Torture

Government Still Hiding Truth From Us On Torture

December 15, 2013 Conor Friedersdorf, www.theatlantic.com Educate! CIA, Torture

One year ago today, the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to adopt a 6,000-page report on the CIA rendition, detention, and interrogation program that led to torture. Its contents include details on each prisoner in CIA custody, the conditions of their confinement, whether they were tortured, the intelligence they provided, and the degree to which the CIA lied about its behavior to overseers. Senator Dianne Feinstein declared it one of the most significant oversight efforts in American history, noting that it contains "startling details" and raises "critical questions." But all these months later, the report is still being suppressed. The Obama Administration has no valid reason to suppress the report. Its contents do not threaten national security, as evidenced by the fact that numerous figures who normally defer to the national-security state want it released with minor redactions.

How School Of The Americas Watch’s Perseverance Is Paying Off

December 6, 2013 Ken Butigan, wagingnonviolence.org Resist! SOA Watch, Torture, Wars and Militarism

It is possible that successful closure of the school is on its way, rooted in a number of strategies the SOA Watch has been pursuing. In addition to the annual vigil in Georgia, it has also staged a spring demonstration in Washington, D.C., aimed at bolstering its lobbying of Congress, urging it to end the funding for the school. This past April, SOA Watch organized a national phone-in that flooded Congressional offices with calls and staged demonstrations in the city, including a die-in near the Capitol. As a result of an SOA Watch lawsuit, a federal judge ordered the Pentagon to release the names of SOA graduates — this after a long struggle that included Congress adding an amendment to a defense authorization bill that demanded the Department of Defense to release the names. SOA Watch has built powerful relationships with activists throughout Latin America, including in Honduras, where it had a delegation of observers on the ground during the recent election there. Most significantly perhaps, SOA Watch has systematically lobbied Latin American governments to refuse to send their troops to the SOA. In 2012, Ecuador and Nicaragua joined Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia and Venezuela in deciding to stop sending their personnel there.

Video: Andrés Thomas Conteris Undergoes Nasal Tube Feeding in Solidarity With Guantanamo Hunger Strikers

October 19, 2013 Witness Against Torture, www.youtube.com Resist! Guantanamo Bay, Torture, Video, Wars and Militarism

Andrés Thomas Conteris — on day 103 of a water-only fast — will undergoed a nasal tube feeding in solidarity with the men at Guantánamo and to dramatize the cruelty of force-feeding. Conteris, who has lost 57 pounds, has undergone nasogastric feedings at the White House, in Oakland, California, and at US embassies in Uruguay and Argentina. Conteris, age 52, began his fast at the height of the Guantánamo hunger strike July 8, when thousands of US prisoners began hunger striking to protest the use of extended solitary confinement at Pelican Bay and other prisons.

Letters Detail Punitive Tactics Used On Guantánamo Hunger Strikers

October 15, 2013 Mark Townsend, www.theguardian.com Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights, Torture, Wars and Militarism

The US military secretly used a variety of tactics to break the resolve of the Guantánamo Bay hunger strikers, including placing them in solitary confinement if they continued to refuse food, newly declassified interviews with detainees reveal. One prisoner also said that the last British resident held inside the camp,Shaker Aamer, had been targeted and humiliated by the authorities to the point where it became impossible for the 44-year-old to continue his protest. The US military recently announced the end of the six-month mass hunger strike among detainees at Guantánamo Bay. But human rights groups argue that such proclamations are disingenuous as at least 16 inmates are still force-fed daily, and two are in hospital. One detainee, 42-year-old Syrian national Abu Wa'el Dhiab, reported that the Extreme Reaction Force team, the camp's military riot squad, would "storm" Aamer's cell five times a day in an attempt to crush his resolve during the strike.

Amnesty International: Italy Don’t Pardon CIA Agent Involved In Rendition

September 14, 2013 Staff www.amnesty.org Organize! Human Rights, Torture, Wars and Militarism

"The Italian President Giorgio Napolitano must reject a former CIA agent’s plea to be pardoned for a crime he committed in the country as part of the US-led rendition programme, Amnesty International said. Robert Seldon Lady – who is now believed to be back in the USA – wrote to the Italian leader on Wednesday to request a pardon. An Italian court previously convicted him in absentia, sentencing him to nine years in prison for his role in the abduction of Abu Omar from Milan in 2003[...]Torture and enforced disappearance are crimes under international law and all states are obliged to investigate and, if there is sufficient admissible evidence, prosecute those suspected of responsibility for such crimes."

Kiriakou: Totality of Punishment Is Not Limited to a Prison Sentence

September 13, 2013 Kevin Gosztola, www.dissenter.firedoglake.com Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Torture, Whistleblowers

For the past few months, Firedoglake has been publishing Kiriakou’s “Letters from Loretto.” This latest letter being published focuses on a hard lesson Kiriakou has learned since entering prison, which most prisoners learn during their incarceration, “one’s prison sentence is not the totality of his punishment.” There will be other things that happen on top of being sentenced. Kiriakou describes how his wife received a “sharply-worded letter” from the insurance company, USAA – the United States Assurance Association, which had been providing his family auto and homeowners insurance since 1993. USAA notified his family that they do not “insure felons” and were canceling their insurance immediately.” “I told my wife not to panic; call them in the morning and put the insurance in her name,” Kiriakou writes. “She did that, only to be told that USAA doesn’t insure ‘felonious families.’ Thank goodness she was able to find another, more reputable company with which to do business.”

Abu Ghraib Torture Victims Ordered To Pay U.S. Contractor’s Legal Fees

September 13, 2013 Christina Wilkie, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! Iraq, Torture

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered four Iraqis who were imprisoned at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison to pay nearly $14,000 in legal fees to defense contractor CACI, an Arlington, Va.-based company that supplied interrogators to the U.S. government during the Iraq War. The decision in favor of CACI stemmed from a lawsuit filed by the former prisoners in 2008, alleging that CACI employees directed the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. The suit was dismissed in June, when U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee ruled that because the alleged acts took place on foreign soil, CACI was "immune from suit" in U.S. court.

VIDEO: James Yee Speaks About Arrest While Chaplain At Guantanamo

August 16, 2013 Searching for Occupy, www.youtube.com Educate! Guantanamo Bay, Torture, Video, Wars and Militarism

After being officially recognized twice for outstanding performance, Captain Yee was arrested and imprisoned in a Naval brig for 76 days in September 2003 while being falsely accused of spying, espionage, and aiding the alleged Taliban and Al-Qaeda prisoners. He was held in solitary confinement and subjected to the same sensory deprivation techniques that were being used against the prisoners in Cuba that he had been ministering to. After months of government investigation, all criminal charges were dropped. With his record wiped clean, Chaplain Yee was reinstated to full duty at Fort Lewis, Washington. He tendered his resignation from the U.S. Army and received an Honorable Discharge on January 7, 2005. Upon separation he was awarded with a second Army Commendation medal for "exceptionally meritorious service."

Open Letter To Gov. Jerry Brown: Stop Torture In California Prisons

August 3, 2013 Staff, www.stoptortureca.org Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Human Rights, Solitary Confinement, Torture

Well over ten thousand adult prisoners are currently being held in some form of solitary confinement in California prisons – 80,000 in total across the United States. Among the worst form of solitary confinement is the indefinite and long‐term, extreme isolation of the Security Housing Units (the SHU) at Pelican Bay State Prison, California’s “supermax”. Locked in a 11’7” x 7’7” windowless concrete box/cell for at least 22 ½ hours a day, day in day out, year after year, prisoners endure without sunlight, fresh air or human touch. In contrast to every other system in the United States, prisoners can’t even receive a phone call unless a family member has died. Over 500 prisoners have been locked down in the Pelican Bay SHU for over 10 years. About 80 of them have been in solitary for over 20 years and at least two prisoners have been isolated for over 40 years. This is a policy that condemns to permanent life long isolation.

This Week: Close Guantanamo, Stop US Torture of Hunger Strikers

June 22, 2013 Margaret, www.populareresistance.org Resist! Guantanamo Bay, Torture, Wars and Militarism

This Wednesday, June 26, is the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. Veterans who are on hunger strike with prisoners in Guantanamo Bay will come to Washington, DC to protest at the White House. The call for support for this push is made even more urgent by news in the Guardian that the prison has stepped up abuse of the hunger strikers in order to get them to stop their fast. According to the Guardian, Shaker Aamer, a British prisoner in the camp who has been on hunger strike for four months, reports that the prison is placing the hunger strikers in freezing cold rooms and using metal-tipped feeding tubes. This is happening because US authorities are getting desperate.

Video: Hunger Strike Song

June 14, 2013 the Peace Poets, www.youtube.com Resist! Human Rights, Torture, Video

166 men remain trapped at Guantánamo. The vast majority have never been, and will never be, charged with any crime. Of these, 86 have been cleared for release. Almost all of the men are on hunger strike since Feb 6, 2013. This three and a half minute video was produce by the Peace Poets and Witness Against Torture.

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