One: Palestinian detainees are systematically denied the right to meet a lawyer during interrogations by Shin Bet, the Israeli internal security service, according to a report published today by an Israeli and a Palestinian rights group. The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club say detainees from the occupied West…
Showing all posts tagged torture
A litany of Wikileaks evidence that US behaves like rogue state
The Wikileaks stories keep on coming. One: The Drug Enforcement Administration has been transformed into a global intelligence organization with a reach that extends far beyond narcotics, and an eavesdropping operation so expansive it has to fend off foreign politicians who want to use it against their political enemies, according to secret diplomatic cables. In…
Our leaders happy to let people starve or die
One of the key messages emerging from the Wikileaks cables is the callousness of Western leaders towards human rights. It’s seen as an inconvenience. That’s why we treat them with appropriate contempt. One: The Howard government urged the United States to force the collapse of the North Korean regime by denying it aid, despite advice…
David Hicks shows us what we became after 9/11
My following book review appeared in yesterday’s Sydney’s Sun Herald newspaper: AUTOBIOGRAPHY Guantanamo: My Journey David Hicks (William Heinemann, $49.95) Reviewed by Antony Loewenstein Almost 10 years after the Bush administration launched the ”˜”˜war on terror’’, the victims of the policy remain largely voiceless. The unknown number of civilians murdered by Western bombs have no…
This is how America treats people with a conscience
The alleged Wikileaks leaker Bradley Manning is being tortured while in US custody. Home of the free, indeed: The last time Bradley Manning saw the world outside of a jail, most Americans had never heard of WikiLeaks. On Friday, Manning, the man whose alleged unauthorized release of hundreds of thousands of classified documents put the…
India and Sri Lanka are our mates (and they cause violence)
Thank you, Wikileaks. One: US officials had evidence of widespread torture by Indian police and security forces and were secretly briefed by Red Cross staff about the systematic abuse of detainees in Kashmir, according to leaked diplomatic cables released tonight. The dispatches, obtained by website WikiLeaks, reveal that US diplomats in Delhi were briefed in…
Don’t forget Bradley Manning
The alleged Wikileaks leaker Bradley Manning is in solitary confinement in the US under torture conditions. He has been charged with no crime but has remained in isolation for months on end. In the supposedly most democratic nation on earth. Reading back over his online conversations with hacker Adrian Lamo from earlier in the year…
Hicks: Assange will never receive free trial in US
From a man who knows a few things about Australia abandoning its own citizens: Former… Guantanamo Bay inmate David Hicks says WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will never receive a fair trial if he is handed over to US authorities. Mr Hicks says he hopes the Australian government won’t abandon Mr Assange, as they did with…
Israel/Palestine needs a South African style truth and reconciliation commission
What would Israel/Palestine look like in a one-state solution? An exclusive new article on the Independent Australian Jewish Voices website by John Docker examines some possibilities: Recent South African history may also give us a basis for new ideas and visions. In Sydney this year I heard Albie Sachs speak about human rights and the…
How dare you look into our boys doing bad things, says US
Here are just two examples of Washington pressuring nations not to pursue investigations into alleged human rights abuses committed by the US post 9/11. Real democracy in action. One: US officials tried to influence Spanish prosecutors and government officials to head off court investigations into Guantánamo Bay torture allegations, secret CIA “extraordinary rendition” flights and…