Well, I do feel as old as those Irish monks.

It is truly sad to write and post things like this. Americans appear to be very defended against recognizing the terrible things done in their name. I very much appreciate the support and passion of people at this site.

Important to report, without a doubt. But I don’t care if they make this person public or not. It’s not my business how the CIA conducts its business. The entire institution should be be shut down. Secrecy and democracy are anathema. Having an agency that conducts covert wars, covert campaigns to destabilize governments, or secret (or overt) assassinations… what does it matter if the person is public or not?

My 2 cents.

Thanks for covering this, Kevin. The over-the-top vilification of Shakur is surely meant to do what you suggest: reduce Assata Shakur’s struggle, and that of other black militants who were targeted by the US government’s COINTELPRO and other programs, to the status of “beyond the pale,” to make her into a crazed criminal of great danger to the United States.

How ironic it is to hear Democratic Senator Robert Menendez talk about never forgetting, at a time when his party trumpets “don’t look back” when people speak of accountability concerning massive crimes of torture and other atrocities. Of course, Menendez and others speak before the giant backdrop of state power, and they lord it over minorities and women and workers whose own power is puny compared with their own.

Assata Shakur was convicted by an all-white jury stacked with jurors connected to law enforcement. She herself was shot while sitting in a police car. No evidence of how COINTELPRO operations had targeted the Black Panthers and others was allowed to be presented in court.

For a look at the facts about her trial and frame-up, the medical evidence, the admitted perjury by the police witness, etc. check out this URL: http://www.assatashakur.com/facts.htm

I totally agree. The authors of “Shake and Bake” are in no position to dictate morals to the Syrians.

If we can believe the detainees and their attorneys, yes. Of course, all news that comes out, besides what DoD announces, is always a little old, since DoD must declassify attorney notes, etc., before they are released. In that way they can control the news.

As noted in the article, there’s a lot of confusion about exactly how DoD went about authorizing its abuse. Marcy Wheeler was on this early on. I think we are still only beginning to put it together, even after all the releases, the SASC report, etc.

I’m hoping at very least this article will demonstrate that we cannot accept too easily assertions that old abuses are things of the past.

Sorry I missed this vital Book Salon. I’m very glad and appreciative it even happened. I’ll be reading the comments and getting the book. Thanks Bev and John.

This is an outrage on so many levels, it’s difficult to know where to start. As to why they wish to hold Aamer, or disappear him in the prisons of Saudi Arabia, the Mail on Sunday is reporting that Aamer can testify to the fact that he was present when “MI6 officers were also in attendance when… [torture] was meted out to Ibn Shaikh al-Libi – who was then ‘rendered’ to Egypt and tortured into claiming Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was training Al Qaeda terrorists how to use chemical weapons.”

One of the unheralded aspects of the case of Ahmed Abu Ali, which I reported on last week, is that US courts have shown that they will bow to Saudi avowals on non-torture, even when the spokespeople for this are anonymous! In addition, they have shown they are more than willing to turn a blind eye when US security agencies (in Ali’s case, the FBI) interact with the Saudis on supposed “national security” issues.

The main issue here is the inaction and disinterest of the liberals and Democratic Party-types, and their allies in the churches and labor movement. The once vital college student activist milieu is also deeply quiescent. American society is complicit in Obama’s reactionary policies, and the latter are really coming forward with a vengeance, including attacks on the once holy-of-holies Social Security.

I am deeply ashamed for this country and for those who live in it and breathe freely and enjoy the daily freedom of activity and work that is made totally unavailable to a small minority in the name of fear, but really to cover up the crimes of the military and national security agencies, including, as appears evident in the case of Shaker Aamer, agencies of a foreign ally.

Thanks, Kevin, for being one of a very small handful of people who are reporting on this in the United States.

As an example of what forced feeding is like, in her documentary “Doctors of the Dark Side” Martha Davis presents a staged demonstration of what that might look like at Guantanamo. Rough viewing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSVTrtof6Ao&feature=player_embedded

You are totally right, bmaz. The US reservations to CAT eviscerated the treaty, bringing the anti-torture document under the vague sway of US Constitutional jurisprudence on matters of cruel and unusual punishment, which relies on even vaguer criteria, such as “shocking the conscience” to determine what is torture.

Thanks for the kind words, bmaz. Much appreciated from you.

Article got so long, I’d wanted to add in the fact “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not recognize the jurisdiction of the Committee as provided for in article 20 of this Convention. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia shall not be bound by the provisions of paragraph (1) of article 30 of this Convention.”

IOW, they will not allow public, international scrutiny of the torture practices. Really neutralizes their signing onto CAT, yes?

http://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-9&chapter=4&lang=en

Shockwave, over at Daily Kos, has updated us on Steele’s latest depredations:

To his Salvador, Honduras and Iraq resume you can add his Liberia activities;

Col. James Steele is currently registered with Premiere Motivational Speakers, through which he charges $15,000 to give speeches on “Security and Counterterrorism Policy”.[15] He is also listed as the CEO of Buchanan Renewables,[16] an energy company that produces biomass in Liberia. Steele’s company has been accused of corporate malfeasance by the Liberian legislature[17] and was the subject of an investigative report in 2011 by the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations. The report describes “how the company, which presents itself as a highly sustainable venture, has a negative impact on the livelihoods of a number of smallholder farmers, has not taken adequate measures to improve the energy situation in Liberia, and has a corporate structure which can be optimally used to avoid paying taxes in Liberia.”[18]

Mitchell and Greenwald are totally correct as regards Manning being open about his motivations. I noted as much in my story the othe day on the Guardian Iraq torture revelations.

Keller is lying outright, and this is even more despicable as it pertains to an individual who is on trial for his life. (He may not face the death penalty, but he does face life in prison, which is a living death.)

IMO, Keller’s lies about Manning’s reasons for,leaking is the lede here, while the speculations abt what if Manning had reached the NYT or Post before he did WL of much lesser interest.

see this 2004 article, “Oregon Guard unit told to return prisoners to Iraqi abusers”

http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2001999719_iraqprisoners08.html

In a nearby building, the soldiers counted dozens more prisoners and what appeared to be torture devices: metal rods, rubber hoses, electrical wires and bottles of chemicals. Many of the Iraqis, including one identified as a 14-year-old boy, had fresh welts and bruises across their backs and legs.

The soldiers disarmed the Iraqi jailers, moved the prisoners into the shade, released their handcuffs and administered first aid. Lt. Col. Daniel Hendrickson of Albany, Ore., the highest-ranking American at the scene, radioed for instructions.

But in a move that frustrated and infuriated the guardsmen, Hendrickson’s superior officers told him to return the prisoners to their abusers and immediately withdraw. It was June 29 — Iraq’s first official day as a sovereign country since the U.S.-led invasion.

Yes, absolutely. Here’s the description of the program from the DN site (in case readers are wondering what this is about):

A historic trial underway in Argentina is set to reveal new details about how Latin American countries coordinated with each other in the 1970s and ’80s to eliminate political dissidents. The campaign known as “Operation Condor” involved military dictatorships in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. They worked together to track down, kidnap and kill people they labeled as terrorists: leftist activists, labor organizers, students, priests, journalists, guerrilla fighters and their families. The campaign was launched by the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, and evidence shows the CIA and former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger were complicit from its outset. We’re joined by John Dinges, author of “The Condor Years: How Pinochet and his Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents.” The book brings together interviews and declassified intelligence records to reconstruct the once-secret events.

By the way, one could consider the counterinsurgency program against El Salvador, where James Steele was in charge of training those who reportedly became death squad torturers, as a continuation of Condor. Condor itself, in the personnel it sometimes used, as in the case of Stefano della Chiaie (though latter never got prosecuted, slipped through that net), an Italian Gladio far-right terrorist associated with Pinochet and other Latin American regimes. Dinges has written about him before.

I only mention it because there is definitely a clear line connecting the dots of these various terror regimes and events: Condor, Gladio, El Salvador, Vietnam, Iraq… and this line is the actions and purpose of the US government seeking to perpetuate its rule no matter what. That is the real history. The rest is fake, or prettified gloss.

Thanks, PP. Kevin thought I should be posting here instead of MyFDL. I don’t know. I’m just trying to get an audience for these anti-torture articles. If I’m more informative here, or at MyFDL, that’s where I’ll go.

I have just been informed of the passing of a very great American hero. Marcy Bruno, known as Tosfm at Twitter where she had over 2800 followers, the mother of a Guantanamo military defense attorney, was a tireless activist in the anti-torture cause. She especially took on the case of Fayiz Al-Kandari, a Kuwaiti prisoner at Guantanamo who sits in indefinite detention, having indured torture.

Now one of the best friends he had in the world is tragically taken from him and us. She apparently died from complications during a surgery. She will be sorely missed. She was an inspiration to me and others.

My deep condolences to Barry and family and friends.