Robert Fisk writes on the legacy the US has left Iraq: …The millions of American soldiers who have passed through Iraq have brought the Iraqis a plague. From Afghanistan – in which they showed as much interest after 2001 as they will show when they start “leaving” that country next year – they brought the…
Showing all posts tagged torture
“Gladly kill Arabs – even slaughter them”
These “revelations” aren’t anything new for anybody who knows life in Israel; hatred of Arabs is endemic and growing: Eden Abergil, the former Israel Defense Forces soldier who has been criticized for publishing controversial images on Facebook, allegedly wrote on her Facebook page on Thursday that she would “gladly kill Arabs – even slaughter them.”…
Handy reminder of US war goals
A beacon to the world, supposedly: Four of the nation’s most highly valued terrorist prisoners were secretly moved to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2003, years earlier than has been disclosed, then whisked back into overseas prisons before the Supreme Court could give them access to lawyers, The Associated Press has learned. The transfer allowed the…
Obama’s Bush mannerisms
The ACLU on Obama’s morphing into George W. Bush: In the eighteen months since the issuance of those executive orders, the administration’s record on issues related to civil liberties and national security has been, at best, mixed. Indeed, on a range of issues including accountability for torture, detention of terrorism suspects, and use of lethal…
Investigating intelligence takes real intelligence
This week’s Washington Post story on the outsourcing of intelligence continues to reverberate. One of the co-writers of the series, Bill Arkin, is interviewed on Democracy Now! A shadowy world of massive privatised madness since 9/11. More than half a trillion dollars is being spent annually on services that even many elements within government don’t…
Blair knew about rendition and embraced it
Following recent revelations in the Guardian about British complicity in torture post 9/11 – here’s a comprehensive map of what happened to whom – this story is getting closer to the centre of power: Tony Blair was aware of the …existence of a secret interrogation policy which …effectively led to British citizens, and others, being…
Hicks demands justice and transparency for being abused in our care
A welcome development to erase the stain of the ongoing “war on terror”. I look forward to hearing those in Australia who backed David Hicks’ incarceration and torture saying sorry for this terrible injustice: David Hicks has enlisted legal experts in the hope of having his terrorism conviction quashed. In the three years since his…
Britain’s hands are blooded with torture
The British investigation into the previous Blair regime’s complicity in torture and terrorism is becoming clearer by the day. Such studies, while inevitably flawed due to a generally bi-partisan belief in keeping the worst details private, are a far cry from anything undertaken by America or Australia: The true extent of the Labour government’s involvement…
American use of torture was common and still is
American journalist and author Joshua Phillips talks about his discoveries while writing, “None of Us Were Like This Before“: Prisoner abuse and torture was far more widespread than most people understand. It happened well beyond the walls of Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, and CIA “black sites.” Prisoners were seriously abused in other U.S. military bases and…
Should a man be held in the West for years without charge?
Babar Ahmad, 35, is the longest-serving prisoner held without charge or trial in the UK. Six years and counting in the farcical “war on terror”.