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Now it seems that this article is reporting a worldwide network of bad apples, stretching across Europe, through the former Soviet states and into the Middle East.
After so many years of pointing the finger at Soviet human rights abuses, the USA has now decided not only to emulate those abuses but to use the same soviet facilities.
Quoting U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement, The Washington Post revealed on November 2 that the CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important Al-Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe. According to the Post, prisoners exist in complete isolation from the outside world. Kept in dark, sometimes underground cells, they have no recognized legal rights, and no one outside the CIA is allowed to talk with or even see them.The existence and locations of the facilities -- referred to as "black sites" in classified White House, CIA, Justice Department, and congressional documents -- are known to only a handful of officials in the United States and, usually, only to the president and a few top intelligence officers in each host country.
Of course, that's coming from an Iranian news report and no doubt they are just a little slower to report the activities of their own government.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg, the School of the Americas (aka School of Assassins) continues to attract protest as the US government moves it around, renames it and generally pretends that they don't sponsor terrorists.
While Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib currently stand out as examples of US hypocrisy concerning human rights, the 15,000 individuals who demanded the closure of the SOA this weekend remind us that these are only the current chapters in a long history of shameful activities. The message was clear during Sunday’s funeral procession in front of the School of Assassins. Before the US government goes pointing its finger at state sponsors of terror the world over, it should make sure its own hands are clean.
This is one of the many long-simmering unresolved issues that consistently doesn't make the mainstream news media. Why does the US government still continue to train terrorist operatives for work in South America? Much more information about the SOA is available from the SOA Watch website, for example:
Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience... therefore [individuals] have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring.
- Nürnberg International Military Tribunal
You only have to go over to the Amnesty International website to find out why so few governments kick up a stink about torture and other human rights abuses -- none of them are without sin, none of them have the courage to cast the first stone. Seems there's so many bad apples around that it's a hard job finding any good ones.
For what it's worth, here is Amnesty's description of the same issue.
Amnesty International has revealed that six planes used by the CIA for renditions have made some 800 flights in or out of European airspace including 50 landings at Shannon airport in the Republic of Ireland. The information contradicts assurances given last week by the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern, that Ireland's Shannon airport had not been used for "untoward" purposes, or as a transit point for terror suspects. The organisation also rejected assertions by the US Secretary of State as she began a four-nation tour of Europe. In a statement today, Ms Rice argued that rendition -- transferring detainees from country to country without legal process -- was permissible under international law. Although the victims of rendition usually end up in countries known to use torture in their interrogations, Ms Rice added that the US government seeks assurances on treatment from receiving nations.
Good ole Ireland -- gateway to Europe, in more ways than one. Want to get low-tax imports into the EU without worrying about customs? Just build a handling plant in Ireland. Want to ship secret prisoners around with no questions asked? Just buy some Irish airspace.
War on Terror?
War of Terror?
Near enough... close enough. Believe what you are told to believe or you could be next. Never know what might happen with those "few bad apples" around.
Don't believe me when I say it could happen to anybody? Well it happened to this poor bastard just because he happened to have the wrong name. Seems he was kidnapped, tortured and finally released (months later). He is attempting to get legal recompense for his mistreatment -- good luck to him.
Mr Masri, 42, a Lebanese-born German citizen, spoke at an ACLU news conference in Washington via a satellite video link from Stuttgart, Germany.He claims he was beaten and injected with drugs before being taken to Afghanistan and held for five months.
Mr Masri says that once there, he was subjected to "coercive" interrogation under inhumane conditions.
The name to search for is Khaled al-Masri, just in case anyone wants to check what became of him (but with such a common name, you don't know who might turn up).
Not enough proof of a system of abuse? No problem, more evidence is available; this one is from Chicago and includes confessions obtained under torture. I'll just quote the key point from the interview:
AMY GOODMAN: John Conroy, youre a journalist and author. You've covered the torture case for over a decade for the Chicago Reader, and you wrote the book, Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People: The Dynamics of Torture. How has this taken so long to come out, though it has come out in parts over the years and in certain communities well-known? And now the question of whether, in fact, it will be released, this report that among other people calling for this, four black aldermen are calling for the public release of this report.JOHN CONROY: Well, it hasn't taken that long to be out. It was out in 1990, when we did the story in the Chicago Reader, the first story, and weve done more than 100,000 words since. And I think that what's dragged on -- the reason why it's dragged on -- I differ with the estimable Mr. Taylor here on this -- is that there is no community outrage. People don't care. As in every society in which people are tortured, there's a torture book class in Chicago. It's African American men, most of them with criminal records. And they're just beyond the pale of our compassion. We just don't care.
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