Torture

Indonesia's police, armed forces and intelligence services routinely torture and degrade criminal suspects to extract confessions, with almost total impunity for those responsible, a United Nations rights body said on Friday.The UN Committee Against Torture said it was "deeply concerned about numerous ongoing credible and consistent allegations" of abuse in the Indonesian justice system.Military o

Banda: Decaying PurityAlbum: Phases of Dimensional TortureAño: 2008País: TurkeyGénero: Brutal Death MetalComp.: 192 kbpsTracklist:1. Intro 2. Phases Of Dimensional Torture 3. Atrocious Execution 4. Causing Mass Carnage 5. Create The Torso With A Hatchet 6. Exhume,Baptise and Bury 7. Mass Decapitation 8. Drowning By sense Of Perversion 9. They were Raped In Quarantine 10. Hemorrhoids Th

Here’s a shocker!!! Torture in a muslim country! No way!!!! I am in disbelief… U.N. body says torture widespread in Indonesia A UN rights body says Indonesia’s police, armed forces and intelligence services routinely torture and degrade criminal suspects to extract confessions. The U.N. Committee Against Torture says it is “deeply concerned about numerous ongoing credible a

The ghosts of interrogations past have come back to haunt the Bush administration. This week, the legal officer supervising the military trials at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, dismissed capital charges against Mohammed al-Qahtani, who allegedly would have been the 20th hijacker during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks had he not been prevented from entering the count

Denmark's Ambassador to Uganda was away when his wife looked out the window and saw a young man fall from the sky and land on her garden. She made a frantic call to her husband, Stig Barlyng, who immediately sped home to his residence in a posh suburb in Kampala. But by the time Barlyng arrived home, the guards from the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) headquarters next door had alr

Only one interviewee, the former Pentagon lawyer Doug Feith, expresses some distrust of him ("the problem with moral authority is people who should know better, like yourself, siding with the assholes") but even he cannot quite bear to show Sands the door. Instead, Feith sets him straight - by describing at great length just how central a role he played in sidelining the Geneva Conventions af

Juego sádico entre los sádicos, en Torture dispones de diferentes utensilios - cuerdas, cuchillas, lanzas, sierras eléctricas-, con los que torturar ... pero conciénciate, esto no es un juego, esto ocurre en la vida real."Tres cuartas partes de los gobiernos del mundo han recurrido a la tortura en los últimos tres años. En comisarías y prisiones, en ciudades y pueblos aislados, los torturad

Artist: Torture SquadName album: HellboundGenre: Thrash/Death MetalOrigin: BrazilYear : 2008Info: mp3 192 kbpsSize: 72.8 MBTRACKLIST01.MMXII (Intro)02.Living For the Kill03.The Beast Within 04.The Fall of Man05.Chaos Corporation06.Man Behind the Mask07.Cyberwar 08.Twilight For All Mankind09.The Four Winds10.HellboundDownload | Rapidshare | 72.8 MbPass: www.softarchive.net

For the many individuals who are on a weight loss journey, don’t do this to yourself, check the scale every day. The scale is not your friend. You might as well eat a donut as you stand on it. Check your weight monthly. if you want more accurate reading try a tape measure. [...]

Prof. George Hunsinger of Princeton Theological Seminary wrote an important piece for Common Dreams, entitled, History Will Not Absolve Us. According to an explosive ABC News report on April 9, dozens of top-secret meetings took place in the White House, beginning in 2002, in which the president’s top advisors approved the use of torture. Those involved were members of the National Security Cou

When the US government was first revealed to have used waterboarding as a means of interrogation, the argument offered in its defence was that it maintained the moral high ground because it did not constitute torture. A growing body of evidence is now emerging that points to a calculated strategy which openly recognised the technique as unlawful and yet side-stepped all other legal precedent

Last week, the US house judiciary began hearings into the evolution of the Bush administration's decision-making related to the approval of torture ("enhanced interrogation methods"). David Rivkin, a former Reagan justice department official, testified that the idea of prosecuting anyone involved in crafting the policies was "madness" while fellow panelist, law professor and head of the National L

Where do ideas come from?   Sometimes they come from the sky. Sometimes they come from our dreams. And sometimes they come from a strange little machine called IDEA GENERATOR. The practical widget was developed by TDB Special Projects. Random three-word-combinations stimulate the brain and may be the seed for the next big idea. (VIA)   [...]

T. B. Bechtel, a part-time City Councilman from Midland, TX , was asked on a local 'live' radio talk show, just what he thought of the allegations of torture of the Iraqi prisoners. His reply prompted his ejection from the studio, but to thunderous applause from the audience."If hooking up an Iraqi prisoner's balls to a car's battery cables will save just one Texas GI's life, then I have just three things to say....""Red is positive, Black is negative, Make sure his balls are wet."

The political scandal over the CIA’s transfer of alleged terrorists to overseas prisons where they are subject to torture has now embroiled governments throughout Europe. Airplanes operated by CIA-front companies carrying detainees have landed many times at European airports before flying off to countries where the prisoners are held incommunicado and tortured, with the knowledge and even direc

The Bush administration faced a new barrage of questions and criticism Tuesday over the US policy of kidnapping and torturing suspects in the so-called “war on terror.” One victim of the illegal US practice of “rendition” filed suit against the US government in a Washington-area federal court, while Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice faced mounting political controversy in the course of h

During an interview this morning on NPR, former Vice President Al Gore criticized Bush for approving the techniques, calling it “obscene,” adding that his use of signing statements is “a raw assertion of authority outside the boundaries of the law”read more | digg story

Actually, I had trekked to the University of Michigan to hear the Dalai Lama opine on our imploding planet. Pope Benedict XVI was doing much of the same on Sunday as he made a pilgrimage of sorts to Ground Zero in New York. But there was no time to meditate on spiritual serendipity as a scowling Chinese grad student almost knocked me over with his floppy, sloppily scrawled sign: "Dalai Lama - 50 years of CIA funding isn't enough for you." He was one of about 500 "dissidents" waiving Chinese flags outside the arena. Now I have to admit, I'm always a bit shocked to see demonstrations by non-lefties. The unions, the hippies, MoveOn.org - these guys are pros, coming armed with professionally printed placards, a killer sound system and even creepy lifelike puppets to make their point.

Kokomo, Indiana (ThaLunatic Daily) -- Four adults have been arrested in connection with the sever torture and daily beating of two four year old children. The torture was so extensive, that the children were found with broken bones on top of broken bones, multiple open wounds and severe bruising."This is probably the worst case of abuse I've seen with a living child. One that wasn't dead when we found them," said Kokomo Police Lt. Don Whitehead.Kokomo police arrested Donald Hawk, 33; Madeline Hawk, 42; Melissa Chandler and Jennifer Leonard, 36 on felony child neglect charges.Investigators say they found a 4 year old boy and 4 year old girl suffering from multiple injuries and open wounds on May 5th, while responding to a complaint from the little girl's mother.According to police, th

Employees from US military contractors helped torture Iraqi civilians detained at Abu Ghraib prison five years ago, according to a federal lawsuit filed in Los Angeles on Monday. Lawyers for Emad Al-Janabi said the 43-year-old blacksmith and other prisoners were subjected to months of abuse while being held at the notorious Baghdad jail following his arrest in September 2003. Al-Janabi was later released without charge in July 2004. According to the lawsuit, Al-Janabi was subjected to physical and mental torture which included being shown a mock execution of his brother and nephew, being repeatedly deprived of food and sleep and threatened with dogs. The lawsuit is lodged against defense contractors CACI International Inc, CACI Premier Technology, L-3 Communications Titan Corporatio

What do you do when your kid gets rashes all the time?  When he has diarrhea and cries a lot?  When he has a history of food issues/possible allergies/intolerances, and you’re ripping at your hair trying to pin them down? What do you do when you’ve tried the trials and you came to one conclusion only [...]

The thing is – they knew. It was the US government's explicit policy to wipe away the Geneva conventions and subject the supposedly most dangerous captives to what were euphemistically called "aggressive" interrogation techniques – techniques that flouted international law. The people behind the policy are therefore, according to the British human rights lawyer Philippe Sands, criminals who may well face charges should they choose to take a holiday in, say, France or Germany. And who are they, these people? Top government lawyers who – at the behest of Donald Rumsfeld, the then defence secretary – cooked up a means of bypassing Geneva and in effect allowed the interrogators on the tip of Cuba to do whatever the hell they wanted. And, at Guantanamo Bay, lowly, inexperienc

1. If you can't perform an act yourself then I think it should be considered cruel and inhumane.2. If the United Nations Convention Against Torture defined torture as:"any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only fr

News: 25-04-2008: Blabbermouth note that John 5 will release his fourth solo album, "Requiem", on June 3 via 60 Cycle Hum. Blabbermouth says: By definition requiem is prayer for the salvation of the soul(s) of the departed, requiem is also the title of various musical compositions used in such liturgical services. In the case of John 5, requiem is a mind-blowing, sinister guitar instrumental... This is a content summary only. Visit Truth In Shredding to find out more!

Can you present any concrete evidence that god is going to torture people for eternity? Even the most evil men who have ever existed have never tortured even one person for eternity. Even the most cruel judge has never sentenced even one person to eternal suffering. To say that god would do such implies that god is more evil and more cruel than the most cruel and most evil person who has ever lived. That's a pretty serious accusation to level against god without evidence. Do you have any concrete evidence to back up such a statement. When I say concrete evidence I don't include the bible because the bible was written by men and as you are aware men are capable of misinterpretations, misrepresentation and misunderstandings. The bible was written by men then Rewritten by men and rewritten a

From: Congressman Robert Wexler To: [...] Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 2:12 PM Subject: FBI Torture Cover-Up?Dear [...],This morning, during a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee, Iquestioned FBI Director Robert Mueller on his agency's response toclaims - made by his own FBI agents - that the CIA was torturingprisoners. I wanted to find out why, if the FBI's own agents hadalleged illegal actions were taking place, there was no investigationinto the CIA's illegal and immoral practices.Mueller's responses, which I would like you to read below, createnew concerns and call for further investigation in the days ahead.I believe Mr. Mueller owes more to Congress and the American peoplethan the half-answers he gave in his testimony today.I would urge you to contact the editors

Malcolm Nance, an expert on torture techniques who has trained hundreds of American servicemen and women to resist interrogation by puttting them through “waterboarding” exercises, denounced this techique as an example of torture and insisted it immediately be ended as a method used by members of the American armed forces. He sharply attacked the Bush [...]

My friend John Truong has a very hard time speaking. He was a severe stuttering problem… so bad, in fact, that he dropped out of college because he knew he’d never cut it in the “corporate world”. (That turned out to be a good thing though, as he’s been making $300,000 a year in Internet Marketing. On [...]

Author Philippe Sands, whose book, “Torture Team,” describes what went on in Guanatanamo prison, was told by retired General Michael Dunlavey, who supervised Guantanamo for eight months in 2002 that records on the itnerrogation of Muhammed al-Qahatani, who was accused of plotting the 9/11 attacks, have disappeared. Saudi born al-Qahtani was interrogated for [...]

John Cole has a post up in which he points to a story in The Guardian that claims "24" influenced interrogation tactics at Guantanamo Bay.According to the article:Beaver told me she arrived in Guantánamo in June 2002. In September that year there was a series of brainstorming meetings, some of which were led by Beaver, to gather possible new interrogation techniques. Ideas came from all over the place, she said. Discussion was wide-ranging. Beaver mentioned one source that I didn’t immediately follow up with her: “24 – Jack Bauer.”There has been a lot of discussion over the last few months about whether "24" has had the effect of normalizing torture, much of it well warranted. However, I think there may have been some serious fact-checking problems with this particular story that

Sounds like the Nuremberg defense team are already at work prepping: "We never authorised torture, we just didn't, not what we would do," Myers said. Sands comments: "He really had taken his eye off the ball ... he didn't ask too many questions ... and kept his distance from the decision-making process." Sing to the tune of Cake's 'Building a religion': ...We are bulding a defense case. We are making a brandWe're the only ones to turn to when your castles turn to sandTake a bit of this apple, Mr. Corporate EventsTake a walk through the jungle of cardboard shedies and tentsSome people drink pepsi. Some people drink coke. (coke)The wacky morning d.j. says democracy's a joke... From: Top Bush aides pushed for Guantánamo torture America's most senior general was "hoodwinked" by

Suggests Cheney, Rice, Powell and Other White House Officials Committed War CrimesVideo above from MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” on Thursday, April 10. (See transcript below.) In the 1990s, Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor and constitutional expert, was a strong advocate for impeaching Pres. Bill Clinton because Clinton lied about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky while under oath in a deposition for a civil lawsuit. The issue today is far more serious. According to ABC News, starting in 2002, senior Bush officials, including Vice President Cheney and Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice, who was then the national security adviser, were involved hands-on in drafting torture guidelines for the CIA. Because torture is illegal under U.S.

Torture and other human rights abuses are still widespread in Indonesia 10 years after the fall of dictator Suharto, Amnesty International says.Though the government ratified the UN Convention Against Torture and instituted key legal reforms after Suharto's demise, Amnesty receives reports of abuse "on a regular basis," according to a briefing paper by the rights group."As of early 2008, old and new national laws continue to offer inadequate safeguards to deter the use of torture and ill-treatment in all circumstances," the report says."This context of widespread use of torture and other ill-treatment is aggravated and supported by a pattern of impunity throughout the country, which can be perceived by perpetrators as giving them license to continue violating human rights."Indonesia News B

I am beat. So tired. Aching like hell. And darn sleepyyy.. Before you get all confused, lemme tell you guys a story. Once upon a morning (today), I decided to make good on my word and make "Shoesie" my best friend. At the moment, though.. I don't feel like hanging out with "Shoesie" much. What happened was, after a restless sleep of 2 and a half hours, Mom woke me up at close to 7.30 am and

This is the second take of the funny wu-office clip which was done last year, Enjoy It Check out the last year’s clip after the jump addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.liveagl.com%2Fblog%2F%3Fp%3D319'; addthis_title = 'Wu-Office+Pt+2+%E2%80%93+Torture'; addthis_pub = '';

  Dear ACLU Supporter, On Friday night, in a national television interview, President Bush directly admitted what we have suspected all along: The White House was deeply and intimately involved in decisions about the CIA’s use of torture. For the first time, George W. Bush acknowledged that he knew [...]

Prime95 es la utilidad de elección para probar la estabilidad de un sistema a largo plazo. Yo lo utilizo para asegurar la exactitud, repetitividad y trazabilidad de los resultados de cálculo en estaciones de trabajo profesionales.Pantalla inicial del programa en equipo QuadCore.En el cuadro de diálogo inicial podemos ver las tres opciones de test y el número de threads a iniciar que debería ser uno por núcleo de procesamiento en el sistema. Descarga última versión.Opciones del muy acertadamente llamado Torture Test:Small FFTs. Fast Fourier Transformations (FFTs) de pequeño tamaño, de 8 a 64 KB. Máximo stress de las unidades de coma flotante, los datos caben en caché L2 y prácticamente no testea memoria. Este modo prueba únicamente el procesador y en menor medida la caché L2

From: Bush Admits To Knowledge of Torture Authorization by Top Advisers In a stunning admission to ABC news Friday night, President Bush declared that he knew his top national security advisers discussed and approved specific details of the CIA’s use of torture. Bush reportedly told ABC, “I’m aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved.” Bush also defended the use of waterboarding. Recent reports indicate that high-level advisers including Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell and George Tenet were part of the National Security Council’s “Principals Committee” that met regularly and approved the CIA’s use of “combined” “enhanced” interrogation techniques, even pushing the limits of the now infamous 2002 Justice

So for those of you you state that female circumcision is wrong, think about for males also. If you agree that male circumcision is wrong also, then you are NOT a hypocrite..congratulations. Neither is medically necessary and are both mutilation. In the 70s over 90% of male children were militated in the US. That number has dropped to below 50% in 2007 but mutilation of males in the US is still a

Last week saw the release of a previously-classified torture memo of March 14, 2003, authored by John Yoo. The memo (here are parts 1 and 2) was declassified in the face of a judicial inquiry into why it was not disclosed as part of the torture FOIA brought by our organization, the Center for Constitutional Rights, as well as the ACLU, PHR, and two veterans groups. Almost as astonishing is an excellent article in the latest issue of Vanity Fair by another lawyer, Philippe Sands Q.C., that details the evolution of the Bush administration's torture policies up through early 2003 - policies which culminated in the "First Special Interrogation Plan" devised for our client Mohammed al Qahtani, now a capital defendant in the military commissions. Those torture policies were the predict

Joanne MarinerJoanne Mariner with FindLaw outlines the attitudes of the US government before and after 9/11. And it ain't pretty. We've seen these reports before, but it bears repeating that the Bush administration endorses the illegal kidnapping of suspected militants, then use proxies to torture them. What Happens When the Gloves Come Off By Joanne Mariner FindLaw"Why Jordan?" The question puzzled Abu Hamza al-Tabuki, a Saudi citizen who claims that US agents arrested him in Afghanistan in December 2001 and, after interrogating him in Pakistan, flew him in a private jet to Jordan. Because he was not Jordanian and had no past connection to Jordan, he did not understand why he was sent there. "Why wasn't I sent to America since I was arrested by Americans?" al-Tabuki asked, in a narrati

What purpose does a trial serve when it's conducted by a state claiming the power to torture confessions from a suspect, or "evidence" from a witness?Obviously, an exercise of this kind isn't carried out in the interest of establishing the truth beyond a reasonable doubt: Torture is a very effective means of compelling someone to submit to an official story, but entirely unreliable as a method of learning the truth. Thus it follows that a legal system in which torture is practiced is devoted to protecting and glorifying a ruling elite than in pursuing justice in any sense of the expression.In the Military Commission system created by the Bush Regime, "evidence" can be obtained through torture -- whether in the form of testimony or confessions. The prosecution is permitted to intr

From: A Torture Debate Among Healers   Imagine, a candidate for president who, a year or so ago, no one would have considered electable. Now the person is the front-runner, with a groundswell of grass-roots support, threatening the sense of inevitability of the Establishment candidates. No, I'm not talking about the U.S. presidential race, but the race for president of the largest association of psychologists in the world, the American Psychological Association (APA). At the heart of the election is a raging debate over torture and interrogations. While the other healing professions, including the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association, bar their members from participating in interrogations, the APA leadership has fought against such a restrict

Dan Eggen, writing for the Washington Post on Sunday, uses the term "permissable assaults" in his headline to his story about the newly-released John Yoo torture memo.Thirty pages into a memorandum discussing the legal boundaries of military interrogations in 2003, senior Justice Department lawyer John C. Yoo tackled a question not often asked by American policymakers: Could the president, if he desired, have a prisoner's eyes poked out?Or, for that matter, could he have "scalding water, corrosive acid or caustic substance" thrown on a prisoner? How about slitting an ear, nose or lip, or disabling a tongue or limb? What about biting?These assaults are all mentioned in a U.S. law prohibiting maiming, which Yoo parsed as he clarified the legal outer limits of what could be done to terrorism

scifi.com Shawn Ashmore, who stars in the upcoming SF horror movie The Ruins, told SCI FI Wire that the graphic tale couldn't be more different from so-called "torture porn" movies such as Turistas and the Hostel films, despite superficial similarities."The similarities are there to be drawn, but when you watch it, I think, the tone is much different," Ashmore said in an interview. "To me, there's a different tone, a different intensity, a different look."Ashmore added that director Carter Smith sought to create something engaging and unpredictable. "Carter's take on the characters is unique, and even the creepiness and the buildup, as you're watching the film, you don't really know where it's going," Ashmore said. "A lot of those films in the genre you kind of have an idea where it's goin

EXCLUSIVE: “Torture Memo” Author John Yoo Responds to This Week's Revelations - EsquireMcCain Sees King Speech as Chance to Mend Ties - The New York TimesMugabe: I will quit, as long I do not face prosecutionPoll: 76 percent say U.S. ready for black presidentThe DOJ comments on the Mukasey controversySecond poll shows Clinton's Pennsylvania lead shrinkingMcCain returns $3m in checks as he considers public fundingTechPresident - Favorite Videos of the Week: The McCain Girls Strike Back! McCain voted against MLK Day at almost 50 years of age! Clinton to propose 'Poverty Czar' Knockout try could be risky for Obama

EXCLUSIVE: “Torture Memo” Author John Yoo Responds to This Week's Revelations - EsquireMcCain Sees King Speech as Chance to Mend Ties - The New York TimesMugabe: I will quit, as long I do not face prosecutionPoll: 76 percent say U.S. ready for black presidentThe DOJ comments on the Mukasey controversySecond poll shows Clinton's Pennsylvania lead shrinkingMcCain returns $3m in checks as he considers public fundingTechPresident - Favorite Videos of the Week: The McCain Girls Strike Back! McCain voted against MLK Day at almost 50 years of age! Clinton to propose 'Poverty Czar' Knockout try could be risky for Obama

Curious how much abuse Sony’s PlayStation Portable can take before it completely breaks? Well, BrokenReview posted the following video showing a PSP get dropped/smashed/driven over, pausing between demonstrations of torture to note what still functions on the unit.  In my opinion the PSP fairs as well as could be expected - since it seems their goal was [...]

THE United Nations is lobbying Bahrain to sign an optional protocol that aims to prevent the torture of citizens, it has emerged. Al Karama Centre for Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture and Violence director Nabeel Tammam said UN officials were set to travel here in an attempt to persuade the government to endorse the agreement. He was speaking after returning from a workshop in Geneva organised by the Aman Network for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Torture in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Dr Tammam presented a report on Bahrain at the three-day workshop on behalf of the Adliya-based centre, which operates under the umbrella of the Bahrain Human Rights Society. Delegates from Iran, Lebanon, Morocco, Iraq and Sudan attended the event. Thirty-four c

And boy is it a whopper,  I look for Keith Olbermann to be all over this. No quotes here, Just go read the reactions from around the Blogosphere. This is going to be the big story of the day. I look for hearings to come out of this one. Wow.

Image from Wikipedia Pentagon Releases 2003 'Torture Memo'Pentagon Releases 2003 'Torture Memo' Justifying Harsh Interrogation TacticsExcerpt:"The Pentagon has released a declassified 2003 Justice Department memo that claimed the president's wartime authority trumps any international ban on torture, and concluded that the Fifth and Eighth amendments do not apply to foreign prisoners held outside the country."Related articlesLawyer: Gitmo Trials Pegged To '08 Campaign [via Zemanta]Incompetence Alert: Pentagon gives inexperienced 22 year-old $300 million contract [via Zemanta]Pentagon Accidentally Sends Missiles To Taiwan, Declares War To Get Them Back [Smooth Move] [via Zemanta]

Image from Wikipedia Pentagon Releases 2003 'Torture Memo'Pentagon Releases 2003 'Torture Memo' Justifying Harsh Interrogation TacticsExcerpt:"The Pentagon has released a declassified 2003 Justice Department memo that claimed the president's wartime authority trumps any international ban on torture, and concluded that the Fifth and Eighth amendments do not apply to foreign prisoners held outside the country."Related articlesLawyer: Gitmo Trials Pegged To '08 Campaign [via Zemanta]Incompetence Alert: Pentagon gives inexperienced 22 year-old $300 million contract [via Zemanta]Pentagon Accidentally Sends Missiles To Taiwan, Declares War To Get Them Back [Smooth Move] [via Zemanta]

Written by James Thompson - a psychologist and social justice activist in Houston - for People's Weekly World :   The American Psychological Association's (APA) Council of Representatives has introduced new wording in a resolution to clarify the ethical responsibilities of psychologists in harsh interrogation techniques, according to the March edition of its publication The National Psychologist. This action was a response to resounding condemnation by APA's members who objected to the participation of psychologists in the Bush administration's open defiance of international law banning torture. Critics argued that resolutions passed in 2006 and this past summer at the APA convention left loopholes which would permit the participation of psychologists in interrogat

From Prisonplanet :   Homeland Security, weapons company express desire to use "Security Bracelet" in law enforcement, crowd control   The Department of Homeland Security is pursuing the introduction of a device known as the Security Bracelet, a wearable tag that would allow authorities to inflict pain compliance on suspects from a distance, while also recommending law enforcement applications and potential use in "crowd control situations". Introduced ostensibly to combat airline terrorism, a creepy promo video courtesy of the patent holders Lamperd FTS exploits shocking 9/11 imagery to push the torture device as a solution to countering potential hijackers by inflicting "Electro-Muscular Disruption" and presumably giving the rest of the passengers a debilitating sho

I know I should have posted this a long time ago, one week ago to be specific (and that's already "long time ago" to me), but there just have been many things that I was rather busy of doing. And one of them pertains to this post's title. I am not quite certain whether it was the need to earn a little more or plainly the curiosity about being a freelance writer but when I dropped by a site with [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

I know I should have posted this a long time ago, one week ago to be specific (and that's already "long time ago" to me), but there just have been many things that I was rather busy of doing. And one of them pertains to this post's title. I am not quite certain whether it was the need to earn a little more or plainly the curiosity about being a freelance writer but when I dropped by a site with [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

By JIM SUHR, Associated Press Writer ALTON, Ill. - Banished to the basement, the 29-year-old mother with a childlike mind and another baby on the way had little more than a thin rug and a mattress to call her own on the chilly concrete floor. Dorothy Dixon ate what she could forage from the refrigerator upstairs, where [...]

Reese Witherspoon isn't afraid to use force when necessary, especially when she needs to get an important confession. This is the actual line from the film. But which film?Sure we have all put guns to people's heads to get them to convert to our religion. It has been the Christian way since Constantine. One might delude oneself into thinking that Christianity has become a tad more noble.Not so. To waterboard or not to waterboard has become a topic of debate among people who claim to follow Jesus. Doug King at Witherspoon reported last month on the Conference of Terror, Torture, and Security and Presbtyerian Outlook picked it up yesterday. The conference addressed this question:Is torture always wrong, or are there situations that may make it necessary? And how might followers

Anyone who knows me, even a little bit, knows I've had a butt-load of dental work done--and I really hate sitting in the dentist's chair. I do, however, love my (Illinois) dentist. He's the first dentist who had told me he would fix the problem, and actually did it.A few close friends watched me go through my traumatic bite reconstruction surgery against the deadline of moving to India. Apparently, one such friend, who had also needed some bite work done, took me up on my advice to have it done by someone who has been successful at it. Or, at least had a consultation.So today, I received a letter from the dentist's office thanking me for referring my friend to his practice. Enclosed was a Starbucks gift card, which is really nice, and really torturous. It's going to be months before

Saying No to Torture: Bahama Journal Editorial - Nassau, Bahamas: The United States of America is a land where paradox and contradiction routinely cavort. In this regard, we today note that while this country has a deserved reputation for being a cradle of democracy, it also has a history that is replete with savagery and barbarism. For current purposes, we today cite another contradiction. This time around, the puzzle concerns America’s vaunted and deserved reputation as a land where the human person is revered and where liberal freedoms are constitutionally guaranteed and that other America that routinely turns a blind eye to punishment that amounts to torture. There has been a furious debate concerning a technique known only as water boarding. Some say that this is but one form

The Thrift Savings Plan Funds (C,S, & I) have been as wild as a roller coaster over the past week. Readers watching my interfund transfer on Tuesday probably are still puzzled. I missed the... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

When we try to lose weight, there are many things that can so easily demotivated us. Our motivation can be addressed by a remark away, a negative idea of a desire for the things we say we should not have.There is one thing, however, guarantees that most demotivated people, far more than ever motivated - The weighting scales. How many times have you hop on the scales in a week or even a day for that matter? Weight is the measurement on which your motivation depends if you are in possession of this terrible instrument of torture - the balance! Used daily more damage to the psyche than any other instrument. If they can not reach the expected weight loss you want, the consequences are devastating ... ~ Emotional turmoil; ~ A sense of failure; ~ A strengthening the belief that it is "not goo

I feel like I want to barf this is so disturbing to me. Everyone obviously knows about the Abu Ghraib scandal with the pictures and the humiliation of prisoners.(who haven't been charged or convicted of any crime!) As if that wasn't bad enough, today I stumbled upon an old article by the AP about how a man, Manadel al-Jamadi, was murdered, yes MURDERED, at Abu Ghraib. Apparently this man was tortured by a method known as strappado. Did I mention this was employed by the Nazi's? I can't go into the details but it is disgusting. The evidence of said crime came about when the photos of the prison came out. The photos featuring Mr.al-Jamadi were taken with his swollen body in ice as soldiers took pictures smiling next to him. I urge my readers who have stronger stomach's than myself to read th

Thanks to Amy Proctor for this good news. If you want to see what a real torture chamber is like, not the interrogation rooms our intelligence agencies use, look at this video. They found more like this before with drills...

The U.N. investigator on torture said on Tuesday the United States had denied his request to visit U.S.-run jails in Iraq and insisted a visit could help clear its legacy of the prison abuse scandal in Abu Ghraib. Manfred Nowak, United Nations special rapporteur on torture, said he had received credible information the situation had improved at U.S. detention facilities in recent years, but

In a Real Clear Politics editorial here, Ed Koch has linked the pardon power to the hot topic of prisoner interrogation and the use of torture. Koch writes, among other things:I believe that torture may be warranted in the "ticking bomb" situation, where the interrogators reasonably believe based on credible information in their possession that the suspect knows where the "ticking bomb" is located and no other source is available to them. I do not believe there should be any statute or regulation authorizing torture, but we must depend on interrogators of conscience, mindful of the consequences of their actions. If any such interrogator is wrong in his judgment, tortures the suspect and elicits no bomb information, he should be indicted and serve a prison sentence upon conviction. If he el

A call for contacting Congress from the National Religious Campaign Against Torture On Saturday, March 8, President Bush vetoed H.R. 2082, an important piece of anti-torture legislation that would have banned the use of waterboarding, stress positions, induced hypothermia, and other so-called "harsh" interrogation techniques by requiring all U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, to abide by the restrictions in the Army Field Manual while conducting interrogations. H.R. 2082 was passed by a majority of both houses of Congress. Sometime this week, possibly as soon as tomorrow, the U.S. House will vote on whether or not to override the President's veto. It is very difficult to override a veto (it requires a two-thirds

Fact: US President Bush vetoed a bill that would have banned the CIA from "waterboarding" or "simulated drowning", and other coercive interrogation methods, to gain information from suspected terrorists. (link)Fact: The bill would have limited the CIA to 19 interrogation techniques that are used by the military and spelled out in the Army Field Manual. In a recent speech, Bush said he vetoed the measure because it is important for the CIA to have a separate and classified interrogation program for suspected terrorists who possess critical information about possible plots against the United States. (link)Fact: Waterboarding (picture) involves strapping a person down and pouring water over his/her cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning. It has been traced back hundreds of yea

from #breaking_news  Breaking: Bush vetoes bill outlawing CIA waterboarding 08 Mar 2008 President [sic] George W. Bush on Saturday vetoed legislation passed by Congress that would have banned the CIA from using waterboarding and other controversial interrogation techniques. Lawmakers included the anti-torture measure in a broader bill authorizing U.S. intelligence activities.[ previous blog on torture news]

Australia is set to ratify the international treaty against torture that was snubbed by the former Howard government. The Rudd government is also reportedly considering introducing laws to make torture an offence for the first time under the Commonwealth Criminal Code. Attorney-General Robert McClelland has told Fairfax newspapers the government intended to ratify the UN's Optional Protocol to

The military intervention brought an end to gruesome street-battles between two feuding political camps led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Awami League, and at first many Bangladeshis welcomed the de facto coup. But skyrocketing prices, a devastated economy and rampant human rights abuses have changed their minds. Over the past year, the military has set up torture and detention

Steve Horton writes in Harper's Magazine one of the most compelling arguments I have read on how the US has lost its moral compass by adopting torture as an interrogation method. He notes that the Bush administration virtually destroyed the noble stand the US military took during World War II when it adopted a policy that banned torture with the belief that it was a tool of the enemy.He also points to the complicity of the US news media that tacitly keeps torture out of public debate by following Bush's lead that the US does not engage in torture. Instead, one cable news network insists that its anchors, reporters and guests use the term “coercive interrogation technique.”How Hollywood Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the (Ticking) Bomb By Scott Horton Harper's Magazine In the last ei

The public debate about torture often involves a question similar to the following: "If an acknowledged terrorist knows about impending horrifying attack on our people, would you torture that man or not?" That is known as the "ticking bomb" question. Many presidential candidates were asked this question, most answered affirmatively. Also, if you listen to "conservative" media, this question is oft

It's been a while since I actually did something proactive about my egoistical need to look pretty even though no one else notices the way I look, so I decided to do a little torture pampering.I started the day early with a session with my sister's beautician. I have to say that it's one of the best facial experience I've ever had. She had a gentle touch and she didn't prod my skin mercilessly. In fact, she was really nice. The best part was that she didn't charge us (my sister and I) too expensively since two of our aunts are partners in the small spa establishment. I'm actually looking forward to the next session in two weeks. (Yes, my skin is bad enough that it needs bi-weekly treatment).Later in the day I decided to go for a haircut. Originally, I wasn't planning to cut my hair until S

For a variety of reasons, we have decided to enroll 9 year old Mouse and four year old Bear in the homeschool gym program at the Y. During that hour, I am planning on doing a little workout of my own, something for which I was greatly emboldened today.To ride on the Y's exercise bikes and walk on their treadmills, I figure I probably should wear something besides jeans or a skirt, which really is about the extent of my wardrobe. The only pair of sweats I own I have had since high school and I have outgrown them in two directions. So we stopped at WalMart today to pick up something a little more appropriate.I was pleasantly surprised.We don't have to mention actual sizes, but suffice it to say that this particular pair of pants was one full size smaller than the last pair of pants I boug

It's a cold winters morning a few days after Christmas in Maldon, a small town on the Essex coast. Several thousand people are congregating at Promenade Park to watch an annual spectacle, The Maldon Mud Race.Already at some ungodly hour there is a sizeable crowd in the park. Those eternal optimists, the Morning People. That strange breed of people who take pride in being awake before anyone else. Regardless of the weather or the prospect of another day at the grinding stone, they are smiling. The river is at low tide, exposing the mud banks on either side of the Blackwater. A putrid smell invades your nostrils, threatening to remind you of last night's excesses.I've found Kevin, my wiry friend who is racing for the third time. For the last month, he has tried unsuccessfully to get me to jo

Producers of America's Most Wanted, a television show dedicated to capturing criminals on the run, have agreed to recreate C.I.A tapes of high-profile interrogations recorded in 2004 using its dramatization technique. In recent weeks, the C.I.A has come under intense criticism by civil rights groups and bloggers for destroying the tapes. The C.I.A. hopes the recreations, based on eyewitness accounts, will restore its reputation. Those interrogated were members of Al Qaeda including 9/11 conspirators Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. Reece Witherspoon will play a C.I.A. operative who sprayed one of the suspects with fake menstrual blood. Charles Napier will take on the role the head of C.I.A. at Guantanamo. Lou Diamond Phillips is said to be interested in the part of Abu Zubaydah. Phillips, a method actor, has been immersing himself in water for two minutes at a time, listening to heavy metal music, and skipping breakfast to "get into this guys head." Fox temporarily stopp

Dark clouds overheadPlease let us weather this stormCrossing my fingersMy stomach in knotsDid we offend you, karma?Let things go our way.I wish I could tellAll these worries in my headBut I must stay muteWant to know how to drive a blogger insane? Give her news that directly affects her family and stresses her out, but then tell her she can't blog about it because people involved may read the blog, which could affect the outcome. It's killing me.I want to explain what's going on. I want to whine and cry and ask for a shoulder to lean on, spilling out my fears to any who would listen. It's a situation I've never had to deal with before, it's scary, and being unable to type out those words is almost painful. It's such a big part of my life right now that writing posts without discussing it feels sort of dishonest.As soon as I'm able, I will share everything. But for now, I can only write these vague lines. Slightly therapeutic, but overall still unsatisfying to me, and I'm sure

I've talked a fair bit about torture here and it's greatly influenced my decision making as to who I'm going to vote for. Over at TMV David Schraub concludes that the entire election is about torture. And he's right in that we do need to have a national debate about torture in order to decide what America is. However I think that the point his title makes needs to be explored in a different manner. To me the questions about torture are an excellent barometer of any candidate's morales. Here's the way I see it. If you ask the question WWJD in regards to torture the answer is readily apparent. However many candidates seem to be at odds with the beliefs they claim they have and their position on torture. If they can't follow the dictates of their own faith how can we expect them to follow "lesser dictates" like international law or the Constitution (or even tell the truth consistently for that matter)? There has to be some minimum bar for morality in a president and sadly enough th

"Having just ended a brutal 10-year civil war, its newly consolidated political leadership, facing a still unruly peasantry, turned to the U.S. for help. In 1962, the Kennedy White House sent General William Yarborough, later better known for being the "Father of the Green Berets" (as well as for directing domestic military surveillance of prominent civil-rights activists, including Martin Luther King Jr.). Yarborough advised the Colombian government to set up an irregular unit to "execute paramilitary, sabotage and/or terrorist activities against known communist proponents" -- as good a description of a death squad as any.As historian Michael McClintock puts it in his indispensable book Instruments of Statecraft, Yarborough left behind a "virtual blueprint" for creating military-directed death squads. This was, thanks to U.S. aid and training, immediately implemented. The use of such death squads would become part of what the counterinsurgency theorists of the era liked to call "count

Today's Salon features a long first-person account of Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah, who was kidnapped to a CIA "black site" torture camp. It's strong and scary stuff, and the people responsible deserve to be hauled into court, shown up for the criminals they are, and stuck in a cell for the rest of their lives. The traitors in government who sanctioned this program should join them. Torture is a cancer. Extrajudicial imprisonment is a cancer. These things rot democracy. They rot nations. The CIA held Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah in several different cells when he was incarcerated its network of secret prisons known as "black sites." But the small cells were all pretty similar, maybe 7 feet wide and 10 feet long. He was sometimes naked, and sometimes handcuffed for weeks at a time. In one cell his ankle was chained to a bolt in the floor. There was a small toilet. In another cell there was just a bucket. Video cameras recorded his every move. The lights always stayed on -- there was

After declaring a million times that "We don't torture", why would Bush veto a House bill that requires that intelligence services follow the Army Field Manual when dealing with detainees?President Bush's repeated insistence that "we don't torture" appeared even more transparently bogus yesterday as the White House threatened to veto a House bill that would explicitly ban a variety of abhorrent practices.The bill would require U.S. intelligence agencies to follow interrogation rules adopted by the armed forces last year.What does that mean? As Pamela Hess writes for the Associated Press, those rules explicitly prohibit "forcing detainees to be naked, perform sexual acts, or pose in a sexual manner; placing hoods or sacks over detainees' heads or duct tape over their eyes; beating, shocking, or burning detainees; threatening them with military dogs; exposing them to extreme heat or cold; conducting mock executions; depriving them of food, water, or medical care; and waterboarding."A

The Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Diane Feinstein, held a hearing today on what kind of rights should be granted to Guantanamo Bay prisoners. During the hearing, Brigadier General Thomas W. Hartman refused to label waterboarding as either torture or not torture. Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois produced a great moment of clarity in the hearing today when he asked two of the members of the second panel, Mark Denbeaux, a law professor, and retired Rear Admiral John Hudson, the current President and Dean at Franklin Pierce Law School, why they believe that Congress repeatedly could not get a response to the question of whether or not waterboarding is torture (remember: our recently confirmed Attorney General Michael Mukasey also refused to label waterboarding as torture. He refused to do so again today.) The responses of the two law experts indicated that they believe that Congress is not getting straight answers from the Bush Administration, and those working with it, be

Begin the endless bickering and name calling;You pussy-headed liberal morons want to protect the rights of people who want to kill you. You should die or move to Canada.And you terrorist war criminals who are no better than the people you are waterboarding should be put in chains and thrown in jail for war crimes for eroding the moral highground America has long stood on.America at it's best!

Newsflash: Important News Regarding The C I A Torture Tape Box Set: The Missing Torture Tapes Have Been Found At Netflix Gonzo Returned Them Alberto Says He Misses Work And Has Too Much Time To Himself Now He Took The Tapes From The CIA Vault And Got Them Mixed Up With His Horror Movies From Netflix, He Said: "They Got Mixed Up, They Look The Same" "The Horror Movie Has Chainsaws, The CIA Has Water Boarding" "People Bleeding And Dying, Gasping For Air, You Know, The Standard Stuff" "I Thought It Was The Same Director So I Put Them In The Same Box" "I Would Admit This Was A Mistake, Except For That I'm Never Wrong" "I'll Defer To My President Bush, Strong Daddy Know What's Best For Me" Bush Commented By Saying: "I'm Happy The Tapes Are Safe And Sound Now" "They Are Valuable Training Materials For Our Torture Specialists" "I Blew Up Frogs As A Child, Moved On To People And It's Legal Now" "Thanks To Alberto Gonzales Rendering The Geneva Docs Quaint" "The United Stat

I can understand how the Democrats could have gone along with the Patriot Act. It was presented to them just a few weeks after 9-11, while Tom Daschle's office was still under Anthrax quarantine. I can also excuse them for voting for the Iraq invasion, even though it was quite ignorant, and there were a number of us that pointed this out, even though we were essentially ostracized as traitors—even in teacher faculty rooms in good old blue Massachusetts.But what I can not stand is the manipulative spectacle of Democrats prancing around being outraged by by the policies they helped put in place.Repeatedly since 2002, leading Congressional Democrats on the Senate and House Intelligence Committees -- including, at various times, Jay Rockefeller, Nancy Pelosi, and Jane Harman – were briefed regarding the CIA's "enhanced interrogation methods." With the exception of Harmon, who claims to have written some kind of letter to the CIA, none of the Congressional Democrats objected to the

We Have Government Out Of Control And There Is No Opposition More Funds Are Granted For Bushtard To Blow Up Frogs In His Endless War Are The Dems Really Stuck In Complications Or In Complicity The Answer To That Is Yes And No, G O P Obstructing Big Time The Filibuster That The Right Wing Whined About Is Now Their Weapon Fifty Seven Times The G O P Obstructed Any Real Progress The Right Wing Doesn't Want The Dems To Succeed With Good Legislation Remember Jim Webb's Attempt To Get Troops Time Off The Bushtard Vetoed It And Many Repukes Stood By Their Precious Bushtard They Are Such Dickheads It's Election Time All The Time And Basically The Right Wing Is Scared They're Desparate And Dangerous, Doing Everything They Can To Remain To Confuse All The Issues As Best That They Can Demoralize Us What's Also Bad Is When Nancy Takes Away Our Right To Impeach Dick And When Nancy Makes Deals With Neocon Devils On Torture And War Permitting Water Boarding And Sh*t Like That, I

Bushtard's Torture Camp Prisoners Have Not Been Charged With Committing Crimes Rounded Up, Held In Indefinate Detention As Bushtard's Stage Props The Right Wing's War Of Terror, Torture, Rendition All Done In Our Name Habeus Corpus Suspended By The Bushtard A Quaint Little Law In Right Wing World, Laws And The Truth Are For Pussies All We Need Is War War On Everything Don't Understand Something? Start A War On It Then After All, That's What America Is Good At It's War Industry War Profiteering Is Rampant, Military Is Now Depleted Unsustainable As Bushtard's Iraq Quagmire On Chinese Credit Our Congress Is Sick A Majority Cannot Close The Torture Camp They Are Complicit Or Frightened By Election Year Politicking And The Torture Goes On And On, Every Day At Bushtard's Torture Camp Bushtard Just Keeps On Blowing Up More Frogs, As A Good Psychopath Should

Another thing I remember from the CNN YouTube debate was the variation among responses to the question of whether or not waterboarding is considered torture. Up to that point, I thought Mitt Romney had been doing well. But then he said he didn't think it was safe to publicly define interrogation techniques, because that would allow terrorists to better train themselves to withstand such tactics.I agree. That makes sense. However, I still don't feel that any form of torture needs to be used. I don't think it should be used either. And besides, they say it doesn't produce reliable intelligence, anyway.I believe Romney made a valid point in order to avoid the question. It would seem that even if waterboarding were considered torture, it would be allowable under "certain" circumstances, along with many other horrible techniques, with Romney as President. And I don't want that to happen.Senator John McCain, on the other hand, seems completely against mistreatment of prisoners.

During Wednesday’s GOP debate, a questioner asked the candidates why they refuse to call waterboarding torture. Romney said that before making such a determination, he would need to get “counsel on a matter of this nature” from “a lot” of people. One of the people with whom Romney said he would specifically like to speak? Blackwater's Cofer Black.read more | digg story