Torture

‘Astonishing’ CIA Memo Shows Brazil’s Ex-Dictator Authorized Torture And Executions

May 12, 2018 Tom Phillips, Theguardian.com Educate! Brazil, CIA, Torture

Brazil’s former dictator Ernesto Geisel personally approved the summary execution of his regime’s perceived enemies, according to a newly unearthed CIA memo that has reopened a bitter debate over one of the darkest chapters of contemporary Brazilian history. Matias Spektor, the São Paulo-based academic who discovered and distributed the document on Thursday, called it “the most disturbing I have read in 20 years of research”. The memorandum, sent to then secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, by the CIA director, William Colby, on 11 April 1974, details a meeting it said had taken place a few days earlier between Geisel and three Brazilian generals. One tells Geisel, who ruled Brazil from 1974 until 1979, the regime “cannot ignore the subversive and terrorist threat” it faces.

A Brief History Of American Torture

May 11, 2018 Brett Wilkins, Informationclearinghouse.info Educate! CIA, History, Torture

American torture is back in the news again as Gina Haspel, President Donald Trump’s pick to head the Central Intelligence Agency, prepares for what could be a rocky Senate confirmation hearing with some tough questions about her role overseeing a secret torture prison in Thailand and destroying tapes of brutal detainee interrogation sessions. Haspel’s nomination, and to a lesser degree her earlier appointment as deputy CIA director, reopened what more well-meaning observers, including torture survivor Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), have called “one of the darkest chapters” in US history, the so-called “enhanced interrogation” abuse of men, women and children caught up in America’s endless war on terror. However, post-9/11 detainee abuse can only be called a chapter if we recognize that it is part of a much larger story...

Ray McGovern Arrested and Abused Protesting #BloodyGina

May 9, 2018 Kevin Zeese, Popular Resistance Resist! CIA, Torture, War crimes

At the Senate hearing on the nomination of Gina Haspel, aka. #BloodyGina, to head the CIA, people protested inside and outside of the hearing. Protesters know, as everyone in the US Senate knows, that Haspel was directly involved in torture and gave the order to destroy tapes showing brutal US torture. Ray McGovern, a long-time CIA analyst, was one of the people who protested her being considered for that post. He was aggressively arrested and ...

Will A Torturer Become CIA Director?

May 8, 2018 Ray McGovern, Consortiumnews.com Educate! CIA, Torture

Gina Haspel faces a confirmation hearing on Wednesday to become CIA director despite her record of supporting torture, which even the Pentagon admitted does not work, says Ray McGovern. The Senate Intelligence Committee is scheduled on Wednesday to decide whether to recommend that Gina Haspel be confirmed as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The mind boggles. It is no secret that Haspel oversaw detainee torture, including waterboarding, at a CIA “black site” base in Thailand. The nonprofit National Security Archive, housed at The George Washington University, reports that Haspel later drafted a cable ordering the destruction of dozens of videotapes of torture sessions, including some from before her arrival. Haspel also helped feed repeated lies about the supposed effectiveness of torture to CIA superiors, Congress, and two presidents.

First Person Account Of Peace Activist Detained And Tortured At SF Airport

May 5, 2018 Jerome Succor Abba, Mindanews.com Educate! Activists, Peace, Repression, Torture

MANILA (MindaNews / 25 April) — Asalaamu Alaykum. Peace be upon you. I thank Allah SWT, the Almighty for giving me the strength and courage to survive the grueling 28 hours of torture. Alhamdullilah! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! I send my deep gratitude for the untiring protest actions mounted by friends and organizations from all over the USA- from Portland to New York City. Your quick response to my situation, such as the rally at San Francisco Airport and call barrage, has helped tremendously in my release from the cruel clutches of the CBP and Homeland Security. I also send my highest regards to colleagues who rushed to my aid upon my return to Manila.

CIA’s Secret Torture Program Sparked Citizen-led Public Reckoning In North Carolina

April 17, 2018 By Alexandra Moore, Activistpost.com Organize! CIA, North Carolina, Torture

President Donald Trump’s nominee for CIA director, Gina Haspel, is reported to have overseen a U.S. site in Thailand where torture of a suspected terrorist took place. Later she allegedly helped destroy evidence of torture. Her nomination, pending congressional approval, is viewed by many as further evidence of this administration’s support of torture and an undoing of Obama-era efforts to end it. Her work was allegedly part of a program the CIA launched after 9/11 called Rendition, Detention and Interrogation. From 2002 to at least 2006, the CIA orchestrated disappearances, torture and indefinite detention without charge of suspected terrorists. What can a small group of committed citizens who oppose these practices do to push back?

World Psychiatric Association Statement Bans Psychiatrists From Participating In Torture

April 6, 2018 By Shannon Peters, Madinamerica.com Educate! Psychiatry, Torture

This statement comes two years after the Hoffman Report was released, which outlined how the American Psychological Association colluded with the US government to conduct torture (for more reactions to the Hoffman Report see here and here). The WPA cited the Madrid Declaration, first approved in 1996, which explicitly states psychiatrists should not participate in any mental or physical torture. They also review that psychiatrists are physicians bound by the Hippocratic Oath “never to do harm.” The WPA defines interrogation as “the attempt to elicit from a person deprived of liberty information that is not intended for the therapeutic benefit of the person.” The WPA makes very clear that even indirect or covert participation in torture is unethical. This includes “the creation of environments that might undermine the self or the identity of the detainee.”

Gina Haspel, Trump’s Pick For CIA Director, Ran A Black Site For Torture

March 14, 2018 Glenn Greenwald, Theintercept.com Educate! CIA, Torture, Trump Administration

IN MAY 2013, the Washington Post’s Greg Miller reported that the head of the CIA’s clandestine service was being shifted out of that position as a result of “a management shake-up” by then-Director John Brennan. As Miller documented, this official — whom the paper did not name because she was a covert agent at the time — was centrally involved in the worst abuses of the CIA’s Bush-era torture regime. As Miller put it, she was “directly involved in its controversial interrogation program” and had an “extensive role” in torturing detainees. Even more troubling, she “had run a secret prison in Thailand” — part of the CIA’s network of “black sites” — “where two detainees were subjected to waterboarding and other harsh techniques.” The Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on torture also detailed the central role she played in the particularly gruesome torture of detainee Abu Zubaydah.

Tillerson Fired As North Korea Talks Approach, Differences Over Iran

March 13, 2018 By Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge Educate! CIA, Donald Trump, Torture, Wars and Militarism

Back in December we asked "Will CIA Director Mike Pompeo Replace Rex Tillerson As Secretary Of State?" The answer, as of moments ago, is yes. Moments ago, the WaPo first reported, and then President Trump tweeted, that he has ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replaced him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, launching a major change to his national security team amid delicate negotiations with North Korea. Tillerson had learned his fate last Friday, according to the Washington Post, when Trump asked Tillerson to step aside, causing the embattled top diplomat cut short his trip to Africa on Monday to return to Washington, using illness as an alibi. Mike Pompeo will replace the former Exxon CEO at the State Department, while Gina Hapsel — the deputy director at the CIA — will Pompeo at the CIA.

Private Corporation May Be Sued For Role In Abu Ghraib Torture

February 27, 2018 Staff, Ccrjustice.org Resist! Corporate crime, Corruption, Lawsuit, Torture

February 21, 2018, Alexandria, VA – Today, a Virginia federal judge ruled that the treatment of three Iraqi individuals formerly detained at the infamous “hard site” at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq constitutes torture, war crimes, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, based on a thorough review of U.S. domestic and international law. The ruling also held that the men have sufficiently alleged that employees of private military contractor CACI Premier Technology conspired to commit and aided and abetted these crimes. The case, Al Shimari v. CACI, was filed nearly ten years ago, and CACI has repeatedly argued that, even if its employees were involved in torture and other abuse, the company is shielded from liability. Today’s 54-page ruling definitively rejected that position, as well as attempts by certain Bush-era officials to water down the prohibition against torture, and allowed the lawsuit to proceed against CACI.

Israel Carried Out Extrajudicial Executions, Tortured Children

February 26, 2018 Staff, Middleeastmonitor.com Educate! Children, Israel, Torture

Addressing the use of lethal violence, Amnesty International noted that Israeli forces killed 76 Palestinians and one foreign national in 2017, adding that “many, including children, were shot and unlawfully killed while posing no immediate threat to life”. Some killings, Amnesty continued, “appeared to have been extrajudicial executions”. Across the occupied territories, “Israeli forces, including undercover units, used excessive and sometimes lethal force when they used rubber-coated metal bullets and live ammunition against Palestinian protesters”, killing “at least 20, and injuring thousands”. Amnesty’s annual report notes the killing in December of “wheelchair user Ibrahim Abu Thurayya”, who “was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier as he was sitting with a group of protesters near the fence separating Gaza from Israel”.

US ‘Stumbled Into Torture,’ Says NYT Reporter

February 17, 2018 Adam Johnson, Fair.org Educate! CIA, Cold War, Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Torture, US Imperialism

Two clauses stand out for their confident attribution of benevolent motives to US foreign policy. First, there’s the idea that “America stumbled into torture,” rather than planned, plotted and spent over 15 years carrying out a policy of torture. This pretends that the US’s massive global torture regime—which involved drownings, beatings, sleep deprivation and sexual humiliation, among other techniques, along with “extraordinary rendition” to allied countries for less refined torture methods–was something other than a deliberate policy initiative. As FAIR (6/22/17) noted last year, corporate media routinely assert that the US “stumbles,” “slips” or is “dragged into” war and other forms of organized violence, rather than planning deliberate acts of aggression.

Solidarity From Central Cellblock To Guantanamo

January 16, 2018 Brian Terrell, World Beyond War. Resist! Guantanamo, Prison system, Torture, Trump

I have been attending protests at the White House since Jimmy Carter lived there and with each succeeding administration, the space allowed for political discourse has been reduced and the once protected free speech of citizens increasingly criminalized there. Under Trump, half the width of the formerly public sidewalk in front of the White House is fenced off, the inner perimeter now patrolled by officers armed with automatic weapons. Pennsylvania Avenue, long ago closed to vehicular traffic, is now closed off to pedestrians at the hint of a demonstration.

41 Hearts Beating In Guantanamo

January 14, 2018 Kathy Kelly, Voices for Creative Nonviolence. Resist! Criminal Justice System, Guantanamo, Torture

January 11, 2018 marked the 16th year that Guantanamo prison has exclusively imprisoned Muslim men, subjecting many of them to torture and arbitrary detention. About thirty people gathered in Washington D.C., convened by Witness Against Torture, (WAT), for a weeklong fast intended to close Guantanamo and abolish torture forever. Six days ago, Matt Daloisio arrived from New York City in a van carefully packed with twelve years’ worth of posters and banners, plus sleeping bags, winter clothing and other essentials for the week.

Historic Settlement In ACLU Case On Behalf Of Three Torture Victims

August 18, 2017 Staff, www.aclu.org Resist! ACLU, CIA, Torture

By Staff of ACLU - NEW YORK — In a first for a case involving CIA torture, the American Civil Liberties Union announced a settlement today in the lawsuit against the two psychologists who designed and implemented the agency’s brutal program. A jury trial was scheduled to begin on September 5, after the plaintiffs successfully overcame every attempt by the psychologists to have the case dismissed. The lawsuit was brought by the ACLU on behalf of Suleiman Abdullah Salim, Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud, and the family of Gul Rahman, who froze to death in a secret CIA prison. The three men were tortured and experimented on using methods developed by the CIA-contracted psychologists, James Mitchell and John “Bruce” Jessen. “This is a historic victory for our clients and the rule of law,” said ACLU attorney Dror Ladin. “This outcome shows that there are consequences for torture and that survivors can and will hold those responsible for torture accountable. It is a clear warning for anyone who thinks they can torture with impunity.” The full terms of the settlement agreement are confidential.

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