{"id":168694,"date":"2010-01-12T04:52:47","date_gmt":"2010-01-12T09:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nw0.eu\/2010\/01\/12\/torture-is-continuing-under-the-obama-administration-creating-more-terrorists-and-further-destabilizing-the-economy.html"},"modified":"2010-01-12T04:52:47","modified_gmt":"2010-01-12T09:52:47","slug":"torture-is-continuing-under-the-obama-administration-creating-more-terrorists-and-further-destabilizing-the-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/168694","title":{"rendered":"Torture Is Continuing Under the Obama Administration, Creating More Terrorists and Further Destabilizing the Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\n

Washington\u2019s Blog<\/a>
\nMonday , January 11th, 2010<\/span><\/p>\n

As I pointed out<\/a> in May 2008:<\/p>\n

\n

The U.S. has imprisoned 2,500 children<\/a> since 9\/11<\/a> as \u201cenemy combatants\u201d, in violation<\/a> of the Geneva Convention against classifying children as POWs \u2026<\/p>\n

Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Seymour Hersh says that the U.S. Government<\/a> has videotapes of boys being raped at Abu Ghraib prison<\/a> (and see this<\/a>; see also this<\/a> \u2013 General Taguba discusses the sexual humiliation of a father with his son \u2013 see this<\/a> and this<\/a>).<\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t come as a complete surprise, given that assistant deputy Attorney General John Yoo has publicly argued that the president can order the torture of a child of a suspect in custody \u2013 including by crushing <\/span>that child\u2019s testicles<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In April 2009, I noted<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Respected political scientist Michael Haas<\/a>
\nhas confirmed that children were tortured, and Raw Story has explained
\nthat the newly-release Bush torture memos may corroborate claims that
\nat least some detainees\u2019 children were tortured using insects<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The number two man at the State Department, Colonel Lawrence B. Wilkerson, said<\/a>
\nthat many of those tortured at Guantanamo Bay were innocent, but that
\nthe Bush administration did not really care whether they were innocent
\nor not.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Last December, I wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Many reporters have said that the Bagram prison facility in Afghanistan<\/a> is worse than Guantanamo ever was<\/span>. Moreover, abuse is apparently still occurring<\/span> there.<\/p>\n

As Spiegel wrote<\/a> on September 21, 2009, in an article entitled \u201cPrisoner Abuse Continues at Bagram Prison in Afghanistan<\/a>\u201d:<\/p>\n

\n

US<\/a> President Barack Obama<\/a> has spoken out against CIA<\/a>
\nprisoner abuse and wants to close Guantanamo. But he tolerates the
\nexistence of Bagram military prison in Afghanistan<\/a>, where more than 600
\npeople are being held without charge. The facility makes Guantanamo look like a \u201cnice hotel,\u201d in the words of one military prosecutor<\/span>\u2026<\/p>\n

Bagram is \u201cthe forgotten second Guantanamo,\u201d says
\nAmerican military law expert Eugene Fidell, a professor at Yale Law
\nSchool. \u201cBut apparently there is a continuing need for this sort
\nof place even under the Obama<\/a> administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the beginning, \u201cBagram was worse than
\nGuantanamo,\u201d says New York-based attorney Tina Foster, who has
\nargued several cases on behalf of detainee rights in US<\/a> courts.
\n\u201cBagram has always been a torture chamber.\u201d<\/p>\n

And what does Obama<\/a> say? Nothing. He never so much as mentions
\nBagram in any of his speeches. When discussing America\u2019s
\nmistreatment of detainees, he only refers to Guantanamo\u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

From the beginning, Bagram was notorious for the brutal
\nforms of torture employed there. Former inmates report incidents of
\nsleep deprivation, beatings and various forms of sexual humiliation
\n[and rape with sticks]\u2026<\/p>\n

At least two men died during imprisonment. One of them, a
\n22-year-old taxi driver named Dilawar, was suspended by his hands from
\nthe ceiling for four days, during which US<\/a> military personnel
\nrepeatedly beat his legs. Dilawar died on Dec. 10, 2002. In the autopsy
\nreport, a military doctor wrote that the tissue on his legs had
\nbasically been \u201cpulpified.\u201d As it happens, his interrogators had already known \u2014 and later testified \u2014 that there was no evidence<\/span> against Dilawar\u2026<\/p>\n

However attorney Tina Foster feels that the new initiative is just a cosmetic measure. \u201cThere
\nis absolutely no difference between the Bush administration and the
\nObama<\/a> administration\u2019s position with respect to Bagram
\ndetainees\u2019 rights<\/span>,\u201d she says during an interview with SPIEGEL in her office in the New York borough of Queens.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And see this<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Moreover, Obama<\/a> is still apparently allowing<\/a> \u201crendition flights\u201d \u2013 where prisoners are flown to countries which freely torture \u2013 to continue\u2026
\nFinally, Jeremy Scahill \u2013 the reporter who broke most of the stories on Blackwater<\/a> \u2013 says<\/a> that some forms of torture at Guantanamo have continued under Obama<\/a>, and may even have gotten worse<\/span>. For example, Scahill points out that:<\/p>\n

\n

The Center for Constitutional Rights released a report
\ntitled \u201cConditions of Confinement at Guant\u00e1namo: Still In
\nViolation of the Law,\u201d which found that abuses continued. In
\nfact, one Guantanamo lawyer, Ahmed Ghappour, said that his clients were
\nreporting \u201ca ramping up in abuse\u201d since Obama<\/a> was elected.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Now, reports are circulating that boys were tortured last year \u2013 after <\/span>Obama<\/a> was sworn in as President \u2013 at the Bagram prison in Afghanistan<\/a>:<\/p>\n

As the Washington Post reported<\/a> Friday:<\/p>\n

\n

The U.S. military has begun investigating allegations
\nthat two Afghan teenagers were beaten and humiliated by guards while in
\nAmerican custody last year at a secret detention center at Bagram air
\nbase, according to U.S. and Afghan officials.<\/p>\n

U.S. military officials took statements from the teenagers last
\nmonth and are contacting others who say they were held at what Afghans
\ncall Bagram\u2019s \u201cblack prison,\u201d a detention center run
\nby U.S. Special Operations forces. This classified facility is separate
\nfrom the main prison at Bagram, which holds about 700 detainees.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The allegations of physical violence and sexual humiliation.<\/p>\n

And see this:<\/p>\n

<\/embed>Popout<\/span><\/p>\n

Change?<\/p>\n

Not much \u2026<\/p>\n

Way to create more terrorists<\/a> and to further disrupt the civilian economy<\/a>, Obama<\/a> administration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Related Posts:<\/h3>\n