A former U.S. intelligence agent said that terror suspect Abu Zubaydah was subjected to simulated drowning
months before the Bush administration’s Department of Justice had
written memos approving the use of waterboarding.
The claim strikes a serious blow to repeated Bush administration
arguments that no laws were broken in the torture of prisoners because
legal guidelines had been closely followed.
The United States is classifying the writings and testimony of an alleged terrorist whom interrogators waterboarded dozens of times, possibly in an effort to keep nettlesome CIA secrets under wraps, his attorneys say.
Lawyers for Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Hussein — known more widely by
the name Abu Zubaida — say the Pentagon has capriciously classified
their client’s writings and statements to investigators, raising
questions of why the government has sought to keep Zubaida’s assertions
private. They argue, plausibly, that the US’ penchant for secrecy in
Zubaida’s case may be linked to efforts to keep controversial
intelligence activities out of the public eye.
The true depth of British involvement in the torture of terrorism suspects overseas and the manner in which that complicity is concealed behind a cloak of courtroom secrecy was laid bare last night when David David MP detailed the way
Editor’s Note:
Prior to giving a series of talks in Texas later this week, the author offered
the following op-ed to the Dallas Morning News and the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram.
Both newspapers in George W. Bush’s home state turned it down.
Seldom
does a crime scene have so clear a smoking gun. A two-page presidential
memorandum of Feb. 7, 2002, leaves no room for uncertainty regarding the
“decider” on torture. His broad-stroke signature made torture official
policy.
This should come as no surprise. You see, the Feb. 7, 2002,
memorandum has been posted on the Web since June 22, 2004, when then-White House
Counsel Alberto Gonzales mistakenly released it, along with other White House
memoranda.
The title seemed innocent enough – “Humane Treatment of al
Qaeda and Taliban Detainees” – but in the body of the memo President George W.
Bush authorized his senior aides to withhold Geneva Convention protections from
suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban detain
The American Civil Liberties Union yesterday accused the Obama
administration of using statements elicited through torture to justify
the confinement of a detainee it represents at the U.S. military prison
in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
“A forensic examiner found that he (the prisoner) had essentially been crucified; he died from asphyxiation after having been hung by his arms, in a hood, and suffering broken ribs,”...
People like Rizzo and Fredman should not be working for our government a single day longer. They should be impeached. They should be prosecuted. They should be given fair trials and imprisoned if convicted...
The White House dismissed reports that it has drafted an executive
order allowing indefinite detention in the United States of some of the
top terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay.
Obama administration officials, fearing a battle with Congress that
could stall plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, are
crafting language for an executive order that would reassert
presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely,
according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White
House deliberations.
Former detainees have alleged they were beaten, deprived of sleep and
threatened with dogs at the Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan based on interviews with more than two-dozen former prisoners held at Bagram between 2002 and 2006.
The U.N.'s top human rights advocate appealed to the Obama administration to release Guantanamo Bay inmates
or try them in a court of law, and said officials who authorized
the use of torture must be held accountable for their crimes.
Many people of faith appear willing to tolerate unspeakable cruelty. Christians who follow one who himself was tortured by the powers of his time evidently are now ready to justify our own government's use of torture.
Anniversaries
can be important. This Friday marks the 22nd anniversary of the U.N.
Convention against Torture, ratified and signed under President Reagan. Last Friday marked the 150th day of the presidency of Barack Obama, who is trying to put a definitive end to the torture approved by the Bush-Cheney administration.
That Obama has not been able to do so is our collective
shame. Worse still, the president has apparently concluded that he
lacks the support to deter future abominations of this sort by
launching a proper investigation and holding to account those
responsible.
Something evil has seeped into the soul of
our nation. Those many years when we looked the other way, choosing to
ignore the abuse of detainees in U.S. custody, eroded our morality.
Americans
who claim to believe in human dignity and the law do not seem
scandalized by this inhumane and illegal activity. Many people of faith
appear willing to tolerat
A federal judge ordered a Guantanamo detainee released after
chastising prosecutors for claiming a man tortured, imprisoned and
abandoned by Al Qaeda and the Taliban could be working for them.
Holder said officials were discussing how to handle such suspects and
whether new legislation would be required to hold them. He said even
without a trial, a judge would have to review the basis for holding
such detainees.
"The thought we had was that there would be some kind of review
with regard to the initial determination and then a periodic review,"
Holder said.
The CIA is pushing the Obama administration to maintain the secrecy of significant portions of a comprehensive internal account of the agency's interrogation program, according to two intelligence officials. The officials say the CIA is urging
Mohammed says he told his questioners he didn’t know the location of Osama Bin Laden, and was tortured as a result.
“”Where is he? I don’t know,” Mohammed said. ‘Then he torture me.
Then I said, ‘Yes, he is in this area or this is al Qaeda which I don’t
know him.’ I said no, they torture me.’”
Abu Zubaida: "doctors told me that I nearly died four times" and that he
endured "months of suffering and torture" on the false premise that he
was an al-Qaeda leader.
He was subjected 83 times to waterboarding. The Palestinian was held at a secret
CIA facility after his capture in Pakistan in March 2002.
The British Government responded with ill-disguised fury to the news
that 4 Chinese Uighurs freed from Guantanamo Bay had been flown for
resettlement on Bermuda.
The Government of Bermuda failed to consult with the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office on the decision to take in the Uighurs –
whose return is demanded by Beijing – and it could now be forced to send
them back to Cuba or risk a grave diplomatic crisis.
Former Bush administration attorney John Yoo was ordered by a
federal judge to testify in an appeal brought by Jose
Padilla, an American citizen who was held for 3 years and
tortured while in U.S. military custody.
In this deeply disturbing interview, the trailer trash torturer who appalled the world by appearing in shocking 'souvenir' photographs remains utterly unrepentant and says she has 800 MORE torture photos that could rock the White House...
The Obama administration has all but abandoned plans to allow
Guantanamo Bay detainees who have been cleared for release to live in
the United States, administration officials said, a decision
that reflects bipartisan congressional opposition to admitting such
prisoners but complicates efforts to persuade European allies to accept
them.
An African detainee held at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay
since he was a teenager has been released without charge after more
than seven years in captivity, his lawyers said.
A Chadian citizen, was freed 5 months after a U.S. federal judge
ordered him released having reviewed the evidence against him and ruled
that there was nothing to suggest he was ever an "enemy combatant."
To the relief of the Obama administration, the South Pacific island
nation of Palau agreed Wednesday to take the 17 Muslim Uighurs from
China who're still being held at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, the
first major release of detainees since President Barack Obama announced
his plan to close the prison by January.
The State
Department expressed gratitude for the offer, but it said the details
haven't been settled. Spokesman Ian Kelly also
Palau President Johnson Toribiong
denied his government's move was influenced by any massive aid package
from Washington, saying that the Uighurs have become "international
vagabonds" who deserve a fresh start. China said it opposes any country
taking them.
It's the first time since 2006
that the U.S. has successfully resettled any of Guantanamo's Uighurs.
The U.S. government had determined
Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-C.T.) threatened
to shut down the Senate by blocking any further legislation unless
their bill preventing the release of any further detainee abuse photos
is passed.
Both men said they fear more disclosure would trigger heightened violence against Americans overseas.
John Yoo, the former Deputy Attorney General at the agency’s Office of
Legal Counsel, who drafted the infamous “torture memos” that gave
former President George W. Bush and CIA interrogators the legal cover
they needed to torture suspected terrorist detainees, offered some
clues behind the genesis of the August 2002 legal opinions.
The torture claims are part of a wide-ranging investigation which also
includes accusations that officers fabricated evidence and stole
suspects’ property. It has already led to the abandonment of a drug
trial and the suspension of several police officers.
"With his appearance in federal court today, Ahmed Ghailani is being
held accountable for his alleged role in the bombing of U.S. Embassies
in Tanzania and Kenya and the murder of 224 people," Attorney General
Eric Holder said in a press release. "The Justice Department has a long
history of securely detaining and successfully prosecuting terror
suspects through the criminal justice system, and we will bring that
experience to bear in seeking justice in this case."
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