The video is chilling: 23-year-old Mahmoud el-Ahmady desperately appeals to the judge in an Egyptian court. His testimony is agonising to watch: a young man who has obviously been brutalised by an unfair regime, now trying to prove his innocence before a flawed justice system.
While documenting CIA torture of innocents in the so-called war on terror, the American establishment is loathe to put the perpetrators on trial for their crimes.
Report says CIA misled the public and policymakers about interrogation program. American doctors (psychologists) were also inducted into the program and even participated in the torture of detainees although the Senate report continues to use the expression “interrogation program.” Two doctors set up a company and collected $80 million for torturing detainees! President Obama says we want to put this behind us.
Far from shutting it down as Barack Obama promised soon after he was sworn in as president for the first time in January 2009, Guantanamo Bay prison camp is being expanded. The Pentagon has sought $69 million for expansion work. There are still 150 prisoners held there despite no charges being brought against them except for a few but even they have not been tried in any court of law.
The US and its British allies are running secret prisons in Afghanistan away from any oversight or control of the Afghan government. The US-run torture chamber at Bagram was taken over by Afghan forces earlier this year releasing many people that were never charged with any crime. Two secret prisons have been discovered at Qandar and in Helmand province; the latter being run by the British. Afghan President Hamid Karzai is very upset.
Drone attacks kill innocents and create enemies. This is precisely what the American war industry wants: endless supply of enemies for endless war.
Since Saudi Arabia acts as America’s and indeed of the west’s cash cow, its crimes are habitually glossed over. The recent case of two university professors, imprisoned for merely asking that people’s human rights be respected, illustrates the point.
Since the election of Barack Obama as President, US rhetoric about war on terror has been toned down but the policies instituted by his discredited predecessor continue...
One of the first acts of Barack Obama as president of the United States was to order a review of all Guantanamo Bay detainees. He also announced that the notorious detention camp will be closed in a year. That, however, has not deterred guards at the prison from abusing detainees, as Mohammad al-Gharani revealed in a telephone interview posted on Al-Jazeeratelevision website on April 14.
Like the chicken and egg question, what came first: the torturers or torture memos? Despite the mounting evidence, for years, officials in the Bush administration brazenly maintained: “TheUnited States does not do torture.” This was not stated merely by low level officials. Starting from former US President George Bush down, everyone had memorized this mantra about torture.
Sitting alongside US senator John McCain at a White House press conference on December 15, announcing that he would support a new law banning cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of terrorist suspects, president George W. Bush looked the very picture of reassurance. “We’ve been happy to work with [McCain] to achieve a common objective,” he said. “And that is to make it clear to the world that this government does not torture and that we adhere to the international convention on torture, be it here at home, or abroad.”
Images of American troops committing appalling atrocities against Iraqi captives at the Abu Ghraib have causes outrage around the world and sparked a massive damage limitation campaign in Washington. ZAFAR BANGASH discusses the implications of the revelations...
The deportation from Malaysia of ‘illegal immigrants’ turned violent on March 26 when a number of refugees were shot and killed in police firing at Semenyih camp in Selangor.
Khalil Ali Abu Daiyya, 37, married with five children, lasted six days at the hands of his Israeli captives in the notorious Russian Compound in Jerusalem before he died on May 21.
