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.
|
Veterans
for Peace, Weekly E-News, Friday, February 26, 2016
Veterans 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>
|
|||||||||
|
Published on Sunday, January 18, 2015 By Waging Nonviolence
Fighting Racism and
Torture from Ferguson to Guantánamo
By Jeremy Varon
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
|
|
||||
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.  Sincerely,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.
|
||||||
CodePink Attempts to "Arrest" Henry Kissinger for War Crimes in
Vietnam, Laos, Chile and East Timor.
Democracy Now (Jan. 30, 2015).
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
