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Showing posts with label Guantanamo Bay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guantanamo Bay. Show all posts

Wednesday, 3 December 2025

'DON'T LEAVE UNTIL HE BLEEDS'


One of the initial proposed sites for the prison for alleged Al Qaeda terrorists, I was told more than two decades ago by a senior Army general, as the United States went to war against Osama bin Laden and the Taliban in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, was a deserted island in the South Pacific that had been used after World War II for testing nuclear weapons. But the islands there were still too hot — too radioactive — and so the prison was set up at a once obscure US Navy base on the eastern tip of Cuba known as Guantánamo Bay.


The United States, initially shocked and enraged by the murder unleashed by Al Qaeda on 9/11, looked away as hundreds of suspected terrorists captured in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and elsewhere were sent to a hastily assembled prisoner-of-war camp with nothing close to due process. It was later reported that the US military had paid, sometimes handsomely, for many of the alleged Al Qaeda members who ended up at the prison and were treated brutally. President Barack Obama promised during his 2008 campaign to shut down Gitmo, as the prison was known — there were 242 detainees still there — and issued an executive order to do so on his third day in office. The Congressional and public opposition was intense, and Obama retreated, as the military would say, in the face of fire. It wouldn't be his only retreat.

Soon enough the abuses at Gitmo were no secret. I was told early on by a knowledgeable American official that the promised rest and relaxation for some prisoners amounted in some cases to being tied in a straitjacket and flung into a secure outside area for an hour spent in the blistering tropical heat of midday. One group that continues to monitor the prison is the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, a nonprofit that is renowned for its continued efforts to protect the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Its most recent summary of the situation in the prison doesn't flatter either Democrats or Republicans.

In 2023, the CCR reported:
  • "780 men and boys, all of them Muslim," have been imprisoned since early 2002.
  • Eighty-six per cent "were sold" to the United States during the time when the US military was offering large bounties for capture, as much as $5,000 per man.
  • Twenty-two or more were children when taken to the detention camp.
  • Fifteen men remain at the prison and have been detained for more than fifteen years.
  • Six men were not charged with any crime of offense, including three who had been cleared for release.
  • Nine men still had active cases in the military system.
  • Only two still imprisoned have been convicted.
  • The same number of men, nine, have died at the prison as have been convicted in the last two decades.
  • Not a single senior US government official has been held accountable for wrongful detention and torture at Guantánamo Bay.
  • It has cost the US Government an estimated $540 million a year to keep Guantánamo open, "making it the most expensive prison in the world."
A forgotten prison in a forgotten place is the subject of Through the Gates of Hell: American Injustice at Guantánamo Bay, a new book by Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, a former corporate lawyer who is now special counsel at Human Rights First in New York.

Tuesday, 23 April 2019

The Prosecution Of Julian Assange Is Infinitely Bigger Than Assange

Caitlin Johnstone
Medium.com


Julian Assange’s mother reported yesterday that the WikiLeaks founder has not been permitted any visitors during his detention in Belmarsh Prison, including from doctors and his lawyers. Doctors who visited Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy have attested that he urgently needs medical care. Belmarsh is a maximum security prison sometimes referred to as “the UK’s Guantanamo Bay”.

And yet we’re asked to believe that this has something to do with an alleged bail violation and a US extradition request for alleged computer crimes carrying a maximum sentence of five years. If you zoom out and listen to the less-informed chatter of the overt propagandists and the brainwashed rank-and-file western mass media consumers, you will also see that people believe this has something to do with Russia and rape allegations as well. 

Actually, none of these things are true.

Assange is being imprisoned under draconian conditions for journalism, and for journalism only. The Obama administration declined to prosecute him after WikiLeaks’ publication of the Manning leaks out of concern that doing so would endanger press freedoms, and the Obama administration didn’t have any more evidence at its disposal than the Trump administration has now. The “crime” Assange is accused of consists of nothing other than standard journalistic practices that investigative journalists engage in all the time, including source protection and encouraging the source to obtain more material. The only thing that has changed is an increased willingness in the White House to prosecute journalists for practicing journalism, and there are an abundance of reasonsto believe that he will be hit with far more serious charges once extradited to US soil. They’re not going to all this trouble for a bail violation and a five-year maximum sentence.

But if you zoom out even further, in the grand scheme of things this barely even has anything to do with Assange. Sure, he has of course been a thorn in the side of those who operate the transnational western power alliance, and given the choice they would of course prefer him to be locked up or dead than free and alive. But that’s not what the corrupt influencers who are strangling our world are shooting for here. They are making a grab for something much, much bigger. Assange just happens to be a stepping stone along the way. 

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Friday, 17 June 2016

National Defense Authorization Act 2017 includes draft for women & indefinite detention of American citizens

Derrick Broze
Activist Post


The U.S. Congress has passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2017 with provisions that will force women to sign up for potential military draft and continues the practice of indefinite detention.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate approved a $602 billion annual defense budget that President Obama has promised to veto because the bill does not allow for the closing of the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Senate Bill 2943, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, passed with a vote of 85 Senators in favor and 13 against.

Before the vote, Senator John McCain tweeted that "It's never been more urgent to give our troops the resources they need to succeed." The majority of Congress have no issue taking money from the American people and redistributing it to fund their empire. The conflict arises when lawmakers begin debating whose pet projects are going to get a boost. The major conflicts in passing the bill stemmed from various amendments dealing with how the military budget will be spent.

One issue the entire Congress seemed to agree on was voting against closing military bases around the world. While the Pentagon called for budget cuts stating that the military has more space than they need, Congress refused to go along with the cuts. "Besides, several lawmakers have argued that the Pentagon has cooked the books to justify its conclusions or at least didn't do the math completely," the Associated Press reports. The Senate also voted against an amendment to close the infamous military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Another contentious area of debate was the mandate to force women who turn 18 on or after Jan. 1, 2018 to register for Selective Service. Males are already required register within 30 days of their 18th birthday. The United States has maintained a volunteer military force since 1973, but through Selective Service the military could reinstate a draft and call upon registered males and females. Those who do not register could face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, although the penalty has rarely been enforced.


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Friday, 20 May 2016

Is the 9/11 Scam Coming Undone?


Prof. Tony Hall
Global Research
American Herald Tribune
 
The so-called “mastermind of 9/11” is appearing before the kangaroo court at the US Torture Chamber and Concentration Camp in Guantanamo Bay Cuba. The main defendant appearing before the secretive military proceedings is a person the US government says is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, aka KSM.
  
In 2003 the Asia Times highlighted the controversy over the actual status of the entity said to be KSM. A person by this same name was earlier reported to have been killed by Pakistani authorities in Karachi. Sayed Saleem Shahzad reported for AT, “Clearly, no one has the final word on whether Khalid is dead, was captured earlier, or is still free.

In 2003 and 2004 the US government depended heavily on the real or concocted personae of KSM as a major source of “evidence” in the Philip Zelikow-authored fable known as the 9/11 Commission Report. An expert in the engineering of public mythology to secure popular consent for so-called pre-emptive warfare, Professor Zelikow was one of the key point persons responsible for pinning the false flag terror extravaganza of 9/11 on CIA asset Osama bin Laden.

Interestingly bin Laden’s homies in al-Qaeda have reverted back to a role similar to that assigned them by the US government during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Along with its offshoot, al-Nusra, al Qaeda is part of the so-called “moderate rebels” engaged in Syria in something of a repeat of the US-backed operation in Afghanistan in the 1980s. As in Afghanistan and now in the Syrian theatre of superpower confrontation, al-Qaeda is part of a US proxy army put together by the CIA to bring about violent regime change. The current target is the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad.

Once cast in the role of #3 jihadist in the staged drama associated with al-Qaeda, KSM was assigned an important part in Zelikow’s fictionalized narrative of 9/11. KSM was alleged to be the primary source of “evidence” that pinned the 9/11 debacle on Islamic jihadists rather than on a closely knit group of Zio-American Israel Firsters including Zelikow himself. A growing body of evidence has exposed this neocon clique, many of whom are dual Israeli and US citizens, as the primary group that led the planning, execution and attempted cover up of the 9/11 crimes.

Much to the eventual chagrin of even the figure heads set up to be co-chairs of the 9/11 Commission, the concocted evidence on which Philip Zelikow drew was obtained in torture sessions at secret CIA dark sites where the entity know as KSM was supposedly locked away until he was delivered to Guantanamo Bay in 2006. Even by the government’s own accounting of this torturing of KSM included 183 waterboardings over the period of a single month.

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See also:  Zakheim, Zelikow and the ADL 
 

Monday, 26 January 2015

“We murdered some folks” in Guantanamo

Murder at Camp Delta is a new book by Joseph Hickman, a former guard at Guantanamo. It’s neither fiction nor speculation. When President Obama says “We tortured some folks,” Hickman provides at least three cases — in addition to many others we know about from secret sites around the world — in which the statement needs to be modified to “We murdered some folks.” Of course, murder is supposed to be acceptable in war (and in whatever you call what Obama does with drones) while torture is supposed to be, or used to be, a scandal. But what about tortures to death? What about deadly human experimentation? Does that have a Nazi enough ring to disturb anyone?

We should be able to answer that question soon, at least for that segment of the population that searches aggressively for news or actually — I’m not making this up — reads books. Murder at Camp Delta is a book of, by, and for true believers in patriotism and militarism. You can start out viewing Dick Cheney as a leftist and never be offended by this book, unless documented facts that the author himself was deeply disturbed to discover offend you. The first line of the book is “I am a patriotic American.” The author never retracts it. Following a riot at Guantanamo, which he led the suppression of, he observes:
“As much as I blamed the inmates for the riot, I respected how hard they’d fought. They were ready to fight nearly to the death. If we had been running a good detention facility, I would have thought they were motivated by strong religious or political ideals. The sad truth was that they probably fought so hard because our poor facilities and shabby treatment had pushed them beyond normal human limits. Their motivation might not have been radical Islam at all but the simple fact that they had nothing to live for and nothing left to lose.”
As far as I know, Hickman has not yet applied the same logic to debunking the absurd pretense that people fight back in Afghanistan or Iraq because their religion is murderous or because they hate us for our freedoms. Hickman will be a guest on Talk Nation Radio soon, so perhaps I’ll ask him. But first I’ll thank him. And not for his “service.” For his book.

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Sunday, 17 November 2013

Blinded by the blackness: Is Obama getting on your nerves yet?

 
 sott.net / photobucket

sott.net
Odyssey Jackson

I'd like to direct these words to my fellow black people. (This, by no means, excludes non-blacks so feel free to read on cause this definitely affects you too.) Specifically those of you who remain spellbound by the POTUS. Looking back to 2008, I can remember the cheshire cat smiles, the secret, gloating conversations away from the ears of white folks, the misplaced sense of pride when Obama took to the podium and gave one of his erudite and articulate speeches. Older black men -- Dad, this includes you -- who looked dreamily into space saying, "I never thought it would happen in my lifetime...." It was as if Uncle Sam himself kissed the boo-boo of 400 years of slavery, jim crow segregation, lynchings and rampant discrimination, wrapped it in a bandage and gently swatted us all on our collective butts urging us back outside to play cause it'll all get better.

There was so much talk about how cool Obama was, how he had "swag". Besides being an actual black person, he was way cooler than our ostensible first black president, Bill Clinton, when he got down on the saxaphone on the Arsenio Hall show. Then there was Obama showing off his super smoothe dance moves with Ellen, playing pick up basketball games and wonder of wonders, crooning an Al Green tune at the Apollo!
Are you too blinded by the blackness to notice that interspersed with all this Super Soul Brother Number One activity there are some very nefarious deeds taking place?

Didja notice that Guantanamo Bay, the very prison that Obama pledged to close before he was elected, is still up and running? The medical and military staff have the green light to torture the prisoners who are being held there without charge.

Didja notice that Obama signed the NDAA which gives the government the right to indefinitely detain American citizens suspected of so-called terrorism without due process of law or charges filed against them? The law also overturns the Posse Comitatus Act which forbids military personnel from policing private citizens. (However, there's no need to worry because Obama claimed to feel a little conflicted about it and pledged not to use it against Americans.) He probably took a break from perusing his kill list and went ahead and signed it anyway.

Didja notice that while Obama was campaigning he was all for the labeling of GMO's...but then he went ahead and signed the Monsanto Protection Act anyway? This act gives Monsanto the right to grow and thereby distribute genetically modified crops against all the evidence of how damaging they are to human beings and no one -- not the FDA nor the USDA -- can stop them. Oh, and Obama also appointed a former Monsanto lobbyist as the deputy commissioner for foods at USDA which is certainly convenient. Meanwhile, he and Michele keep their own organic garden at the White House.

Didja know that Obama authorized overseas drone strikes that have killed and injured thousands of people including children? And if that's not enough the military can conduct a 'double tap' where they strike the same area just as rescue personnel arrive at the scene. The prez even bragged to one of his aides that he's "really good at killing people." Thanks for keeping it real, Barry Soetoro.

Obama game of drones
© Random pictures blog
Is this the behavior of a Super Soul Brother Number One? Martin Luther King was surely spinning in his grave when he was lovingly compared to this imposter.

I can hear the arguments now: You can't expect Obama to be able to clean up all the mess from the Bush years; Obama can't police everyone in his administration; There's too much bipartisan bickering to get anything done; His critics are just racists and ridicule everything he does; Obama has to play nice and just do what he can or there'll never be another black president again. These are all red herrings. They're distractions to keep people busy while the elite are making off in the getaway car. Obama is responsible. And guess what? If you voted for him, support his policies and continue to give him his props in the face of all evidence to the contrary, you are too. 

 
People I know are still blinded by the blackness. Recently, when discussing Obama's drone strike atrocities a friend nodded in agreement at the horror of it all then said, "but I still like him (and she meant that in a hubba-hubba kind of way)." After pausing to wrap my head around the complete thick-headedness of it I said, "So, murderers are attractive to you then?" Crickets. I guess as long as it's not your house being 'double-tapped' it's all good in the neighborhood.

Another friend expressed his displeasure with the commander in chief. Oh great, I thought, someone who can see through the facade. Turns out he was just upset because Obama hadn't populated his cabinet with enough black people. Obama's cabinet could be the political equivalent of Soul Train but it still doesn't change the fact that he is not a man for the people. Never has been. Never will be.

And speaking of soul, there's a high probability that the CEO of the USA does not have one. See, there's this little subset of humanity called psychopaths. It's estimated that they comprise about 6% of the global population. Psychopaths are incapable of feeling empathy or compassion for others. They lust for power over others and often rise to high positions. Essentially, they rule the world. They can be very charming. They can be expert liars. They can be well spoken with the gift of gab. They can destroy a whole village with a drone strike and not lose one wink of sleep over it. Now, I'm not saying that Obama is definitely a psychopath... but the evidence is compelling. His blackness is obviously irrelevant to his functioning as America's leader. See, it was never a matter of 'us and them'. The only true division regarding humanity has nothing to do with race. It's about psychopaths versus normal people with conscience.

Blinders still on? Is Obama working your nerves just a little bit? Is there even the slightest, niggling doubt that Obama is not the black messiah he was trumped up to be? As Obama is slithering his way through his second term in office are you feeling any HOPE? Experiencing any CHANGE? Nobody even caught a glimpse of their 40 acres and a mule. Everybody is struggling just as much -- if not more -- as they were when President Obama took office. (And just wait until that colossal wallet-gouging scheme that is ObamaCare kicks in and adds one more bill to the pile.) Historically, it's never been a hard task to convince people of color that politicians don't work in their best interests. I suppose that picturing a black man who wasn't relegated to the kitchen of the White House was enough to cause one hell of an about-face on that issue.

So, to paraphrase a true man for the people, Martin Luther King: Don't judge a man by the color of his skin but by the content of his character. Barack Obama is just another puppet of the elites wrapped in an Al Green crooning, hoop shooting, move-busting, drone-striking, Wall Street ass-kissing, Monsanto-loving, kill list-having, torture-dealing, wire-tapping, neat, brown package.

Peace out.


Monday, 4 November 2013

US Medical Professionals Were Involved in the Design & Administration of Torture


Classic signs of inverted totalitarianism bubbling away in the USofA...

-------------
By Kevin Gosztola Monday November 4, 2013

The  Dissenter


Following the September 11th attacks, physicians and other medical professionals, “particularly psychologists,” were involved in the “design and administration” of harsh treatment and torture.  This conduct was “in clear conflict with established international and national professional principles and laws,” a new report from a task force convened by the Institute on Medicine as a Profession (IMAP) and the Open Society Foundations finds.

The report details how medical professionals working for the CIA and United States military were directed to deviate from professional standards and ethical conduct, which they are expected to follow. It calls attention to the role that medical personnel played in inflicting torture and causing cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in prisons like Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib or various secret prisons operated by the CIA.

The US Justice Department played a key role in this deviation by approving “interrogation methods” that constituted torture. Prisoners captured were also classified in the “war on terror” as “unlawful combatants,” and were not considered individuals who qualified as prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions.




See also the new documentary: Doctors of the Dark Side.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/cI-i5b_YpN4?rel=0

Sunday, 1 January 2012

This is Where the American Illusion Comes to an End - 2012 The End of the World As We Know It


Andrés Perezalonso

Ever since the US Senate approved the infamous FY 2012 National Defense Authorization Act I have been in a very pessimistic mood. A few days ago there was hope that Obama would veto it - not because the man and his lawyers had concerns about the beating that civil and human rights would take thereby, but because the language would "challenge or constrain the president's ability to collect intelligence, incapacitate dangerous terrorists, and protect the American people"; in other words, because the authority of the president could somehow be limited (God forbid). Now that slim hope is gone; Obama has withdrawn the threat of veto and nothing stands in the way of an iron boot kicking any of us, American or not, all the way to Guantanamo Bay.

Could it be any worse than that? The situation was bad already with Bush and his gang of neocons pushing the envelope on shredding the U.S. Constitution. Remember how naive we were to entertain the idea that a change of administration would put all that draconian nonsense to an end? That Barack Obama really was about "Change" and would put things to right that had gone so wrong under the Bush Administration? Some people still hold on to that hope because they genuinely believe that the United States is an essentially democratic country which works on solid principles of morality and justice, even if now and then it gets sidetracked. Surely good-looking, well-spoken Barack would make things right, yes?

As someone who was born and raised south of the border, I always found the myopic belief of the American people in their institutions and government quite alien to my own experience. In my country people also believe in democracy and justice, but only as principles that hopefully can be materialized one day. The overwhelming majority is naturally distrustful of their government, thanks to its long history of corruption and the social inequalities that come with it. Likewise, they are distrustful of the US government which so much likes to get involved in the affairs of other countries. In contrast, the American culture that reached me through the mass media portrayed people quite proud of their government and the military. (The military! Where I come from the military is only thought of in the most derogatory terms when, at 17-18 years old, you are trying your best to avoid military service, and you would certainly be considered to be out of your mind or in desperate need if you chose a military career.) 




Monday, 12 December 2011

Are Americans in Line for Gitmo?

Consortium News
Ray McGovern
Exclusive: Though the 9/11 attacks occurred more than a decade ago, Congress continues to exploit them to pass evermore draconian laws on "terrorism," with the Senate now empowering the military to arrest people on U.S. soil and hold them without trial, a serious threat to American liberties, says ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern.

Ambiguous but alarming new wording, which is tucked into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and was just passed by the Senate, is reminiscent of the "extraordinary measures" introduced by the Nazis after they took power in 1933.

And the relative lack of reaction so far calls to mind the oddly calm indifference with which most Germans watched the erosion of the rights that had been guaranteed by their own Constitution. As one German writer observed, "With sheepish submissiveness we watched it unfold, as if from a box at the theater."

The writer was Sebastian Haffner (real name Raimond Pretzel), a young German lawyer worried at what he saw in 1933 in Berlin, but helpless to stop it since, as he put it, the German people "collectively and limply collapsed, yielded and capitulated." 

Friday, 9 December 2011

CIA 'Secret Prison' Found in Romania


The Orniss building in Bucharest identified as a CIA secret prison in a German media investigation (8 December 2011)  
Former CIA operatives said the building 
was used to interrogate terrorism suspects, 
including Khaled Sheikh Mohammed


The CIA operated a secret prison in the Romanian capital Bucharest where terrorism suspects were interrogated, an investigation by the Associated Press and German media has found.

Former CIA operatives identified the building where, they said, detainees were held and tortured.

The building belongs to a Romanian agency, Orniss, which stores classified information from the EU and Nato.

Orniss has denied hosting a CIA prison and the CIA has refused to comment.

The investigation, by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and the German TV network ARD, said those held in the secret prison included Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, who has admitted organising the 9/11 attacks.

He was seized in Pakistan in March 2003 under the US programme known as "extraordinary rendition" - the extra-judicial detention and transfer of terrorism suspects.

He has been in the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay since 2006, where he is awaiting trial. 





Saturday, 3 December 2011

The New National Defense Authorization Act Is Ridiculously Scary


AP
Fellow entrepreneurs, Americans, anyone who still cares about this country at all – this is a must read. 

By the end of next week, the US government very likely will have the power to lock up US citizens for life at Guantanamo Bay or other military prisons -- without charge and without trial. 

This means that, in the near future, a controversial Twitter post, attending a peaceful protest, or publishing an anti-Congress critique or anti-TSA rant on Google+ could land you "indefinite detention" for life, in the wording of the bill. No access to a lawyer, no access to trial.

Yes, you read that right. This would target American citizens, on American soil. Military personnel would be able to come into your house like something out of a Tom Clancy novel and chopper your innocent self down to Guantanamo Bay for life.


Details: There is a scary provision in the National Defense Authorization Act (fiscal year 2012) which is typically passed by Congress each and every year to continue funding our military operations around the world.

This provision is not a mistake or error; it has vocal backing from some of the most powerful Senators in Washington, including Sen. John McCain and Sen. Carl Levin.

The imminent passage of this bill containing the provision, which appears VERY likely at this point, would put our civil rights on par with countries like Saudi Arabia and China. 

Read more

Wednesday, 19 October 2011

Torture Victims to Initiate Private Prosecution against George W. Bush on His Arrival in Canada

crjustice.org
 
Canadian Government Has Legal Obligation under UN Convention Against Torture to Prosecute Alleged Perpetrators of Torture, Rights Groups Say; Prominent Individuals and Organizations Sign on in Support


October 19, 2011, Surrey, BC--Tomorrow, four individuals who allege they were tortured during George W. Bush's tenure as president of the United States will lodge a private prosecution in Provincial Court in Surrey, British Columbia against the former president, who is due to visit Canada for a paid speaking engagement at the Surrey Regional Economic Summit on October 20. The four men will take this step after repeated calls to the Canadian Attorney General to open a torture investigation of George Bush went unanswered. Human rights groups and prominent individuals will sign on in support of the effort.


The four men, Hassan bin Attash, Sami el-Hajj, Muhammed Khan Tumani and Murat Kurnaz, each endured years of inhumane treatment including beatings, chaining to cell walls, being hung from walls or ceilings while handcuffed, lack of access to toilets, sleep, food and water-deprivation, exposure to extreme temperatures, sensory overload and deprivation, and other horrific and illegal treatment while in U.S. custody at military bases in Afghanistan and/or at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.While three of the plaintiffs have since been released without ever facing charges, Hassan Bin Attash still remains in detention at Guantanamo Bay, though he too has not been formally charged with any wrongdoing.

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Sunday, 28 August 2011

New national debt data: It's growing about $3 million a minute, even during his vacation



Swallow all liquids in your mouth before reading any further.

Updated numbers for the national debt are just out: It's now $14,639,000,000,000.
When Barack Obama took the oath of office twice on Jan. 20, 2009, CBS' amazing number cruncher Mark Knoller reports, the national debt was $10,626,000,000,000.

That means the debt that our federal government owes a whole lot of somebodies including China has increased $4,247,000,000,000 in just 945 days. That's the fastest increase under any president ever.

Remember the day the Democrat promised to close the embarrassing Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility within one year? That day the national debt increased $4,247,000,000. And each day since that the facility hasn't been closed.

Same for the day in 2009 when Obama flew all the way out to Denver to sign the $787 billion stimulus bill that was going to hold national unemployment beneath 8% instead of the 9.1% we got today anyway? Another $4,247,000,000 that day. And every day since, even Obama golfing and vacation days. [...]


Thursday, 28 July 2011

I Saw Many Killed Under Torture: Guantanamo Torture Survivor


RT

 "I was one of those who survived those kinds of torture. They used electroshocks on me because I would not sign papers."

German Guantanamo detainee Murat Kurnaz has publicly spoken about being subjected to electroshock torture, lethal beatings and humiliation during his years of unlawful detention.

In an exclusive interview with Russia Today news network on Monday, the former detainee said he was held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp for five years before being released without charges.


Kurnaz went on to say that Americans have not apologized for his years of torment at the notorious detainment facility, and he doesn't think they would ever do so.

He further explained that he was arrested in Pakistan in 2001, and turned to the Americans after he had visited a school run by Tablighi Jamaat -- a religious movement hated by the al-Qaeda and the Taliban for its non-political stature -- in the Asian country.

Kurnaz had earlier become familiar with Pakistan-based Tablighi Jamaat movement through its assistance to homeless people and youth, who had problems with drugs.

He added that when he got booked, Pakistani forces didn't tell him anything about what was going on.

"They didn't tell me that they were looking for terrorists or whatever. They said we're just going to check your passport. I didn't know at that time they get a bounty of $3,000 for each person. Not under my name, but for anyone turned over to the Americans as terrorist they get $3,000, and $3,000 in Pakistan is a lot of money," Kurnaz said.

He noted that after being transferred to Kandahar in Afghanistan, he witnessed all kinds of things that one can imagine as torture.

"I saw many killed under torture. I was one of those who survived those kinds of torture. They used electroshocks on me because I would not sign papers."

"I was forced to agree I was a member of the Taliban and the al-Qaeda and I said I'm not. Really I didn't know at that time what al-Qaeda was, I didn't know [anything] about al-Qaeda. So when they asked me about al-Qaeda and Taliban, I said I'm not a member of them. And they brought me papers, forced me to sign. I refused," the former Gitmo prisoner said.

"That's why they tried to make me sign by electroshocks. And another time they forced me by water boarding. Another time they hanged me on chains. I was hanging on the ceiling. They were pulling me on the ceiling with the chain, and until my feet were over the floor. After a few days I started to pass out, because in that situation I couldn't eat or drink and it was freezing cold. It was wintertime and I had no clothes on," he added.

Kurnaz said Guantanamo detainees were chained hand to foot in a fatal position on the floor with no chair, food, or water for 24 hours or more.

He also said that the youngest Gitmo prisoner was nine years old, and the second underage detainee in Guantanamo was 12.

Upon taking office, US President Barack Obama signed an executive order to stop military commissions in order to close down the facility by 2010. However, this has not happened yet.


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