OMNI
TORTURE, WAR
CRIMES, LAWLESSNESS COLLECTION #12, OCTOBER 15, 2022
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; #11, March 30, 2016).
This collection is arranged in reverse
chronological order from 2022 to 2016, for the experience of investigating a
subject deeper into its past.
Contents
Torture #12
John
Kiriakou. CIA, Guantanamo, and John
Rizzo. 2022
John Kiriakou. CIA,
Guantanamo, and Abu
Zubaydah.
Chip
Gibbons. John Kiriakou Spoke Out Against US Torture, and US Put Him In Prison.
Mark Jenkins. “The
[Torture] Report: A 7,000-Page
Government Study.”
Center
for Constitutional Rights. Pre-Release Screening of The
Report.
Sue
Udry. Trump’s Torture Cabinet: Haspel,
Pompeo, Bolton.
Center
for Constitutional Rights: Abu Ghraib survivors’ quest for justice.
Nicholas K. Geranios . “Legal deal over harsh CIA interrogations marks a milestone.”
“Yemen to probe alleged torture of detainees; U.S. senators ask for
inquiry.”
Naureen Shah. “The Fight Against Torture under Trump Starts
Now.”
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World Beyond War . “Torture Report must be public.”
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Sue Udry, “Take Action: Tell
President Obama to Release the Senate Torture Report.” Dec 10, 2016
John Marciano, “Lessons from the Vietnam War.”
Ken
Dilanian, AP.
“Senate intelligence committee rebuffs former CIA
official’s defense of detainee treatment.”
Curt
Goering. “Make
no mistake, waterboarding is torture. It is illegal.” (“I'd
bring back waterboarding and a hell of a lot worse.” –
President-elect Donald Trump)
World Beyond War “U.S.
Denies Entry to former British Ambassador Craig Murray.” 9 -7-16
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Whistleblower
Organizations.
TEXTS
TORTURE #12
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John Rizzo
Was Supposed To Be Constitution’s Last Line of Defense Inside CIA
By John Kiriakou on Oct 15, 2022 11:53
am
But instead, he pandered to the CIA’s leadership and to the
politicians who put them there.
A friend from
Covert Action Magazine recently sent me a video of former CIA Acting
General Counsel John Rizzo giving an interview upon
his retirement from the CIA. The interview is seven years old. But it is
as current—and as infuriating—today as it was the day he sat for it.
Rizzo died last
August, and he’s been quickly forgotten. But his legacy lives on. The
prisoners whose capture, rendition, and torture he advocated for are
still being held. None of them have been granted a trial before a jury of
their peers. Indeed, many of them have yet to be formally accused of a
crime. Yet they languish in Guantanamo. That’s thanks to John Rizzo and
people like him.
Like many of
you, my mother taught me that if I didn’t have something nice to say
about somebody, I shouldn’t say anything at all. That’s been a tough rule
to live by over the years, but I’ve tried. But when Rizzo died last
August and I turned to the Washington Post,
the New York Times, and
other outlets to read of his passing, not a single kind word came to
mind.
My mother would
be angry (or disappointed) with me for saying it, but, as I said at the
time, the world is a better place without John Rizzo in it. Rizzo was the
unapologetic godfather of the CIA’s torture program, a monstrous crime
against humanity that he defended unabashedly until his death.
John Rizzo was a
rather complicated figure. I knew him well from my days as the Executive
Assistant to one of the CIA’s Associate Deputy Directors. I was former
CIA Director George Tenet’s morning briefer during the Iraq War, and
Rizzo routinely sat in on the sessions. He was a nice enough guy—quick
with a smile and a nod. He was dapper, with a well-groomed beard that
made him look more like a 19th century businessman in
search of his top hat than a seasoned and very political attorney whose
job it was to lay out the legal justifications for horrific crimes yet to
be committed. […]
Read in browser »
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 In Peace and Solidarity,
Chris Agee
Executive Editor
CovertAction Magazine
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Copyright © 2022
CovertAction Institute, Inc., All rights reserved.
Subscribers 2022
Our mailing address is:
CovertAction
Institute, Inc.
55 Gerard St #
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Huntington, NY 11743-8252
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John
Kiriakou. Ex-CIA
Officer Who Led Raid that Captured Leading Al Qaeda Suspect Is Now Denouncing CIA
for Torturing Him for 20 Years In Guantanamo Without Ever Charging Him With A
Crime By CovertAction Magazine
on Oct 07, 2021.
The U.S. Supreme
Court on Wednesday heard arguments from attorneys for Abu Zubaydah, a Guantánamo prisoner once thought to be the
third-ranking leader in al-Qaeda, about whether their client would be allowed
to depose two CIA contract psychologists who devised and carried out the
Agency’s torture program and who personally participated in Zubaydah’s torture.
Abu Zubaydah wants information from James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen about his
time in a secret CIA prison, as well as information about the torture to which
Mitchell and Jessen subjected him to. A federal appeals court had earlier ruled
in Abu Zubaydah’s favor, but the CIA appealed to the Supreme Court, saying that
“national security” would be jeopardized if details of Abu Zubaydah’s torment
were to be made public. That’s what they always say. [...]
The post Ex-CIA Officer Who Led Raid that
Captured Leading Al Qaeda Suspect Is Now Denouncing CIA for Torturing Him for
20 Years In Guantanamo Without Ever Charging Him With A Crime appeared
first on CovertAction Magazine.
Chip Gibbons. “He Spoke Out Against Torture. They Put Him In Prison. Now, Hear
Him in His Own Words on the Primary Sources Podcast.” 9-13-21
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(Defending Rights & Dissent) info@rightsanddissent.org via salsalabs.org
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12:36 PM (1 hour ago)
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to me
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Dick,
John Kiriakou is the only person
imprisoned in connection with the CIA torture program. John didn’t
participate in the program, he blew the whistle on it. His crime
was that he was the first person to publicly confirm that the CIA
had used waterboarding and that was not the result of rogue actors,
but official policy approved by the president himself.
John joins us on the latest episode
of Primary Sources, our new limited series podcast that gives voice
to whistleblowers and other truthtellers who exposed civil
liberties and human rights abuses committed in the name of national
security.
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Primary Sources can be found on
Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, Spotify, and many other platforms
where podcasts are found. You can also find it on the web here.
John’s interview is a timely
examination of the way US officials exploited the terrible tragedy
of 9/11 to increase the power of the US national security state and
undermine civil liberties.
In the previous podcast episode, NSA
whistleblower Tom Drake gives his perspective on what that looked
like from inside the secretive spy agency. As Drake recounts, while
he and other NSA employees struggled with the knowledge that the
agency had failed to prevent the worst attack on US soil, higher up
the chain of command NSA officials were mostly interested in their
expanded budget and carrying out illegal surveillance authorized by
the president himself.
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While these first hand accounts of life
inside the CIA and NSA as they journeyed to the dark side are
particularly timeworthy, it's worth noting Primary Sources was
launched on another anniversary--the 50th anniversary of the
release of the Pentagon Papers. The Espionage Act ties these stories
together, a World War I-era law that crushed anti-war dissent at
the time, was expanded during the McCarthy period, and during the
War on Terror became the go-to weapon against whistleblowers.
The national security state, with
its evisceration of civil liberties at home and unbridled
militarism abroad, is facilitated by a cult of secrecy. It has
ruthlessly sought to destroy those brave truthtellers who have
defied it.
Primary Sources bears witness to
this history, by bringing you their voices.
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Or subscribe to the podcast wherever you get your
favorite podcasts & audiobooks!
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Defending Rights & Dissent
1325 G St. NW Suite 500 | Washington, District
of Columbia 20005
202.552.7408 | info@rightsanddissent.org
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MARK JENKINS. “The [Torture] Report: A 7,000-Page
Government Study, Brought To Vivid, Horrifying Life.”
November
14, 2019. 5:00 PM ET
https://www.npr.org/2019/11/14/777283105/the-report-a-7-000-page-government-study-brought-to-vivid-horrifying-life
A didactic movie on
an unpleasant subject, The
Report is essentially a one-man show that dramatizes a nearly
7,000-page government study. If that doesn't sound too promising, writer-director
Scott Z. Burns' second feature turns out to be as urgent and engrossing as it
is educational. Relevant, too, since we live in a moment when "Read the
Transcript" is a T-shirt motto.
The movie's opening credits offer
a three-word title, but the central one is quickly redacted. That word is
"torture," which, after 9/11, was issued a new bureaucratic
euphemism: "enhanced interrogation techniques."
The people who coined that term
are gone when the movie opens. Young Daniel J. Jones (Adam Driver), so earnest
that he logged three years with Teach for America in Baltimore, is looking for
a job. He doesn't get one from Denis McDonough (Jon Hamm), who will reappear
later. But there's an opening at the office of California Sen. Dianne Feinstein
(Annette Bening), who's about to oversee an investigation into just what
happened at U.S.-run prisons and
"black sites" during the Bush-Cheney years.
Soon Jones and two cohorts are
spending their days (and much of their nights) in a grim underground chamber in
a CIA building. They spend years digging through more than 6 million pages of
documents, as the room comes to resemble a detective's office in a
murder-investigation thriller. Except that the mug shots on the wall aren't of
suspects. They're of more than 100
victims of American brutality.
Burns, who has scripted three
films for director Steven Soderbergh, nimbly distills key information into
realistic dialogue. Jones discusses what he has learned with his boss, his
fellow investigators and (cautiously) a reporter (Matthew Rhys). Further facts
are revealed when Jones visits a lawyer after he's accused, groundlessly, of
misconduct.
The investigation is supplemented
by yellow-tinged flashbacks that introduce the CIA contractors (Douglas Hodge
and T. Ryder Smith) who told the agency what it apparently wanted to hear: that
sleep deprivation, nonstop heavy-metal music, stress positions, "rectal
rehydration," waterboarding and other abuses would elicit useful
information.
"You know this is against
the law?" asks an alarmed FBI agent.
After the fact, everybody seems
to know it was, which is why no one in authority wants Jones' report to go
public. CIA Director John Brennan
(Ted Levine) intends to stop the release. So does McDonough, who now represents
"post-partisan" President Barack Obama. Crucial assistance finally
arrives in the form of a real-world cameo.
The Report has been compared to the
brilliant Spotlight, and the
two films are similar in some ways. But where Spotlight was an ensemble piece, The Report is propelled
mostly by Driver's performance as an intense yet amiable loner. While Bening is
persuasive as Feinstein, without literally imitating her, most of the other
characters are ghosts summoned from sheets of paper. Jones engages them
fiercely, without ever actually meeting them.
Burns incorporates illuminating or amusing asides, including a
glancing blow at Zero
Dark Thirty, which bought into the myth of torture's effectiveness.
And, as one disillusioned nonlawyer tells the self-styled interrogation gurus,
"It's only legal if it works."
The Report has a few clunky moments, and it
occasionally introduces complications that are dispatched before they have time
to resonate. That's not surprising, since Burns is condensing the events of
nearly 15 years into under two hours.
Those events, by the way, have not concluded definitively. Only
an executive summary of the torture report was published. The Report ends with the
filmmakers' request that the entire document be released.
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Join Us: An Exclusive Pre-Release Screening of The Report Center for Constitutional Rights events@ccrjustice.org via uark.onmicrosoft.com
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11:07 AM (9 minutes ago)
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to James
10-29-19
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The
Center for Constitutional Rights is excited to partner with Amnesty
International on an exclusive pre-release screening of The Report, a feature film
that brings to life the story behind the Senate investigation into the CIA
torture program. Don't miss this
opportunity to catch the film before it goes to theaters!
There will be an
open-bar reception at 6:30 PM hosted by Amazon Studios. The screening will
begin at 7:30 PM, and will be followed by a discussion with producer,
writer, director Scott Z. Burns and chief investigator Daniel J. Jones.
The
event is free, but you must RSVP to TheReport57West@gmail.com
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November 6 @ 6:30
PM
The Landmark, 657 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019
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The Report is a riveting thriller based on actual events.
Idealistic staffer Daniel J. Jones (Adam Driver) is tasked by his boss,
Senator Dianne Feinstein (Annette Bening), to lead an investigation of
the CIA’s detention and interrogation program, which was created in the
aftermath of 9/11. Jones’s relentless pursuit of the truth leads to
explosive findings that uncover the lengths to which the nation’s top
intelligence agency went to destroy evidence, subvert the law, and hide a
brutal secret from the American public.
To
find out more about the Center for Constitutional Rights' work
representing victims of the U.S. torture program and fighting to hold the
government accountable, visit our Guantánamo and Torture, War Crimes, &
Militarism issue pages.
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About Freedom Flicks
At the Center for
Constitutional Rights, we believe in the transformative power of art and culture. Freedom
Flicks, our long-running film series, harnesses the power of film to
educate, activate, and build community. Freedom Flicks engages audiences
across disciplines in stories of struggle and courage that shape our world,
past and present. Our programming includes screenings of cutting-edge,
socially engaged films followed by a short conversation with storytellers,
lawyers, and activists. Join us.
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Join the
conversation. Join the FIGHT. #FreedomFlicks
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Constitution in Crisis :: April Newsletter. Take action
against Haspel and Pompeo, plus updates on J20 and good news on surveillance
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Sue
Udry 4-3-18 sue@rightsanddissent.org via uark.onmicrosoft.com
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4:52 PM (22 hours ago)
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to James
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Dear Dick,
The fact that the nomination of a known torturer to be head of the CIA
hasn’t been rejected out of hand even by Democrats in the Senate
is truly shameful. Not only did Gina Haspel oversee torture when she was head of a CIA
blacksite in Thailand, she later ordered the destruction of the
video evidence of torture. None of those facts are in dispute,
yet a significant number of Senators claim they need to give her
a “fair” hearing before deciding if they should oppose her.
Trump
is surrounding himself with torture apologists. He wants Haspel to replace his current CIA
Director, Mike Pompeo,
whom he has nominated to become Secretary of State. Pompeo
himself has a troubling record of openly supporting torture and
making deeply bigoted, Islamophobic remarks.
These two can hardly be counted on to push
back against any amoral or unconstitutional scheme John Bolton, might
instigate. We have no control over Trump’s hiring of Bolton as
his national security advisor, but we can convince the Senate to
reject Haspel and Pompeo.
Tell Your Senator to
Vote Against Both Haspel and Pompeo.
The Senate will consider Pompeo’s nomination
first. If we can block that, there will be no vacancy atop the
CIA for Haspel to fill, so her nomination will effectively also
be blocked.
Help us block both
nominations. Send an email today
In Solidarity,
Sue and Chip
P.S.
Did you know we publish a Daily
Digest of civil liberties news from across the country? You can sign up for
the Daily News Digest here. If you don’t want that
many emails, sign up for the Weekly Digest instead.
It comes out every Friday.
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Center for Constitutional Rights via uark.onmicrosoft.com
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7:53 AM (3 hours ago)
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to James
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Big
news in Abu Ghraib survivors’ quest for justice
On Friday, a federal court
in Alexandria, VA, ruled that our
clients in Al
Shimari v. CACI, three Iraqi men, Salah Al Ejaili, Asa'd
Al-Zuba'e, and Suhail Al Shimari, who were held at the infamous Abu Ghraib
prison, were subjected to treatment that could constitute torture or cruel,
inhuman, and degrading treatment, and that the case to hold the private
military contractor CACI Premier Technology accountable for this treatment
can proceed. The hearing marked the first time in the course of our
nine-year case that CCR presented in detail the torture and serious
mistreatment their clients suffered at Abu Ghraib in 2003 and 2004.
CCR legal director Baher Azmy, who
argued the case on Friday, said, "The court has sent an important
message that there can be accountability for torture, a vital step for our
clients who have yet to see justice. This is a crucial ruling in a
political climate where Trump has called for bringing back widely denounced
torture techniques like waterboarding."
"Fourteen years later,
Salah, Asa'd, and Suhail are still suffering from the severe mistreatment
they experienced, and the torture of Iraqi civilians at Abu Ghraib remains
one of the darkest chapters in recent U.S. history," said CCR
senior staff attorney Katherine Gallagher.
"Yet there remains an accountability gap: military officers were court
martialed for their misconduct, but the private contractors walked away
with large payments, and they continue to be awarded millions of dollars in
government contracts. This case hopefully will narrow that accountability
gap."
Salah, Asa'd, and Suhail were subjected to
dehumanizing acts of torture, and continue to suffer today from the cruel,
inhuman, and degrading treatment they received in 2003 and 2004. A U.S.
Army general referred to their treatment as "sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal
abuses." Salah himself wrote about his experience,
"My body was like a machine, responding to all external orders. The
only part I owned was my brain, which could not be stopped by the black
plastic bag they used to cover my head. The most important question to
which I could find no answer at the time is: what is all this for?"
Since 2004, CCR has worked with a team of
private attorneys on behalf of hundreds of Iraqi plaintiffs on a series of civil lawsuits
against private military contractors. We will continue to keep
you updated as we move forward with Al
Shimari.
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“Doctors, ACLU
settle torture lawsuit.”
I read this in NADG 8-18-17 “”Doctors, ACLU Settle
Torture Lawsuit”. NWAOnline ·
Legal deal over harsh CIA interrogations marks a
milestone - The ...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../settlement...aclu-lawsuit.../ef50d454-8361-11e7-9e7...
A settlement in a landmark lawsuit against two
psychologists who helped ... By NicholasK. Geranios | AP August 17 at 7:30 PM ... But the group Physicians for Human Rights
said the case shows that health ... The ACLU said it was the first
civil lawsuit involving the
CIA's torture ...
1. ACLU Official Website
Adwww.aclu.org/Join
o
Join the ACLU
o
Donate to the ACLU Renew Your Membership Make a Monthly Gift
Yemen to probe alleged torture of detainees; U.S. senators
ask for inquiry. Associated Press (ADG
6-26-17). http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-yemen-human-rights-20170624-story.html
Yemen's internationally
recognized government on Saturday ordered the creation of a committee to
investigate allegations of human rights violations after reports that U.S.
military interrogators worked with forces from the United Arab Emirates who are
accused of torturing detainees in Yemen.
A copy of the order issued
by Prime Minister Ahmed Obaid bin Daghr was obtained by the Associated Press.
It said the investigation would focus on areas liberated by government forces
from Shiite rebels known as the Houthis and their allies.
The reports of the abuses
were revealed in an AP investigation published Thursday. The investigation
detailed a network of secret prisons across southern Yemen where hundreds are
detained in the hunt for Al Qaeda militants. American defense officials said
U.S. forces have interrogated some detainees in Yemen but denied any
participation in, or knowledge of, human rights abuses.
Defense officials told the
AP that the department had looked into reports of torture and concluded that
its personnel were not involved or aware of any abuses.
The 18 lockups mentioned
in the AP investigation are run by the UAE and by Yemeni forces it created,
according to accounts from former detainees, families of prisoners, civil
rights lawyers and Yemeni military officials.
At the Riyan airport in
the southern Yemeni city of Mukalla, former inmates described shipping
containers smeared with feces and crammed with blindfolded detainees. They said
they were beaten, roasted alive on a spit and sexually assaulted, among other
abuses. One witness, who is a member of a Yemeni security force, said American
forces were at times only yards away.
The UAE Ministry of
Foreign Affairs said in a statement Friday that the allegations are
"completely untrue" and a "political game" by Yemeni
militias to discredit a Saudi-led coalition, which includes the UAE, that has
been fighting since 2015 on the side of the internationally recognized
government against the rebels. It says it does not run or oversee any prisons
in Yemen and that any such facilities are under "the jurisdiction of the
legitimate Yemeni authorities."
In Washington, pressure
has been mounting on the U.S. Defense Department after multiple U.S. senators
called for investigations into the reports, with John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate
Armed Services Committee, and the ranking Democrat, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, calling the reports
"deeply disturbing."
McCain and Reed of wrote a
letter to Defense Secretary James N. Mattis on Friday asking him to conduct an
immediate review of the reported abuses and what U.S. forces knew.
"Even the suggestion
that the United States tolerates torture by our foreign partners compromises
our national security mission by undermining the moral principle that
distinguishes us from our enemies — our belief that all people possess basic
human rights," the senators wrote Mattis. "We are confident that you
find these allegations as extremely troubling as we do."
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The Fight Against
Torture under Trump Starts Now
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1-6-17
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11:09 AM (6 minutes
ago)
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The Fight Against Torture under Trump Starts Now
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Dear
Samuel,
The fight against torture under the Trump Administration starts today -
with you.
President-elect Trump has chosen new leaders for his administration. But
first, they must be confirmed by a Senate vote. That's why we are calling
on Amnesty activists like you to send a loud and clear message to your
senators:
Human rights must be
non-negotiable for the Trump Administration.
Donald Trump has made it clear he wants bring back torture. "We should
go much stronger than waterboarding," he said last year, calling it
"your minor form" of torture.
Now he's picked Rep. Mike Pompeo to head the CIA - a man who called the
CIA's program of torture and kidnapping under the Bush administration
"within the law" and "within the Constitution."
We can't let Trump bring back the CIA torture program. Donald Trump's pick
for CIA chief must renounce torture.
Take Action: No Torture In
My Name.
Next week, before Pompeo can be confirmed to head the CIA, he will go
before the Senate for questioning. Both Pompeo and Trump have supported
actions that violate human rights. Now is our chance to hold them accountable.
Take Action Now: Torture Is
A Crime. No Excuses, No Exceptions.
Together as Amnesty activists, we can stand up for human rights in a Trump
Administration.
Thank you for taking action,
Naureen Shah
Director, Security with Human Rights
Amnesty International USA
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© 2017 Amnesty International USA | 5 Penn Plaza, New York,
NY 1
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Torture Report must be
public
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World Beyond War via WorldBeyondWar.org via sg.actionnetwork.org
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12-18-16
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Dec 17 (1 day ago)
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to me
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 Our voices are already being heard.
President Obama has said he will protect the torture
report from destruction. But that is not the same as making
it public. Senator Feinstein responded by saying that she strongly
believes it should be made public now. Does she? When
courageous whistleblowers believe such things they act on their
beliefs. Click here to urge
Obama and Feinstein to do what's right and do it now: make the
torture report public.
_____________________________________
Four years ago, the Senate Intelligence Committee produced a 7,000-page
report that the committee chair at the time, Dianne
Feinstein, calls "a total exposé of the ineffectiveness of
torture."
It's hard enough for a 7,000-page document to go up against myths,
lies, and Hollywood movies. But it's a truly unfair fight when the
document is kept secret. Only a 500-page censored summary was
released two years ago.
Click here to tell
President Obama to declassify and make public the full report.
The Obama administration possesses some copies of the report. The
Senate Intelligence Committee has requested their return. The
committee could choose to destroy those documents.
Senator Feinstein is asking President Obama to declassify the
report. Click here to join a
coalition of organizations supporting that request and planning to
deliver a petition to the White House.
It
matters when the rule of law is discarded and policy is driven by
willfully misinformed sadism.
NPR's David Welna recently reported on this topic, saying:
"President-elect Trump, though, campaigned on bringing back
torture which was outlawed during the Obama administration."
In fact, torture was outlawed by, among other laws, the Eighth Amendment,
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights, the Geneva Conventions, the Convention
Against Torture (joined during the Reagan administration), and the
anti-torture and war crimes statutes in the U.S. Code (Clinton
administration).
Torture was a felony throughout the period of time covered by the
Torture Report. President Obama forbade prosecution, although the
Convention Against Torture requires it. The rule of law has suffered,
but some measure of truth and reconciliation remains possible --
if we are allowed to know the truth.
If we are denied the truth about torture, lies will continue to
justify it, and it will continue to claim victims.
Click here to be part
of making the Torture Report public.
Partners in this effort: RootsAction.org, Code Pink, World Beyond
War, Progressive Democrats of America, and the Bill of Rights Defense
Committee.
After signing the petition, please use the tools on the next webpage
to share it with your friends.
Sign the Declaration of
Peace.
Find events all over the
world that you can take part in.
Join us on Facebook and Twitter.
Support World Beyond War's work by clicking here.
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Take
Action: Tell President Obama to Release the Senate Torture Report
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Sue Udry, Bill of Rights Defense
Committee/Defending Dissent Foundation sue@bordc.org via uark.onmicrosoft.com
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Dec
10, 2016 (1 day ago)
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Dear
Dick,
The
Red Cross just released a report that
shows "the United States has a higher tolerance for torture than
any other country on the U.N. Security Council, and Americans are more
comfortable with torture than citizens of war-ravaged countries such as
Afghanistan, Iraq and Ukraine."
They
desparately need to understand the horror, unlawfulness, and
ineffectiveness of torture.
Four
years ago, the Senate Intelligence Committee produced a 7,000-page
report that the committee chair at the time, Dianne Feinstein, calls
"a total exposé of the ineffectiveness of torture."
It's
hard enough for a 7,000-page document to go up against myths, lies, and
Hollywood movies. But it's a truly unfair fight when the document is
kept secret. Only a 500-page censored summary was
released two years ago.
Click here to tell
President Obama to declassify and make public the full report.
The
Obama administration possesses some copies of the report. The Senate
Intelligence Committee has requested their return. The committee could
choose to destroy those documents.
Senator
Feinstein is asking President Obama to declassify the report.
Click here to join a
coalition of organizations supporting that request and planning to
deliver a petition to the White House.
It
matters when the rule of law is discarded and policy is driven by
willfully misinformed sadism.
NPR's
David Welna recently reported on this topic, saying:
"President-elect Trump, though, campaigned on bringing back
torture which was outlawed during the Obama administration."
In
fact, torture was outlawed by, among other laws, the Eighth Amendment,
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention Against Torture (joined
during the Reagan administration), and the anti-torture and war crimes
statutes in the U.S. Code (Clinton administration).
Torture
was a felony throughout the period of time covered by the Torture
Report. President Obama forbade prosecution, although the Convention
Against Torture requires it. The rule of law has suffered, but some measure
of truth and reconciliation remains possible -- if we are allowed to
know the truth.
If
we are denied the truth about torture, lies will continue to justify
it, and it will continue to claim victims.
Click here to be part of
making the Torture Report public.
Stay
Loud, Stay Strong,
The
BORDC/DDF team, and our partners in this action: RootsAction.org, Code
Pink, World Beyond War, and PDA
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John
Marciano, “Lessons from the Vietnam War.”
Monthly Review (December 2016).
“The United States Committed War Crimes, Including Torture,” pp. 43-44. Adapted
from the author’s The American War in
Vietnam: Crime or Commemoration? Monthly
Review P, 2016.
KEN DILANIAN,
ap. “Senate
intelligence committee rebuffs former CIA official’s defense of detainee
treatment.” June 2, 2015 at 1:34 PM
EST.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/senate-intelligence-committee-rebuffs-former-cia-officials-defense-harsh-treatment-detainees/
WASHINGTON — The former deputy CIA director made a series of
factual misstatements while defending the agency’s harsh treatment of detainees
in his recent book, Senate intelligence committee staffers assert in a 54-page
document filed with citations from CIA records.
The detailed critique of the memoir by Michael Morell shows the
extent to which critics and backers continue to try to shape public perceptions
of the CIA’s post 9/11 detention and interrogation program, even months after
the release of a Senate report that sought to render a final judgment on it.
How the public interprets the CIA’s use of torture is not merely
a matter of history: At least one Republican presidential candidate, former
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, recently promised to bring back harsh interrogation
techniques if elected.
Morell is affiliated with a consulting firm that includes former
aides to Hillary Rodham Clinton, and he is often mentioned for possible
national security jobs were she elected president in 2016. Former CIA spokesman
and co-author Bill Harlow has said that he and Morell stand by every word in
the book.
In December, the Senate intelligence committee released a
517-page summary of a 6,770-page classified investigation that was scathing in
its criticism of the CIA. Based on millions of pages of CIA records, the report
concluded that the CIA’s brutal interrogations of al Qaida detainees after 9/11
were harsher than previously thought, and failed to produce the unique,
life-saving, otherwise unobtainable intelligence by which they were justified.
The report accused the CIA of consistently misrepresenting the program to
Congress and to other agencies.
The report was the work of Democratic aides to Sen. Dianne
Feinstein of California, then the chairman of the committee. Some of those
aides also wrote the critique of Morell’s book.
In last month’s “The Great War of Our Time,” Morell, who retired
in 2013, defended the harsh interrogations and denounced the committee’s report
as “deeply flawed,” and a disservice to the nation.
Morell argued that waterboarding, sleep deprivation and other
brutal techniques used on al-Qaida detainees by the CIA produced crucially
important intelligence, disputing the Senate report’s conclusion.
“I am personally troubled by waterboarding,” Morell wrote of the
simulated drowning technique that has long been considered torture. “But here
is my moral dilemma…I believe that waterboarding was one of the two most
effective of the all the harsh techniques (the other being sleep deprivation).”
But the Senate document challenges Morell’s command of the
facts. It says that when he was in charge of the CIA’s response to the study,
he asserted in a meeting with Feinstein that “I’m not in the weeds” when
challenged on specific details. It adds that he told Feinstein he had not read
the full, classified report.
For example, Morell refers to Abu Zubaydeh, the first detainee
who was waterboarded and brutalized, as a “senior al Qaeda figure.” But that
characterization is disputed by the CIA’s own experts, who in 2006 published an
intelligence assessment explaining that the CIA had “miscast Abu Zubaydah as a
‘senior al-Qa’ida lieutenant.’ ”
In his book, the Senate report argues, Morell conflated various
terror plots attributed to al Qaida figures.
For example, Morell wrote that 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed, who was waterboarded and otherwise tortured by CIA interrogators,
“was also planning to. send a team of Pakistanis to smuggle explosives into New
York to target gas stations, railroad tracks, and bridges.”
The Senate report’s fact-check responds: “Morell appears to be
conflating several separate accounts,” and it lays out various unconnected
plots outlined in CIA records, some of which were dismissed by CIA analysts as
wildly implausible.
Of Morell’s waterboarding contention, the Senate report cites a
CIA interrogator who wrote that Khalid Sheik Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah “held
back” despite the use of the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques, adding
“I’m ostracized whenever I suggest those two did not tell us everything. How
dare I think KSM was holding back,” the interrogator said.
In April 2003, the Senate document says, a CIA medical official
told the agency inspector general that the waterboarding had “not been very
effective on KSM.” He also “questioned how the repeated use of the waterboard
was categorically different from ‘beating the bottom of my feet,’ or from
torture in general.”
The Senate document also takes aim at Harlow, who also co-wrote
books with former CIA Director George Tenet, who helped create the harsh
interrogation regime, and Jose Rodriguez, who helped run it. Harlow helped
coordinate a response to the Senate report by former CIA officials.
“Both books contain significant inaccurate information on the
CIA detention and interrogation program,” the report says. “The Committee Study
describes in detail — using the CIA’s own internal records — how the CIA’s
representations, repeated in books by Tenet, Rodriguez, and now Morell, are
inaccurate.”
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“I'd
bring back waterboarding and a hell of a lot worse.” –
President-elect Donald Trump
Curt
Goering. Make no mistake, waterboarding is torture.
It is illegal.
It is a
form of slow, controlled drowning. When tortured through waterboarding,
victims are strapped down and immobilized as water is poured over their
faces and into their throats, asphyxiating them and leading them to believe
they will die.
The
U.S. must not go back on its conviction never to use this despicable form
of torture again.
James,
although we face a new world following the presidential election, I want to
assure you CVT will not waver in our commitment to ensure that the
United States will never again engage in torture. Our resolve is
not shaken.
Today,
more than ever, we need your support in
rejecting a return to the use of torture techniques like waterboarding.
Please make a gift today and stand
with survivors of torture worldwide. Please know that we are deeply
grateful to receive whatever level of support you can provide.
With
many thanks,
|
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Latest CIA Torture Docs Show "Evidence of War Crimes" &
Level of Brutality That Even Shocked Bush. Democracy
Now, June 17, 2016.
Shocking
new details have been made public about the CIA's torture program as the agency
has declassified dozens of once-secret documents. A portion of the new
... Rea
FREE SPEECH USA?
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U.S. Denies Entry to
former British Ambassador Craig Murray
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World Beyond War via WorldBeyondWar.org via sg.actionnetwork.org
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9-7-16
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Sep 6 (1 day ago)
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to me
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U.S.
Denies Entry to former British Ambassador Craig Murray
The
U.S. government, for no stated reason, and after having approved his
entry in the past, has denied Craig
Murray the usual approval to
enter the United States without a visa that is given to UK citizens.
Craig Murray was British Ambassador to Uzbekistan from 2002 to 2004.
Murray
was forced out of the British public service after he exposed the use
of torture by Britain's Uzbek allies. Murray is scheduled to chair
the presentation of this year's Sam Adams Award for Integrity in
Intelligence to CIA torture whistleblower John Kiriakou, and to speak
about diplomacy as an alternative to war at a World Beyond War
conference planned for September 23-25 in Washington, D.C.
Please sign this petition to
the State Department.
In
2006 Murray was himself awarded the Sam Adams Award, and the citation
included the following: "Mr. Murray learned that the
intelligence authorities of the UK and the US were receiving and
using information extracted by the most sadistic methods of torture
by Uzbek authorities. He protested strongly to London, to no avail.
He was forced out of the British Foreign Office, but has no regrets.
There are more important things than career…Mr. Murray's light has
pierced a thick cloud of denial and deception. He has set a
courageous example for those officials of the 'Coalition of the
Willing' who have first-hand knowledge of the inhuman practices
involved in the so-called 'war on terror' but who have not yet been
able to find their voice."
Shocked
by the denial of approval to enter the United States without a visa,
Murray stated: "I shall apply for a visa via the State
Department as suggested but I must be on a list to be refused under
the ESTA system, and in any event it is most unlikely to be completed
before the conference."
"It
is worth noting," Murray added," that despite the highly
critical things I have published about Putin, about civil liberties
in Russia and the annexation of the Crimea, I have never been refused
entry to Russia. The only two countries that have ever refused me
entry clearance are Uzbekistan and the USA. What does that tell you?
"I
have no criminal record, no connection to drugs or terrorism, have a
return ticket, hotel booking and sufficient funds. I have a passport
from a visa waiver country and have visited the USA frequently before
during 38 years and never overstayed. The only possible grounds for
this refusal of entry clearance are things I have written against neo-liberalism,
attacks on civil liberties and neo-conservative foreign policy.
People at the conference in Washington will now not be able to hear
me speak. Plainly ideas can be dangerous. So much for the land of the
free!"
The
following joint statement has been signed by members of the Sam Adams
Associates for Integrity in Intelligence listed below:
News
that former British Ambassador Craig Murray has been denied entry to
the United States under the regular visa waiver program is both
shocking and appalling. We Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in
Intelligence (SAAII) had invited Craig to be Master of Ceremonies at
our award ceremony honoring John Kiriakou, the CIA torture
whistleblower (more details at samadamsaward.ch ),
this September as part of the 'No War 2016' conference.
Now
we're wondering which agency's long arms have reached out to disrupt
our ceremony and to try to silence Craig.
Whatever
they intend, it will be bound to backfire, since it only makes the US
government look like some sort of monolithic repressive apparatus out
to mimic the world's worst despotic regimes. Ambassador Murray notes
in his blog that Uzbekistan -- whose government apparatchiks are
notorious for torturing its citizens -- is the only other country to
have barred his entry. Even Russia - which Ambassador Murray
criticizes freely - allows him to travel there trouble-free. What are
the implications for US democratic values?
We
strongly urge the State Department to reverse its decision and allow
Ambassador Murray freedom of travel and freedom of expression without
hindrance in the United States of America.
William
Binney, former Technical Director, World Geopolitical &
Military Analysis, NSA
Thomas Drake, former Senior Executive, NSA
Philip Giraldi, CIA, Operations Officer (ret.)
Matthew Hoh, former Capt., USMC, Iraq & Foreign Service
Officer, Afghanistan
Larry Johnson, CIA and State Dept. (ret.)
John Brady Kiesling, former US diplomat
John Kiriakou, Former CIA Counterterrorism Officer
Karen Kwiatkowski, Lt. Col., US Air Force (ret.)
David MacMichael Ph.D., CIA, US Marine Corps captain (ret.)
Elizabeth Murray, Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Middle
East, CIA (ret.)
Todd E. Pierce, MAJ, JA, USA (ret.)
Diane Roark, former staff, House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence (ret.)
Coleen Rowley, retired FBI agent and former Minneapolis Division
Legal Counsel
Peter Van Buren, U.S. Department of State, Foreign Service Officer
(ret.)
J. Kirk Wiebe, Senior Analyst, NSA (ret.)
World
Beyond War has created a petition appealing to the State Department
World
Beyond War, the organization behind the No War 2016 conference at
which Murray is scheduled to speak, has created an online petition to
the State Department.
David
Swanson, Director of World Beyond War, said "This attempt to
prevent a truth-teller from speaking in support of nonviolence is
absolutely shameful. This is not a policy created to represent any
view of the U.S. public, and we are not going to stand for it."
Sign the Declaration of
Peace.
Find events all over the
world that you can take part in.
Join us on Facebook and Twitter.
Support World Beyond War's work by clicking here.
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PROMOTING AND PROTECTING
WHISTLEBLOWERS
The Center for Victims of Torture w.w.w.cvt.org/
GAP | Protecting Whistleblowers since 1977
National Whistleblower Center
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
See Lawlessness Newsletter
My blog: War Department/Peace Department (later: War
and Warming)
http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/
www.faypublic.tv/watch
My Newsletters:
http://www.omnicenter.org/newsletter-archive/
Index:
http://www.omnicenter.org/omni-newsletter-general-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/). Full Knowledge, including worst,
strengthens search for the best.
Contents: Torture, War Crimes, Lawlessness Newsletter #11
http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2016/03/us-torture-war-crimes-lawlessness.html
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
END TORTURE, WAR CRIMES,
LAWLESSNESS NEWSLETTER/ANTHOLOGY #12
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