country that does not protect our human rights, many people in the United States lack an understanding that they exist. In the work for justice, important tasks are to learn about our rights, recognize that they are being violated and to stand up with the demand that these rights are honored. Throughout history it has been organized people-power that has won rights. We cannot expect to gain them any other way. We’ll highlight many areas where people are fighting for rights.

Media Tries To Avoid Saying ‘Torture’

December 13, 2014 Jim Naurekas, www.fair.org Educate! Freedom of Expression, Journalism, Media, Torture

National Public Radio, following the lead of theWashington Post (FAIR Blog, 12/9/14) (and in contrast to the New York Times–FAIR Blog,8/8/14), tries to avoid applying the word "torture" in its own voice to the tortures described in the recent Senate Intelligence Committee report. Here's host Robert Siegel (All Things Considered, 12/9/14): In the years after 9/11, the CIA conducted harsh interrogations, more brutal and widespread than many realized. And worse, those interrogations did not produce any intelligence that we could use in any significant way to fight terrorism. Those are the conclusions of a report partially released today by the Democratic chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Reactions to what's known as the torture report show a country divided.

Obama Urges No Further Investigations Or Prosecutions Over Torture

December 11, 2014 John Queally, www.commondreams.org Educate! Human Rights, Law, Torture

In his first official remarks following Tuesday's release of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the torture program conducted by the CIA during the presidency of George W. Bush, President Barack Obama on Tuesday night indicated that the abuses detailed in the report conducted in the name of the American people—described as "horrific," "ruthless" and "much more brutal than previously thought"—should not be followed by further inquiries or prosecutions as many have long urged. In his remarks, Obama acknowledged that "no nation is perfect," but argued that "one of the strengths that makes America exceptional is our willingness to openly confront our past, face our imperfections, make changes and do better."

ACLU Head’s ‘Pardon Bush’ Op-Ed Sparks Controversy

December 10, 2014 Lauren McCauley, www.commondreams.org Educate! CIA, Obama, Torture

In preparation for the much-anticipated release of the Senate's summary report on CIA torture, the head of one of the country's leading rights groups on Monday proposed a controversial solution to ensure that such crimes are never committed by the American government again: pardon President Bush and those who tortured. Published in the New York Times op-ed pages, ACLU executive director Anthony Romeroargues that an executive pardon by President Obama "may be the only way to establish, once and for all, that torture is illegal." Romero, as head of one of the organizations that has lead the fight to disclose the United States' illegal torture campaign and demand accountability for those involved, acknowledges that prosecution of those responsible for the systemic abuses in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks would be "preferable."

Senate Report Says Torture Of Little Use In CIA Hunt For Bin Laden

December 10, 2014 Ben Mathis-Lilley, www.slate.com Educate! Bin Laden, CIA, Human Rights, Law, Senate, Torture

The question of whether torture helped the United States locate Osama Bin Laden has been debated since almost immediately after the news broke on May 2, 2011 that the al-Qaida leader had been killed, especially after the hit 2012 film Zero Dark Thirty portrayed "enhanced interrogation" as the first step in finding Bin Laden's Pakistan hideout. The Senate torture report released today addresses the issue specifically, arguing at length that the CIA's past statements on the question have been misleading and that the "vast majority" of the information used to find Bin Laden was not obtained through torture. In all, the Senate's account jibes with earlier reports about Bin Laden's capture written by observers critical of the idea that torture was essential to the operation.

Shouldn’t People Be Held Accountable For These Crimes?

December 10, 2014 Nick Wing, www.huffingtonpost.com Organize! Torture, War crimes

The redacted summary of the senate report on torture describes horrific, macabre crimes. Below are some of the worst. People need to be held accountable for these actions from the lowest CIA agent who carried them out to the president of the United States who admitted torture in his presidential biography. On Tuesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee released the long-awaited summary of its torture report, revealing horrific details about the CIA's post-9/11 detention and interrogation program. Many of the details in the report are sickening and graphic. They are perhaps made only more disturbing by the overarching conclusion that the torture and "enhanced interrogation" employed by the CIA failed to produce the types of significant intelligence that had been used to defend the program in the past. You can go here to read the unsealed summary of the report, including a section on initial findings and hundreds of pages of declassified documents. Below is a compilation of some of the most abhorrent details from it.

Torture Report: UN Official Calls For Prosecution Of US Officials

December 9, 2014 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org Educate! Torture, War crimes, Wars and Militarism

Finally the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's report on torture has been made public. The report is a 500 page redacted summary of a much larger 6,000 page report based on a four year investigation by the committee. The torture used by the United States was much more brutal than had been previously acknowledged. In addition, it was much less effective at uncovering terrorist plots or preventing acts of terrorism. It resulted in torture victims making up false information. The report also shows how the CIA lied to the media, public and Congress. The number of people subjected to torture was 119 and at least 26 of the prisoners, about 21%, should never have been arrested but some of these innocent victims were held for months before being released. The New York Times, which summarized seven key findings of the report, editorialized that "report raises again, with renewed power, the question of why no one has ever been held accountable for these seeming crimes

Prequels To The Torture Report

December 9, 2014 Marcellenne Hearn, www.aclu.org Educate! Human Rights, Torture, usa

As early as tomorrow, the long-awaited Senate torture report will finally see the light of day. If all goes as planned, the Senate Intelligence Committee will release the roughly 500-page executive summary of its 6,000-page report concerning the CIA's "rendition, detention, and interrogation" program. The report is said to be highly critical of the program. Former President Bush came out over the weekend to defend the CIA against the report's conclusions. That's not surprising, considering his own responsibility for the CIA's brutal policies. Despite attempts to keep the program secret, details of it came out, bit by bit, in documents released over the years. Some, but not all, of the most shocking documents – including the memos comprising the legal infrastructure of the program – are listed below. Hopefully by tomorrow, the story they tell will be more complete.

United Nations Condemns US Over Torture & Injustice

November 30, 2014 Ed Pilkington, www.theguardian.com Educate! Guantanamo Bay, Immigration, Police abuse, police brutality, Racism, Solitary Confinement, Torture

The United Nations issued a report on torture by the United States and it should be quite an embarrassment to every American. Not only is the US violating international laws against torture in its military actions and treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo, but the report also criticized the violation of US laws against torture. The report noted the widespread police brutality common in the United States and the lack of accountability for police who mistreat people. The report also criticized the mistreatment of prisoners held in solitary confinement as well as botched executions. The UN also concerns over the mistreatment of immigrants, expedited deportation without adequate due process and lack of adequate protection for asylum seekers. . The report is an indictment of government in the United States at every level. The UN criticized the United States for not cooperating with the investigation and providing full information.

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