Wednesday, March 30, 2016

US TORTURE, WAR CRIMES, LAWLESSNESS NEWSLETTER #11

OMNI
TORTURE, WAR CRIMES, LAWLESSNESS NEWSLETTER, #11, March 30, 2016
Compiled by Dick Bennett, Building a Culture of Peace and Justice
 (#1 October 5, 2007; #2 May 9, 2011; #3 June 26, 2011; #4 Oct. 21, 2011; #5 Feb. 25, 2012; #6 June 12, 2012; #7 Feb. 23, 2013; #8 June 23, 2013; #9 April 16, 2014; #10, January 26, 2015).   

What’s at stake: if the United States is to come to terms with its involvement in institutionalized state torture, there must be a full and official accounting of what has been done, and those responsible at the highest levels must be held accountable.”  Rebecca Gordon

OMNI NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL DAYS PROJECT:
JUNE IS UN TORTURE AWARENESS MONTH
JUNE 26 IS UN INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SUPPORT OF VICTIMS OF TORTURE
JULY 17 IS UN INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE DAY, INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (ICC)
JANUARY 12, 2002, GUANTANAMO OPENED


OMNI EVENTS
UN TORTURE AWARENESS MONTH, June 22, 2013:  us TORTURE and MURDER PROTEST AT FEDERAL BLDNG, FAYETTEVILLE.
UN INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SUPPORT OF VICTIMS OF TORTURE, JUNE 26, Film at OMNI, War on Whistleblowers
UN International Justice Day, July 17, Book Forum


My blog:   War Department/Peace Department
My Newsletters:
Index:
See Atrocities, Bush, Cheney, Civil Liberties, Constitution, Corruption,  Genocide, International Court of Justice, International Law, Lawlessness, Militarism, Murder, NDAA newsletters, Obama, Rice (Condoleezza), Rumsfeld, War.

For OMNI’s newsletters go to:   http://www.omnicenter.org/newsletter-archive/).    Knowledge of the full, including worst, reality strengthens the search for the best.



Contents: Torture, War Crimes, Lawlessness Newsletter #11  
Helping the Victims, Exposing and Prosecuting the Torturers
Force-Feeding
Mexican Immigrant’s Family at International Tribunal
VFP vs. Torture Rhetoric in 2016 Presidential Campaign
APA vs. Psychologists Used as Interrogators
Varon, Witness Against Torture, Fighting Racism and Torture
Chomsky on the Senate Report, We Won’t Turn a Blind Eye
Condoleeza Rice, Expose Her, Repudiate Her
Code Pink, Arrest Kissinger


Center for Victims of Torture
We heal victims of torture through professional care worldwide. Read More ... CVT Advocates for the Protection of Torture and War Survivors. We advocate for ...
We advocate for the protection and care of torture survivors. We ...
Organize a Collection for Torture Survivors ... tour of our St. Paul ...
Contact Us. CVT is headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, with ...
Executive Staff. Ruth Barrett-Rendler Deputy Director; Fawn ...
You'll speak with members of our healing team and ... Center for ...
We are an international nonprofit ... care for those who have been ...


FORCE-FEEDING, Google Search, March 30, 2016
www.nytimes.com/.../nocera-is-force-feeding-tortu..
The New York Times
Jun 1, 2013 - Force-feeding has been labeled a violation on the ban of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. The World Medical Association holds that ...
io9.gizmodo.com/heres-what-really-happens-when-you-force-feed-some...
Apr 21, 2015 - The American Medical Association and the Red Cross both condemnforce-feeding as a form of torture. And yet, the U.S. government and the ...
abcnews.go.com/Politics/force-feeding-gitmo-obamas-torture.../story?id...
Dec 11, 2014 - Human rights groups say force-feeding of Gitmo detainees amounts to ... PHOTO: U.S. Navy guards escort a detainee in the Guantanamo Bay ...
www.aljazeera.com/.../israel-torture-method-force-feeding-pal...
Al Jazeera
Aug 15, 2015 - Miri Regev, Israel's Minister of Culture and Sports, supports torture. ... While the US has been force-feeding inmates in Guantanamo for many ...
www.aljazeera.com/.../force-feeding-form-torture-israel-palesti...
Al Jazeera
Jul 31, 2015 - Dr Shimon Glick - Medical ethicist and supporter of force-feeding for ... You hereby provide us with an irrevocable, unlimited, and global license ...
www.theguardian.com › US News › CIA torture report
The Guardian
Dec 10, 2014 - Detainees were forced to stand on broken limbs for hours, kept in ... Prisoners were subjected to “rectal feeding” without medical ..... US News.


Family of Mexican Man "Tortured & Killed" by U.S. Border Agents Seeks Justice at Int'l Tribunal & "2 Steps Forward, 1 Step Back":
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Democracy Now! Daily Digest
A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgVwONa-yc5dWJR5fgfMfxAHl_e2jymnyLsEjYaTKWKDgP-Ib6EQbYBKGDI8D7Pkr03yZ4naIS5YyciERoZwQZYnCbJIJ1Q7-KH3UCwsznXersnhdIG-udP2E5_JXMrHDepGFa_MjP37Filp5uT99s=s0-d-e1-ft
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Stories
The family of a Mexican immigrant killed by Border Patrol agents in 2010 is launching an unprecedented effort to hold the United States responsible. Six years ago, in May 2010, ... Read More →

Veterans for Peace, Weekly E-News, Friday, February 26, 2016
VFP Issues Statement on Torture Rhetoric In 2016 Presidential Campaign
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEiWgq3hNiax2R5sXFbVtqAzzCrOwu1laxys8wqDa-0mqWb_0PbxMkzFLFJ1zjw9mU-tsxwNMR9Z2g7qFsaCh0s2dfmfYnI5-8MHDf-CbrB_AlHlCXGxeWPt2A16IA3DjriXzrzd9Hq9fGeopRlUiAW7vq6foDPcUqkgqCUC61WRrOvzFQ=s0-d-e1-ftVeterans For Peace believes all torture, including waterboarding, is a human rights violation and constitutes a war crime. We will not defeat terrorism by adopting terrorist tactics. We will not achieve peace by practicing revenge.  We will not preserve our precious democracy by abandoning our commitment to human rights. It is appalling that the efficacy of torture is now part of the American conversation. It dehumanizes us when we resort to such baseness. This is not what millions of U.S. military veterans fought for. We should reject such simplistic and vengeful suggestions on the campaign trail. Instead of doubling down on a shameful era, Americans should be turning the page to a new era of peace at home and peace abroad. The tortured logic of waterboarding is not the way to get there. <Full Statement>




Democracy Now! Daily Digest
A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgVwONa-yc5dWJR5fgfMfxAHl_e2jymnyLsEjYaTKWKDgP-Ib6EQbYBKGDI8D7Pkr03yZ4naIS5YyciERoZwQZYnCbJIJ1Q7-KH3UCwsznXersnhdIG-udP2E5_JXMrHDepGFa_MjP37Filp5uT99s=s0-d-e1-ft
Friday, August 7, 2015
We speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter James Risen, who has extensively reported on the APA’s ties to the CIA and Pentagon’s torture program ... Read More →
We broadcast from Toronto, Canada, where the largest group of psychologists in the world, the American Psychological Association, his holding its first meeting ... Read More →
We broadcast from Toronto, Canada, site of the annual convention of the largest group of psychologists in the world, the American Psychological Association. Ahead of ... Read More 





Published on Sunday, January 18, 2015 By Waging Nonviolence

Fighting Racism and Torture from Ferguson to Guantánamo

Witness Against Torture members in the U.S. Capitol shortly before being arrested by Capitol Police on January 12, 2015. (Photo: WNV/Justin Norman)
On January 12, in the cramped entrance of D.C. Metro Police headquarters, Witness Against Torture addressed a phalanx of officers in song: “We remember all the people / The police killed / We can feel their spirits / They’re with us still.” The song was written for the occasion by Luke Nephew, anti-torture stalwart and poet for movements from climate justice to Black Lives Matter. (Nephew’s “I Can’t Breathe” has become an anthem for the latter.) The anti-torture group had gathered in Washington to mark the 13th “anniversary” of the opening of the detention camp at Guantánamo in January 2002. Here protesting domestic racism at a D.C. jail, Witness Against Torture, or WAT, broke new ground for itself.
Earlier in the day, WAT members were arrested at the U.S. Capitol. Some interrupted Senate proceedings to call for the prosecution of those authorizing or committing torture, as detailed in the Senate’s own report on CIA interrogations. Others were cuffed in the visitors center holding banners reading “We Demand Accountability for Torture and Police Murder!”
Woven between the two actions was the demonstration by the Hands Up Coalition DC at the Department of Justice, attended in force by anti-torture activists. In driving rain, the mother of Emmanuel Okutuga, killed by police in nearby Silver Spring, Md., addressed the crowd through sobs.
WAT conceived its suite of actions under the slogan “From Ferguson to Guantánamo: White Silence Equals State Violence.” The goal was to link mass incarceration at home and indefinite detention overseas, impunity for police murder and for CIA torture as dual dimensions of systems of state violence rooted substantially in racism.
Behind the efforts at this synthesis lay challenges commonly confronting today’s activists: to analytically connect diverse oppressions; to build alliances based on their interconnection; and, for majority white groups like WAT, to support with appropriate deference and recognition of structural privilege movements led by people of color. The particular, sometimes halting journey of anti-Guantánamo activists toward new solidarities may be instructive for others contending with these challenges.   MORE http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/01/18/fighting-racism-and-torture-ferguson-guantanamo
Jeremy Varon is an organizer with Witness Against Torture and a Professor of History at The New School.




We won't turn a blind eye to torture: the Senate’s Report on Torture



The CIA "disappeared" more than 100 men and tortured dozens from 2002 to 2008, using horrific tactics like forced rectal feeding and waterboarding.

A recent Senate report provides new evidence of these crimes, but no one has been held accountable. In fact, the U.S. Justice Department -- responsible for prosecuting crimes -- is apparently refusing to even read the report, keeping it locked away in a sealed envelope.

If the Justice Department refuses to read the report,join me in sending it to them.

Dear James,

This is an American Torture Story.

Majid Khan was at the mercy of CIA interrogators for 1,200 days -- at least. During that time, he was stripped. He was forced into ice water baths. He was "hung up" for a day in a sleep deprivation position. He was denied solid food for seven days.

After about a year, Majid Khan went on hunger strike to protest the treatment he was receiving. The CIA responded with "involuntary rectal feeding and rectal hydration." Majid's lunch tray, consisting of hummus, pasta with sauce, nuts, and raisins, was "pureed" and "rectally infused." This happened repeatedly. Eventually, Majid Khan attempted to cut his wrists.

I'm interested in the power of words. Terms like "enhanced interrogation" or "rectal feeding" are clever disguises for the true term we should be using to describe the CIA's treatment of Majid and more than 100 others: Torture.

The CIA can try to bury the truth of these atrocities, but it's up to us to hold the agency responsible. Tell U.S. authorities that no one gets away with torture.

From 2002 to 2008, the U.S. government disappeared more than 100 men and subjected dozens of them to torture using some of the same "interrogation methods" they used against Majid Khan.

Despite the release of a report recently issued by a Senate committee, which provides evidence of these horrific crimes, the U.S. Justice Department refuses to act.

In fact, the department apparently refuses to even read the report - keeping it in a sealed envelope, unopened.

But the truth is undeniable, and no amount of wordplay can disguise it. Tell the U.S. Department of Justice that it must read and respond to the Senate's report on torture.

Torture is a crime and no one should get away with it. It's up to us to enforce that. Join us in telling this American torture story and use the power of your voice to speak out for justice.

Noam ChomskySincerely,
Professor Noam Chomsky 


CONDOLEEZA RICE High Justifier OF TORTURE, Google Search, March 30, 2016
[With Cheney, Bush, and Rumsfeld, Rice led the Bush Administration into the war crimes of torture.  Yet she was paid $170,000 for one lecture by the University of Arkansas Fayetteville.   They can still be prosecuted, and must be if we are ever have a just and humane justice system.]
https://www.minnpost.com/.../creative-ambiguity-condoleezza-r...
MinnPost
Apr 18, 2014 - Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice didn't mention torture in her brief visit to the University of Minnesota Thursday, but a lot of other ...
www.theguardian.com › Law › Torture
The Guardian
Apr 23, 2009 - Condoleezza Rice gave permission for use of waterboarding by CIA in ... who regards the techniques as torture, opened the way for possible ...
www.telegraph.co.uk › ... › North America › USA
The Daily Telegraph
Apr 23, 2009 - Condoleezza Rice, President George W. Bush's Secretary of State, personally approved a CIA request to use "waterboarding" and other harsh interrogation techniques. ... She verbally agreed to allow the methods to be used on Abu Zubaydah, an al-Qaeda suspect, in July 2002, a Senate ...
https://www.aclu.org/.../watch-condoleezz...
American Civil Liberties Union
Apr 26, 2013 - A video meant to be presented at yesterday's dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum featured Condoleezza Rice ...
https://consortiumnews.com/2014/04/.../misguided-honor-for-condi-rice/
Apr 3, 2014 - Offenders like ex-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice even get honors, ... Â Planning and ordering of torture is a jus cogens crime of the ...
www.washingtonpost.com › Nation
The Washington Post
May 4, 2009 - Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Jewish elementary school students that the Bush administration did not use torture tactics.
theweek.com/.../how-george-w-bush-dick-cheney-brought-tor...
The Week
May 19, 2015 - How George W. Bush and Dick Cheney brought torture to America ... Then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice led a push inside the ...
www.juancole.com/.../condoleezza-withdraws-commencement....
Juan Cole
May 4, 2014 - Condoleezza Rice on Saturday pulled out of giving the commencement ... that launched an illegal and destructive war and practiced torture.
www.dailykos.com/.../-Memo-Exposes-Condi-Rice-s-Torture-P...
1.      
Daily Kos
Apr 7, 2012 - For years, the Bush torture team and its ardent supporters have depended on what might be called the Seinfeld defense of its regime of ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/.../American_Faust:_From_Condi_to_...
Wikipedia
Condi signed off on the orders to the CIA with the words, 'This is your Baby, go do it!'" Richard Clarke concurs: "Rice decided what torture to use on what person.




Activists from the antiwar group CodePink attempted to perform a citizen's arrest on former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger when he testified on global security ... Read


President Obama and Torture, Google Search, March 30, 2016
www.msnbc.com/msnbc/obama-torture-hands-arent-entirely-clean
Dec 10, 2014 - President Obama has denounced the techniques revealed in the Senate's torture report as "brutal." But his record on the issue is far from ...
www.truth-out.org/.../28361-how-outraged-is-the-obama-admin...
Truthout
Jan 5, 2015 - Furthermore, contrary to the current US media consensus that the Obamaadministration banned torture in 2009, the US government has ...
www.politico.com/story/2014/.../obama-cia-torture-report-11340...
Politico
Dec 8, 2014 - Now, some six years later, the White House says the torture report that's set to be released on Tuesday fulfills Obama's longstanding desire for ...
america.aljazeera.com/.../has-obama-banned-torture-yes-and-n...
Al Jazeera
Dec 1, 2015 - As a presidential candidate in 2008, then-Sen. Barack Obama vowed to roll back President George W. Bush's controversial interrogation and ...
www.globalresearch.ca/torture-never-stopped-under-obama/17204
Aug 14, 2015 - Yet another blatant form of torture that Obama refused to stop practicing is ... “The Obama administration will continue the Bush administration

Contents Torture Newsletter #10
Books
 Mainstreaming Torture: Ethical Approaches in the Post-9/11 United States by Rebecca Gordon (2014)
(Books already discussed in earlier newsletters, and see more:
David Luban, Torture, Power and Law. 
Jane Mayer, The Dark Side)

Senate Torture Report
    McCoy, How to Read It
    Davies, and US War Crimes

Pushing for Prosecution of the Highest Responsible and Accountable
Democracy Now! Prosecute Cheney and Bush
Firedoglake Petition
Roots Action, Sign Petition to Spain to Prosecute Bush, Cheney, and
     Rumsfeld
Watchdog.net, Support Senate Report Publication
Urge Senator Udall to Read the Report into the Record
VFP v. War Crimes
Kathy Kelley
McGovern
Laurence Lewis
New York Times

If the corruption cannot be repaired through the Criminal Justice System, what are the alternatives?
Chris Lehmann, “The Torturers’ Day of Reckoning.”
   
Torture USA
Gordon, Torture Normal USA
Karen Greenberg, Yes Normal
Health Professionals’ Active Participation
Cheney and Contemporary Acceptance of Torture
Drake, Nazi Torture
Engelhardt, Too Big to Jail
William Blum, President Obama and Torture
Mark Hosenball,, Torture Not Necessary
Amy Davidson, Many Liabilities of Torture

OPPONENT HEROES OF TORTURE
By Jon Wiener, The Nation blog, posted December 15, 2014

Additional Background to Invasion, Occupation, Torture
Democracy Now
Z Magazine, US, Torture, and Latin America
Historians Against the War (HAW)

Give to the Center for Victims of Torture

Recent OMNI Newsletters
Contact President Obama
Numbers 4-9




END US TORTURE, WAR CRIMES, LAWLESSNESS  NEWSLETTER #11



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