Reality vs. the Rhetoric

By S. Brian Willson

Instead of the recent euphemism "illegal combatants," the United State in Vietnam claimed prisoners were "criminal" and therefore exempt from Geneva Convention protections. The use of torture as a function of terror, or its equivalent in sadistic behavior, has been historic de facto U.S. policy.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11238.htm

By Harold Pinter

Video and text of his Nobel Prize acceptance speech

The 2,000 American dead are an embarrassment. They are transported to their graves in the dark. Funerals are unobtrusive, out of harm's way. The mutilated rot in their beds, some for the rest of their lives. So the dead and the mutilated both rot, in different kinds of graves.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11239.htm

The nation's premier science organization urged Congress on Tuesday to consider restricting the marketing of junk food to children since food companies appear unwilling to do it themselves, thereby upping the stakes in the national obesity debate.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/120705HA.shtml

While Bush refuses to accept the Kyoto Protocol to cut greenhouse gas emissions, at least 40 million Americans will find themselves bound to the international treaty to curb global warming. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has convinced 192 cities to agree to cut emissions 7 percent from 1990 levels by 2012.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/120705EB.shtml

From: Kathy Guthrie
kathyguthrie@fcnl.org [FCNL]

The Bush administration this week publicly attempted to narrow the definition of torture and limit the responsibility of individuals working for the U.S. government to prevent torture from taking place. But U.S. military leaders and many members of Congress from both parties are refusing to stand aside while fundamental rights are eroded.

Behind-the-scenes arguments came dramatically into public view recently when Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld argued that military personnel have no obligation to intervene when they personally witness torture taking place by officials of other, sovereign governments. Standing next to Rumsfeld at a press conference last week, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace, responded: "It is absolutely the responsibility of every U.S. service member, if they see inhumane treatment being conducted, to intervene to stop it.”

But the secretary of defense didn’t agree: “I don’t think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it.” In a rare, direct, public confrontation, Gen. Pace stood his ground: “If they [U.S. soldiers] are physically present when inhumane treatment is taking place, sir, they have an obligation to try to stop it," Pace told the secretary of defense.

Following this exchange, The Washington Post reported that the secretary of defense has asked the Pentagon to review guidelines for soldiers operating in these conditions. Read a letter from FCNL’s Col. Dan Smith (USA Ret.) to Gen. Pace supporting Pace’s position at
http://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=1645&issue_id=67

This public debate within the executive branch on appropriate responses to torture comes as the U.S. government has come under new scrutiny by European governments. The European Union expressed concern about public reports that the U.S. is holding some prisoners in secret prisons in Eastern Europe without granting them access to legal counsel or the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The secret detention facilities in Eastern Europe and other areas of the world are part of a shadowy network of detention and interrogation facilities set up by the U.S. government to circumvent legal restrictions on interrogation, torture, and due process of law, according to reports from Human Rights Watch and some press accounts. Read a Human Rights Watch report on government treatment of detainees at
http://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=1644&issue_id=70

But the public disclosure of these facilities and the acknowledgment by Secretary of State Condolezza Rice that these facilities have been used in Europe have persuaded some European governments to call for the shut down of these secret prisons.

The public debate on interrogation, torture, and secret detention facilities has persuaded many members of Congress to support legislation offered by Sen. John McCain (AZ) that would establish clear guidelines for interrogation that prohibit torture. The New York Times reported December 7 that the White House has “all but abandoned its effort to persuade Sen. McCain to exempt Central Intelligence Agency employees from legislation barring inhumane or degrading treatment of prisoners in American custody.” If true, that is a victory on which we can and must build.

Although we citizens should be able to take for granted that our government opposes and strenuously prohibits torture, we cannot. Our government officials are engaged in an intense debate whether some agents of the U.S. government should be able to engage in some types of torture of certain kinds of suspects. Now the White House is seeking to limit the penalties imposed on U.S. government personnel who engage in torture.

The public outcry against torture is strengthening the hand of those within the U.S. government who oppose torture and want to prohibit its use.We want to encourage all our FCNL constituents to back them up with informed comment and with encouragement to sustain government advocates of a world free from the threat of torture. Read more about these issues at

http://www.fcnl.org/issues/issue.php?issue_id=67


The Next Step for Iraq: Join FCNL's Iraq Campaign
http://www.fcnl.org/iraq/

Contact Congress and the Administration:
http://capwiz.com/fconl/dbq/officials/


Informant: Martin Greenhut

Most of Congress's black lawmakers will oppose the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, officials said Wednesday.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/120805N.shtml

Rice has been engulfed by criticism over reports that CIA planes used airports in Europe as stopovers while transporting prisoners to secret interrogation sites.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/120805K.shtml

Although Bush administration officials have denied that they transfer terrorism suspects to countries where they are likely to be abused, a classified memorandum described in a court case indicates that the Pentagon has considered sending a captured militant abroad to be interrogated under threat of torture.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/120805J.shtml

Wie von der Süddeutschen Zeitung mitgeteilt, wurden die europäischen Gefängnisse der CIA kurz vor dem Besuch von Außenministerin Rice geräumt. Nach Angaben aus Washingtoner Geheimdienstkreisen sind diese Häftlinge und andere Insassen außer ihnen, die Verhör und Folter erwarten, nun in marokkanischen Geheimgefängnissen untergebracht.

Die marokkanischen Geheimgefängnisse der CIA wurden offensichtlich eingerichtet als Ergebnis eine Deals, der der marokkanischen Regierung die amerikanische Unterstützung bei der Aufrechterhaltung der illegalen Besatzung der früheren Kolonie spanisch Sahara. Als Gegenleistung erreichte die amerikanische Regierung anscheinend die Überlassung von ehemaligen Gefängnissen, in denen Koenig Hassan II seine Gefangenen folterte. Diese Folterverliese sind vermutlich unzugänglich im Atlas-Gebirge lokalisiert, wo sie nur per Hubschrauber erreicht werden können. Die frühere spanische Kolonie der westlichen Sahara ist reich an Bodenschätzen und deshalb verständlicherweise von bedeutendem Interesse für Marokkos Koenig Mohammed IV. Die geheimdienstliche Zusammenarbeit mit den USA war seit langer Zeit einvernehmlich und von beiderseitigem Vorteil der Regierungen geprägt.


G.Wendebourg / metainfo hamburg

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http://links.net-hh.de?lid=23148

Infopool / metainfo hamburg www.hh-online.com