December 23, 2012

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McCain Justifies Indefinite Detention of American Citizens with Debunked Statistics (Video)

December 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Forget about the obvious violation of Constitutional rights that the recently-approved $662 billion Defense Authorization bill inflicts by allowing for indefinite military detention of United States citizens without formal charges or trial by a jury of peers, the justification for doing so just became more absurd. In the clip below, Rand Paul (R-KY) asks John McCain (R-AZ), “if an American citizen is declared an enemy combatant, could they be sent to Guantanamo Bay and detained indefinitely?”

To which McCain replied affirmative; “If they pose a threat to the security of the United States of America.”

McCain claimed this new anti-American authority was needed because of the “facts” that “27% of detainees who were released get back into the fight.”

Filed Under: Guantanamo, Law, Prison, Terrorism, USA

After Ten Years in US Custody, UK Resident Shaker Aamer “Is Gradually Dying in Guantánamo,” Says Clive Stafford Smith

November 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Clive Stafford Smith, the director of the London-based legal action charity Reprieve, has just visited Guantánamo, for the first time in a number of years, as his colleagues have been undertaking visits instead, and has returned with a renewed sense of horror at the continued existence of Guantánamo, that bleak icon of the Bush administration’s disregard for the law, which President Obama has found himself unable to close.

This is a time of grim anniversaries. The 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in September was followed, in October, by the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, and, as the 10th anniversary of the opening of Guantánamo approaches, on January 11, 2012, we have now reached the point where we can begin to mark the 10th anniversary of the dates on which the 171 men still held there were first seized, and to reflect on what it says about America’s notions of justice and fairness that they are, for the most part, still held without charge or trial.

On his visit to Guantánamo, Stafford Smith was visiting Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in Guantánamo, whose case has long been of concern to British citizens and to opponents of Guantánamo in the US and elsewhere in the world. I have written about his case extensively over the years, and his story also features in the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo,” which I co-directed with the filmmaker Polly Nash.

A British resident with a British wife and four British children, Shaker Aamer has never been charged or tried, and yet, as Clive Stafford Smith reports, in an article, a press release and a letter to the British foreign secretary William Hague, all cross-posted below, he remains held, exactly ten years since he was first seized, even though he was notified that he had been cleared for release in 2007, and even though successive British governments have requested his return to the UK.

Those closest to his case have been obliged to conclude, for many years, that he is still held because, as an eloquent, charismatic man, and the foremost advocate of the prisoners’ rights, he knows too much, and these fears are further confirmed with the knowledge that he stated that, on the night of June 9, 2006, when three other prisoners died in Guantánamo in disputed circumstances (the authorities claimed that it was suicide, while soldiers who were present have suggested that the men may have been killed), he was tortured to within an inch of his life.

In addition, although the Labour government under Gordon Brown and the current Tory-led coalition government have requested the release of Shaker Aamer, his continued detention appears to be inexplicable unless, like their US counterparts, the British authorities do not really want him released either. Shaker Aamer embarrassed the British government in 2009, when he won a court case to secure the release of information regarding his claims that he was tortured by US forces in Afghanistan while UK agents were in the room, and this might explain the government’s reluctance to secure his return, were it not for three additional facts: firstly, that the Metropolitan Police are investigating his torture claims, and that he is surely needed as a witness; secondly, that the British government reached a financial settlement with him a year ago, which cannot be concluded while he is still in Guantánamo; and thirdly, that David Cameron’s much-criticised torture inquiry, into British complicity in torture abroad, cannot realistically begin while Shaker Aamer is still detained.

To shed further light on the current situation at Guantánamo, on Shaker Aamer’s case, on his array of physical and mental ailments, as a result of his ill-treatment over the years, and on the inexcusable inaction by both the British and the American governments, I refer you to Clive Stafford Smith’s commentaries below, and, if you would like to add your voice to those pressing for Shaker Aamer’s return, you can email William Hague here or you can write to him at the following address: The Foreign Secretary, William Hague MP, The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, King Charles Street, London SW1A 2AH.

Guantánamo Bay: An Unpalatable Visit

This week I visited Shaker Aamer, the last remaining British resident being held in Guantánamo Bay.

He was originally detained on 24 November 2001, so he is marking ten years in prison without any charge. I cannot disclose what he said to me because, as ever, complaints he might have about his mistreatment, or his chronic health problems, are deemed classified until the United States sees fit to allow me to discuss them. However, Guantánamo is more depressed than ever, as perhaps illustrated by my own experiences on the gastronomic front.

I was looking forward to dining in the best restaurant on the Leeward Side of the infamous navy based, the Clipper Club, which qualifies because it is the only place that is normally open by the time our ferry gets back from the Windward side of the bay. The Club normally boasts a microwave pizza, which is putrid, but also a gin and tonic, which I find more nutritious.

So I walked down there on my first evening, past a couple of million dollars’ worth of new, wholly unused, now abandoned and overgrown, military housing units that some civilian Pentagon contractor got paid to put up two years ago. Arriving eagerly at my destination, I was aghast to discover that military economies meant that the Club now opens only on weekends. There was only one remaining dining alternative, the vending machine at the motel.

Therefore, after an appetiser of Planters Peanuts (not quite past their expiration date yet, but tasting rather stale), the main course was a bright green bag of Kars’ All Energy Trail Mix. I could only swallow half of my dessert, as my memory deceived me, and the Reese’s Peanut Butter cups were not up to par.

The nice lady from Jamaica at the front desk (who is, if my earlier visits hold true, being paid substantially under minimum wage by another civilian contractor) confirmed that the satellite dish had been broken for a while, so there was no chance of much after-dinner diversion. I asked when it might be fixed; she laughed rather charmingly, and said she knew of no plan to do anything about it. Tomorrow night’s entertainment will, then, be rather similar to this evening’s: tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow.

Indeed, on my second evening on the island, things had not improved. One of the silly new rules dictated that I must choose between cutting off my visit with Shaker Aamer 50 minutes early, and being refused a visit to the main shop on the Windward side.

I chose the latter, hoping against hope that the little shop on the Leeward side would still be open when my ferry got there. Alas, while the lights were still on, I was fifteen minutes late.

So I repaired to the vending machine again; even the remaining Reese’s cup seemed appetising tonight.

Guantánamo is, increasingly, torture for all those concerned. The soldiers have long since forsaken the notion that by holding prisoners without trial they are preserving the rule of law; the prisoners have lost all hope, ten years into their endless detention; and, as the Gitmo Diet takes hold, even the lawyers are finding their visits unpalatable.

Shaker Aamer, last British resident in Guantánamo Bay, ‘celebrates’ his tenth year imprisoned without charge or trial
Reprieve press release, November 24, 2011

Ten years ago today Shaker Aamer was detained in Afghanistan. He was subsequently sold for a bounty to US forces, tortured in Bagram Air Force Base and Kandahar (with British agents as witnesses), before being transferred to Guantánamo Bay for additional abuse.

He has never been charged with any offence, and published reports indicate that he is one of 88 among the 171 prisoners remaining in Guantánamo Bay who has long been cleared for release from the prison. However, the law in the US as it currently stands requires that the US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta must certify that Britain is a safe place for him to return to, and that he will commit no future crimes there — something that apparently Panetta has been unwilling to do.

Immediately upon visiting Shaker last week, Reprieve’s director wrote to Foreign Secretary William Hague concerning the laundry list of physical ailments that Shaker suffers — a list that had just been cleared through the US censorship process. That disturbing letter has now been made public [and is cross-posted below].

Reprieve’s director Clive Stafford Smith said: “I saw Shaker last Thursday and he tries to put a brave face on ten years of horrible abuse, but it is enough to wear any human being down almost to the point of death. Why does Britain pretend it has a Special Relationship if someone from London can be held for a decade without any due process, leaving his British wife without a husband and his British children without a father?

“Notwithstanding the fact that Britain has the best record of any country with former Guantánamo prisoners (nobody released has committed any offence), and that Shaker Aamer has anyway never committed a crime of any kind, the US Secretary of Defense is apparently not willing to certify that it would be safe for him to return here. It’s time someone in the British government told Leon Panetta what time of day it is.”

Clive Stafford Smith’s letter to William Hague regarding Shaker Aamer, November 18, 2011

Rt. Hon. William Hague
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
King Charles Street London

Re: Shaker Aamer & Guantánamo Bay

Dear Mr Hague:

I am writing to you urgently from Miami International Airport. I have just flown in from Guantánamo Bay where I visited Shaker Aamer yesterday. While there are aspects of that visit that I may not divulge due to US classification rules, I am permitted to relay my impressions, as well as detail the materials that were unclassified yesterday.

These give great cause for concern. Mr Aamer has suffered abuse that is unfathomable in the twenty-first century. One of the many areas of concern is his physical health.

Mr Aamer has now been held in isolation for more than two years. The US authorities may quibble about the term “isolation” (they have been known to do so in the past), but nothing can change the fact that Mr Aamer has been held in a solitary cell for that time, and much more over the past ten years. He has been thus punished because he continues to insist on the most basic elements of justice: that he be given a fair trial.

He has listed for counsel the following physical ailments that currently afflict him:

  • Arthritis in the knees and fingers, stemming from his abuse in custody;
  • Serious asthma problems (exacerbated, almost to the point of asphyxiation, when the US military sprays him with pepper spray during their periodic forcible cell extractions, or FCEs);
  • Heartburn and acid reflux exacerbated by the diet;
  • Prostate pain, with serious problems with urination;
  • Problems with his ears, including the loss of balance and dizziness;
  • Neck, shoulder and back pain resulting from the beatings that he has suffered;
  • Serious infection of his nails;
  • Ring worm and itchiness between his legs;
  • Constant haemorrhoids and rectal pain;
  • Extreme Kidney pain.

He also complains of E-N-T problems, serious insomnia, nerve problems in his right leg, and so forth. I can directly attest to various of these problems. For example, if the US insists that his food is of good quality, I can tell you that I tasted the lunch that he was given yesterday and it was revolting. I observed the infection of his left thumb, his right thumb, and his right index and middle finger nails, and it is like nothing I have seen before, rendering the nail soft and crumbling off the digit.

I do not think it is stretching matters to say that he is gradually dying in Guantánamo Bay.

This makes it all the more urgent that we get an independent medical assessment of him. However, ultimately there is only one solution, which is to get him out of Guantánamo Bay, home to his family in London. I should note that on February 14th he will have been in Guantánamo Bay for ten years; the anniversary coincides with the tenth birthday of his youngest child, who he has never met.

I remain,
Yours sincerely,
Clive A. Stafford Smith, Director

 

Source: https://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2011/11/24/after-ten-years-in-us-custody-british-resident-shaker-aamer-is-gradually-dying-in-guantanamo-says-clive-stafford-smith/

Filed Under: Corruption, Guantanamo, Health, Politics, Rights, Torture

Guantanamo is most expensive jail

November 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

This establishment, managed by the U.S., spends $800,000 for each of the 171 detainees, many of them held in custody without charges.

Data published in the Spanish daily, El País, and assigned to the Department of Defense of the United States, establishes Guantanamo prison as the world’s most expensive prison. The establishment, with 171 detainees in Cuba, are costing American taxpayers 137 million Euros (about 242 million dollars) per year, or 800,000 Euros each (1.4 million dollars). Meanwhile, the average spending per person in the prison system on American soil is 25,000 Euros (about 45,000 dollars) a year.

The Guantanamo prison, opened in 2002, months after the attacks of September 11, operates under the “logic of prevention.” Inmates sent to the site do not necessarily need formal charges. They can be kept in custody indefinitely, as long as the U.S. would consider them a risk.

The result of this controversial premise was exposed by Wikileaks in May 2011, with the leak of 759 secret records of 779 prisoners who have been through the establishment. According to the documents, at least 150 detainees were innocent people, including elderly people with dementia, psychiatric patients and teachers.

In an interview, Michael Strauss especially lays bare French violations and mistakes made by the U.S. government at Guantanamo Bay. Michael Strauss, a professor of International Relations at the Centre d’Etudes et Stratégique Diplomatique of Paris, explained to CartaCapital at the time of the leaks, that the prison was designed to shift the crime of terrorism from civilian to military and detain prisoners outside the USA.

“This scheme has created several new legal, political and moral issues. For the Americans, it became even more difficult to deal with terrorism with international partners.”

The documents showed that the most important aspects for the arrest of an individual were the amount of information known by the same and their degree of dangerousness in the future.

In prison, trying to escape the image of torture, the prisoners are checked every three minutes. The most dangerous, such as the alleged mastermind of the ideological attacks on Washington and New York in 2001, Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, are monitored every 30 seconds. In addition, 1,300 local people work among soldiers, interpreters, cooks and psychiatrists.

Rights

The Guantanamo detainees captured in 2008 alone have the right to habeas corpus under the U.S. Constitution. “This decision came only after several inmates spent six years detained without being charged with crimes, and after torture,” said Strauss. “The Court ruled that prisoners enjoy these rights, because the United States has a sort of de facto sovereignty in Guantanamo. Even if, officially, in fact, Cuba has sovereignty.”

The teacher pointed out the ambiguity of sovereignty as the main reason for the choice of prison, because it allows the special peculiar treatment of prisoners. “Where the Americans are, their sovereign legal system applies completely. And where they have jurisdiction, but are not sovereign, its legal system applies only partially. Thus, constitutional protections such as habeas corpus did not apply there,” he explains.

According to El País, about 20% of the detainees were arrested arbitrarily even according to military law. Moreover, the U.S. did not believe in the guilt of 60% of the prisoners.

President Barack Obama said he was making closing Guantanamo one of his main goals during the elections. In January 2009, the White House stipulated that in a period of one year the prison would be closed, but failed to stick to it.

“The recession would have a direct impact on a much larger number of people in the United States than anything that Washington did with respect to Guantanamo,” said Strauss. He says the economic crisis was one of the reasons Obama disregarded the promise.

Source: https://english.pravda.ru/business/finance/17-11-2011/119660-Guantanamo_is_most_expensive_jail-0/

Filed Under: Censorship, Corruption, Education, Guantanamo, Imperialism, Islam, Justice, Law, Martial Law, Media, Military Industrial Complex, Money, Politicians, Politics, Prison, Privacy, Propaganda, Protests, Religion, Revolution, Rights, Suicide, Surveillance, Terrorism, Torture, USA, War, Weapons

Seven Elephants Now Thrashing Your Living Room

November 13, 2011 By 1 Comment

According to the mass media fog machine, the following phenomena are really not worth reporting. In fact, by their omission they literally do not fully exist in people’s minds but are just slight vague ephemeral illusions dancing on the fringe of their consciousness.

As many people say to this day, “if 9/11 was an inside job the media would have been all over it.”

Conditioning complete.

Here They Come . . . Just 7 Of The Herd for Starters

1. Fukushima Is Irradiating the Planet
Estimated to have already far surpassed Chernobyl in dangerous radioactive emissions that are not abating in the least and expected to get worse, we hear nothing about this in the mainstream news.
In fact, the level of denial is outright Orwellian. Here’s a perfect example in recent news:

Nuke agency reports unusual radiation in Europe

VIENNA (AP) — Very low levels of radiation, which are higher than normal but don’t seem to pose a health hazard, are being registered in the Czech Republic and elsewhere in Europe, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday.

The agency said the cause was not known but was not the result of Japan’sFukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which spread radiation across the globe in March.

Go ahead and rub your eyes, but you actually just read that. In fact in Japan the denial is so great that people are moving BACK to Fukushima and eating the contaminated food while children play in its highly toxic playgrounds.

All part of the same message; “The elephant doesn’t exist.”

2. Illegal Drone Attacks are Terrorizing Innocent Populations
Be sure to click on the BBC link at the bottom of this quote for a glimpse into a terrorized teen’s last words before he was beheaded by a drone attack while driving his car with his cousin who was also murdered.

The human toll of the US drone campaign

The principal reason so little attention is paid to the constant victims of American violence in the Muslim world is because the U.S. Government refuses to disclose anything about these attacks and media outlets virtually never report on those victims (MSNBC demoted and then fired its then-rising-star Ashleigh Banfield when she returned from Iraq and pointed out that fact in an April, 2003 speech denouncing the “one-sided” coverage of American wars: meaning, the invisibility in U.S. media of America’s civilian victims). It’s easy to cheer for a leader who regularly extinguishes the lives of innocent men, women, teenagers and young children when you can remain blissfully free of hearing about the victims. It’s even easier when the victims all have Muslim-ish names and live in the parts of the Muslim world we’ve been taught to view as a cauldron of sub-human demons. That’s why it’s periodically worth highlighting the actual impact of those drones and the actual people they kill, as the BBC did today.

3. Geoengineering and Weather Wars
The amount of documentation and evidence supporting the existence of these ongoing programs is staggering, yet never a word in the mainstream press. All you hear about is more hype regarding “climate change problems” and the scientific community’s “concern” and ideas for “mitigating this problem”, where they slowly introduce weather mod “ideas” that are actually black ops programs already under way for years.

That the UN had to pass a treaty to NOT use weather weapons as far back as 1977 says it all. Where do you think they are with that technology now, 34 years later?

Wikepedia: Weather control, particularly hostile weather warfare, was addressed by the “United Nations General Assembly Resolution 31/72, TIAS 9614 Conventionnon the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques” was adopted. The Convention was: Signed in Geneva May 18, 1977; Entered into force October 5, 1978; Ratification by U.S. President December 13, 1979; U.S. ratification deposited at New York January 17, 1980.

With earthquakes and storm systems demonstrably proven to be manipulated or outright caused by powerful EMF manipulation, and our skies constantly streaked with a chemical haze emitted by thousands of planes worldwide, one might think there would be cause for alarm and a little public education

“Nope, no elephant here….cuz we don’t even talk about it.”

4. The Obama Hoax

Now this one you may think is obvious but it’s a doozy. Here’s a guy who came out of nowhere and they can’t even find anyone who knew him where he claimed to go to college. He produces no paperwork on his nationality, education or health records, has multiple social security numbers and whose only credentials are a book by himself about himself! ..and of which he is very likely not even the author!

And the contents of the book? How much is true and how much is just made up and cleverly packaged? At least with a food package you get a contents list. This fable rivals a Disney production.

He comes in on a hope and change anti-war ticket and what does he do? The same as the rest of them and no one seems to notice!

He escalates America’s illegal wars and wins the Nobel Peace Prize. He promises transparency and we know less about the government’s goings on than ever. And he has devolved the US government into a defacto fascist dictatorship with his use of Czar appointments, executive orders and arbitrary war forays without Congressional approval.

And he’s President of the United States! Not only that, he has presided (as figurehead) over the worst downturn in American history and is now running for re-election based on his amazing record of accomplishments!

“No elephant here. He’s hope and change! More smoke up my butt please…”

5. Universal Sickcare

This is business as usual for the PTBs but it’s still a giant stomping elephant in every room of the house.

When organic food and supplements are on the verge of being banned, growing your own food regulated and hindered, and the Federal Drug Administration approves poisonous toxins in your food and water and the genetic modification of living organisms that we consume but have no right to know which ones they are…we have a problem.

When our children are being drugged and vaccinated, and given a steady diet of junk food laden with MSG, aspartame, wood pulp and genetically modified high fructose corn syrup, just to name a few of their poisons…we have a problem.

When doctors won’t treat unvaccinated patients, chemotherapy becomes mandatory and natural and homeopathic treatments are illegal…we have a problem.

It’s not a healthcare system. It’s sick, and promotes sickness. Hey, don’t believe me? Follow the money. Cui bono?

6. Media Magick Madness

That they can get away with camouflaging and ignoring and getting the public to ignore major issues such as these is akin to magick or sorcery. They do this by,amongst other things, introducing subconscious rules and guidelines as to what we should consider truth or not. And one of the rules is, “if we the media mogul mouthpieces don’t talk about it, it might as well not exist because we don’t consider it important”.

Truth erased by omission and supplanted with a false narrative.

The perfect example again is 9/11. There’s not an iota of the official story that is provable except that things blew up, while the anomalies in what transpired that day are myriad. And is this even debatable? No. In fact even challenging the official story has become tantamount to heresy. After all, rule #1 is to NEVER point out an elephant. Elephants simply do not exist.

That kerosene can’t melt steel? Sorry, never heard that on TV. That an Arab passport flutters supernaturally in perfect condition from this horrific exploding plane hitting and supposedly melting an entire building? Wow, what luck!

And the pancake theory? Anyone see any pancaked floors? “Oh well, I’m sure they were there cuz they told us that’s how it happened, move along.” And to this day mention building 7 and you’ll be shocked how many people never even heard of it.

Why? The old news blackout trick. Do the same with Oklahoma City…review what was on the news the first day and notice how you never ever heard again about “the other bombs” they found that day that were sophisticated military grade munitions. The reporters said these were crucial evidence and were going to help identify the culprits.

Gone. Erased by omission from the public mind. Virtually the “lone gunman” story once again. JFK redux. How convenient.

Besides the lies and political side show, when the populace is bombarded with shallow roll models, decadent athletes and rock stars, degrading sexual deviancy and an endless stream of horrific violent images via TV, movies, computer games and even actual war…we have a problem.

7. Marginalization Of Extra “Ordinary” Phenomena

What UFOs? 10′s of thousands of sightings doesn’t apparently mean squat if “official sources” don’t acknowledge their existence. A secret space program and mega militarization of space? “C’mon, they couldn’t hide something like that! And underground bases? That would be such a story the media would never ignore and surely someone would have spoken up about them.”

Mind control? “Now who would do that to you but a demonic Asian in a POW camp? Get over it. It’s not possible any more. I’m a free entity, there’s no way they could pull that off. Pass the cool aid, honey, I’m thirsty..”

Funny, they talk about the technological capability to do things like these, and put out scores of movies on these subjects, but in order to apply it to your reality they’ve positioned themselves as the final authority on every subject. For example, that the wicked PTBs may be targeting the general population with mind control techniques, never mind manipulating thousands of actual Manchurian candidates around the world would seem crazy to most. Yet they know advertising works on this very basis.

But again, that’s been cleverly camouflaged, excused and justified as “free enterprise”. Clever little bastards, aren’t they?

“And now those wackos are talking about secret societies, ritual child abuse and paedophilia amongst the elites? All that stuff’s nonsense. Why the news man would laugh at all that, honey. I could tell by the smirk on his face not to believe all that stuff in that interview…”

And consciousness and extra-dimensional realities? That’s relegated to “scientists” to package up and serve in some remote non-applicable sanitized fashion. Otherwise, you talk about that stuff and you’re a new age paranoid conspiracy nut job.

Again, the false choice technique…neither option they give you is the Truth.

Conclusion

These are just 7 of these things. There is an entire herd of elephants running around the whole human household with more roaming through each day! The extent to which humanity is being massively manipulated can be overwhelming at first, but it’s actually quite liberating once you get through most of the maze and start to “get it”.

But this is real education. The other is predominantly programming your mind to accept a predetermined version of reality that they would like you to have.

Solution: Pull the Plug

It’s clear the so-called government and it’s plethora of bloated agencies are not there to help you, but to manage, seduce, suppress, subjugate and control you. Yet they convince you otherwise to keep you dependent and upside down and backwards while telling you everything’s on the up and up.

Their fundamental technique is trauma-based mind control and cognitive dissonance. Keep affronting your senses with violent images and then reversing your sense of right and wrong and telling you white is black and black is white long enough and you’ll finally give in.

The only place to turn is OFF. Turn it all off. Get your real life back. Read, play, love those around you, laugh, visit inspiring and revelatory alternative internet sites while they’re still available. Spend time in nature. Just get away from televisions and any form of mass media. Have you noticed how TVs are constantly playing in just about every lobby, restaurant, lounge, terminal etc., and people leave them on at home just for companionship?

Big Brother wants your attention. Don’t give it to him.

And be careful as to what music you listen to. I cringe when I see young people with their earbuds in and a strange stare on their faces or slumped over in obvious depression. I can only imagine what rubbish their subjecting themselves to thinking it’s cool or OK cuz it’s some famous group or something iTunes is pushing. Music is programming, either good or bad.

Skepticism Is Good

Their pollution has become so pervasive it’s hard to trust anything any more. Don’t worry, that’s a healthy attitude.

Stay free…it takes some doing and undoing, but it’s what life is all about. And help others do the same.

Conscious awareness is a thrill worth detaching for!

 

Source: https://beforeitsnews.com/story/1359/061/7_Elephants_Now_Thrashing_Your_Living_Room.html?currentSplittedPage=0

Filed Under: Banks, Big Pharma, Biotechnology, Capitalism, Censorship, Consumerism, Corporations, Economy, Federal Reserve, Fukushima, Guantanamo, Health, Internet, Media, Military Industrial Complex, Money, Monsanto, Occupy, Police, Politics, Poverty, Prison, Privacy, Propaganda, Protests, Radiation, Rights, Science, Surveillance, Taxes, Torture, USA, War, Weapons

The Obama administration’s human rights hypocrisy continues

November 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

In September of this year a Senate Appropriations committee voted to repeal a Bush-era restriction on military aid to the dictatorial regime of Islam Karimov regime in Uzbekistan, with the help of the Obama administration.

Waiving this restriction will, if the bill is enacted, allow military and police aid to the Uzbek government, all on the taxpayer’s dime.

However, it is not just a matter of money, this represents another instance of the Obama administration propping up brutal dictators while pretending to care about human rights.

The entire justification for attacking Libya was that Gaddafi was engaging in egregious human rights violations against his people.

The mainstream media and corrupt Washington politicians continue to decry the actions of the Assad government in Syria.

Yet, when a similar situation is evolving in Bahrain and Uzbekistan, the U.S. does not only stay silent but even provides the aid necessary to continue the crackdown.
In the case of Bahrain, the Obama administration was preparing to sell the ruling regime $53,000,000 in arms before postponing the sale until the completion of an inquiry into their human rights violations, due November 23rd.

The restrictions on aid to Uzbekistan have been in place since 2004 due to the brutal dictatorship of Islam Karimov which has continued “to silence civil society activists, independent journalists, and all political opposition; severely curtail freedom of expression and religion; and organize forced child labor on a massive scale”, according to a joint letter to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The joint letter expresses concern over Washington’s move to resume “business as usual” with the Karimov regime and was signed by 20 organizations, some much more questionable than others (like the International Crisis Group, for example).

Setting aside the suspicious and thoroughly untrustworthy organizations that signed the letter to Clinton, the move by Washington clearly highlights the hypocrisy that is involved in America’s approach to human rights abroad.

Human rights only matter to the morally bankrupt politicians in Washington when there is a secondary benefit of some kind and when a regime is strategically vital to our so-called “national interests” then human rights violations are swept under the rug.

For instance, the Karimov regime has been charged with jailing and killing dissidents, some of which have been boiled alive, according to doctors who examined the body of 35-year-old Muzafar Avazov, an individual who was detained in Uzbekistan’s Jaslyk Prison.

Regardless of the many charges leveled against the brutal Karimov regime, Secretary of State Clinton said that the dictatorship was “showing signs of improving its human rights record and expanding political freedoms.”

She added that the United States is seeking to strengthen its ties to the Uzbek regime because they are “proving very helpful to the U.S. in bringing supplies into Afghanistan and supporting U.S.-led efforts to rebuild its southern neighbor.”

Here is where the typical ulterior motive comes to light. Lifting the ban on aid has nothing to do with improving human rights; it has everything to do with the Uzbek regime playing ball with the colonial nation building efforts in Afghanistan.

This is especially pertinent given Pakistan’s slow move away from the United States and towards rising powers like China.

All of the evidence supporting the claim that Karimov is improving the situation in his country is based on his “word.”

A senior official from the State Department, when asked “when was the last time you were aware of that some of Karimov’s thugs actually boiled people alive? Or is that a thing of the past?” said, “That’s a thing of the past.”

When a questioner said, “But it wasn’t that long ago,” the State Department official flippantly responded, “That’s right. Oh, well.”

When confronted about the human rights violations committed by the Uzbek dictator, and his commitment to improving them, the senior State Department official said, “He wasn’t defensive at all.”

A questioner retorted, “But do you believe this?” To which the official responded, “Yeah. I do believe him.”

Based on what? Surely you cannot trust a vicious dictator based on just his word?

But apparently that is exactly what they are doing, evidenced by the official saying, “he’s said several times that he’s committed to [improving human rights]. He’s made a speech last November where he talked about this.”

Karimov has a history of brutal oppression of his people, especially in May of 2005 when, in response to so-called pro-democracy demonstrations in Andijan and other cities, the Uzbek government slaughtered over 700 protesters in a two-day period.

The Bush administration then blocked a NATO call for an internal investigation into the massacre but a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report claimed that the Uzbek government forces utilized “indiscriminate use of lethal force against unarmed people” based on the testimony of eyewitnesses.

Of course, HRW is far from a reliable organization and their motives should always be questioned and weighed against the evidence they are presenting.

Karimov claimed that the police acted independent of his orders, but the British Independentreported, “He was in command of the situation having flown to Andijon from the capital Tashkent and almost certainly personally authorized the use of…deadly force.”

The same senior State Department official quoted above said of the incident, “We’ve definitely – we’ve moved on from that.”

A senior analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus, a professor of politics and chair of Middle Eastern studies at the University of San Francisco, Stephen Zunes, points out that if this goes through, it will give other brutal dictators the green light to kill dissidents while still receiving American assistance.

Zunes says that “This is nothing short of a license to kill. Other despots will likely interpret such assistance to indicate that warnings – such as those given by the Obama administration to the Egyptian military back in February that ties would be severed if pro-democracy protesters were massacred – are not to be taken seriously.”

Given the United States’ history of selective attention to human rights violations and even more selective treatment of the violators, I do not think that anyone takes Washington’s warnings seriously.

That is, of course, unless you don’t play ball with America, in which case you and your peoples’ heads are on the chopping block as we have seen in Libya.

Clearly the support of the Uzbek regime is a strategic move to keep a channel open for transport of troops and military equipment to and from Afghanistan.

Karimov improving the situation in Uzbekistan is the last thing on Washington’s mind as we can see by their blind belief in his “word.”

The complete lack of coverage of this issue in the mainstream media is nothing short of disturbing and it is yet another instance of the corporate controlled media presenting a narrative which is wholly removed from reality.

Anything that contradicts said narrative is either ignored or spun and it will be interesting to see how the mainstream media chooses to treat this issue if aid is issued to the Karimov regime.

 

Source: https://www.activistpost.com/2011/11/obama-administrations-human-rights_11.html

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Justice at Guantanamo?

November 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Trials for Guantanamo detainees will be meaningless if the accused can be jailed regardless of the verdict

With their client facing trial in a military commission for his role in the 2000 USS Cole bombing, lawyers for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri have demanded the government answer this basic question: If al-Nashiri is acquitted, will he be released? Although the government refuses to say what it would do, it has made clear that it can continue to detain al-Nashiri regardless of the trial’s outcome.

The defence’s request, which the military commission is expected to consider this week, highlights the continuing contradictions of law and justice at .

The government’s explanation for post-acquittal detention is as follows. It has authority under the 2001 Authorisation for Use of Military Force to detain members and supporters of al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated groups for the duration of the armed conflict with those groups (i.e., the conflict formerly known as the “global war on terror”). The government also has authority under separate legislation to try the same individuals for various war crimes, including for providing material support for terrorism. The two sources of authority, it argues, are distinct.

“The government … has made clear that it can continue to detain al-Nashiri regardless of the trial’s outcome.“

The government draws an analogy to German soldiers captured during World War II, who were held as prisoners of war in accordance with the Geneva Conventions and longstanding tradition. Their detention was considered non-punitive and lasted only until the end of the conflict. If, however, a German soldier had committed a war crime, for example by targeting civilians, he could have been prosecuted for violating the laws of war, held criminally responsible, and sentenced to a term of imprisonment lasting beyond the conflict (or even sentenced to death). Merely because a military court acquitted the soldier of the charges would not have invalidated his prisoner-of-war detention or required his immediate release.

This framework has intuitive appeal. But problems arise when it is applied to an amorphous and intergenerational conflict against terrorist organisations.

To begin with, war crimes trials are typically held after the conclusion of the conflict. The trial of major Nazi war criminals at Nuremburg did not occur until after World War II. Similarly, cases before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia did not commence until after hostilities ceased.

One reason for holding trials after the war is that it is only after the fighting has stopped that countries are able to focus on accountability. Another reason, however, is that it gives the trials meaning by allowing states to impose punishment on the culpable in the form of continued incarceration. If, for example, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic could be detained regardless of the outcome of his war crimes trial at The Hague, that trial would lose its sense of purpose.

Trials have multiple goals. They not only give the accused his or her day in court, but also provide a way for the government to impose punishment legitimately and uphold shared social norms. Those goals are compromised when a trial proceeds under a “heads I win, tails you lose” rationale and the defendant remains incarcerated regardless of the result.

The nature of the war on terrorism, moreover, means that a defendant may be held for life even if acquitted. Rather than vindicating exercises of state power, such trials increase concerns about the illegitimacy of its use.

Post-acquittal detention highlights another paradox of Guantanamo. If al-Nashiri had to be released after a “not guilty” finding, it would undermine the government’s argument for continuing to hold other prisoners without trial, especially the approximately 40 Guantanamo detainees whom the Obama administration says it will never prosecute because it lacks the evidence to convict them. It would mean, in other words, that only those accused of the most serious crimes, such as al-Nashiri or alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, get their day in court, while those less culpable languish in perpetual detention without ever being charged. Post-acquittal detention is thus necessary to sustain the coherence of a larger system of preventive detention, in which trials themselves are provided at the government’s discretion.

Former Supreme Court Justice Robert H Jackson, who also served as the chief prosecutor of the major Nazi war criminals at Nuremburg, warned against “show trials” that fail to bring forth the facts and critically examine the evidence. ”The ultimate principle,” Jackson said, “is that you must put no man on trial under the forms of judicial proceedings if you are not willing to see him freed if not proven guilty”.

Jackson may have been addressing the need to adhere to stringent requirements of proof and fair adjudication. But his remarks apply to any court that exists to ratify a predetermined result. No matter how much military commission procedures are improved - and they still fall short of American criminal justice standards - they will remain show trials if the accused can be jailed regardless of the verdict.

 

Source: https://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/11/20111198958893651.html

Filed Under: Guantanamo, Prison