Month: February 2005

Saturday, between 4 and 6 pm EST, Scott Horton will interview the tastefully named Scott Horton (they’re not the same person … at least I don’t think they are.) about the rotten apples who run the “Special Access Program”, a black ops torture and humiliation scheme exposed by Seymour Hersh, and Brian Doherty about the “Real ID Act.”
Listen Live on the Republic Broadcasting Network.

Manadel al-Jamadi

Today, we have a new term to add to our ever-growing torture vocabulary list along with strappado and waterboarding. It’s a technique called “Palestinian hanging,” not because Palestinians do it, but because Palestinians are hung that way by Israelis.

Dr. Vincent Iacopino, director of research for Physicians for Human Rights, called the hyper-extension of the arms behind the back “clear and simple torture.” The European Court of Human Rights found Turkey guilty of torture in 1996 in a case of Palestinian hanging – a technique Iacopino said is used worldwide but named for its alleged use by Israel in the Palestinian territories.

I looked on B’Tselem’s torture page, but they didn’t have an illustration of a Palestinian hanging, so just imagine your arms shackled like this:

And then being hung by those shackles.

That’s what happened to Manadel al-Jamadi, the man whose picture is held by his wife and son, below.

Here’s an account of his last day:

Navy SEALs apprehended al-Jamadi as a suspect in the October 27, 2003, bombing of Red Cross offices in Baghdad that killed 12 people. His alleged role in the bombing is unclear. According to court documents and testimony, the SEALs punched, kicked and struck al-Jamadi with their rifles before handing him over to the CIA early on November 4. By 7am, al-Jamadi was dead.

This isn’t the first time Navy SEALs have been implicated in torture.

Al-Jamadi was one of the CIA’s “ghost” detainees at Abu Ghraib – prisoners being held secretly by the agency.

His death in November 2003 became public with the release of photos of Abu Ghraib guards giving a thumbs-up over his bruised and puffy-faced corpse, which had been packed in ice. One of those guards was Pvt. Charles Graner, who last month received 10 years in a military prison for abusing detainees.

Al-Jamadi died in a prison shower room during about a half-hour of questioning, before interrogators could extract any information, according to the documents, which consist of statements from Army prison guards to investigators with the military and the CIA’s Inspector General’s office.

One Army guard, Sgt. Jeffery Frost, said the prisoner’s arms were stretched behind him in a way he had never before seen. Frost told investigators he was surprised al-Jamadi’s arms “didn’t pop out of their sockets,” according to a summary of his interview.

Frost and other guards had been summoned to reposition al-Jamadi, who an interrogator said was not cooperating. As the guards released the shackles and lowered al-Jamadi, blood gushed from his mouth “as if a faucet had been turned on,” according to the interview summary.

The military pathologist who ruled the case a homicide found several broken ribs and concluded al-Jamadi died from pressure to the chest and difficulty breathing.

Dr. Michael Baden, a distinguished civilian pathologist who reviewed the autopsy for a defense attorney in the case, agreed in an interview that the position in which al-Jamadi was suspended could have contributed to his death.

I checked the Corner to see if anyone had written that this was just like a frat hazing, but no one has, yet.

Antiwar.com isn’t even supposed to have a position on Mark Thatcher and his merrie band of overthrowers, since it’s not a US foreign policy issue and it’s not really a war issue. But I have a position on the subject, and it is this: if I had known they were planning on overthrowing that monster in Equatorial Guinea, I would have been cheering them on.

Am I supporting war? Of course not. Am I supporting violating the sovereignty of a country? You bet I am. Dictators have no rights, and human beings have no responsibility to continue on under the thumb of dictators. Teodoro Obiang has ruled since 1979 (since he had the former ruler, his uncle, executed), and lives in lavish luxury, with all dissent crushed, while the population starves and cowers. He siphons tens of millions off the country’s oil profits. He is an absolute dictator and on his state-owned radio station, one of his aides said:

“He can decide to kill without anyone calling him to account and without going to hell because it is God himself, with whom he is in permanent contact, and who gives him this strength.”

Go ahead, complain that I’m no different from the people who think the US is liberating Iraq — you’ll be dead wrong. Unlike Iraq, the coup plotters weren’t forcing anyone else to pay for their operations, as the US is. Unlike Iraq, this would be a surgical operation to attack the key points in the country — here I am assuming the presidential palace and key ministries and oil fields — and not anything anyhere near civilian population centers. Unlike Iraq, collateral damage would be nonexistent, because these are businessmen with a budget — not career bureaucrats with a bottomless pit of funding — and collateral damage is expensive.

And of course I don’t think the mercs cared about the Equatoguinean people. I’m not a dingbat — they were in it for profit. But so what? Who cares what the motives are, as long as the result (and the means) are unobjectionable? I can’t know who they were planning on replacing Obiang with, if anyone at all, but you can be damn sure it was someone who would create a more favorable business climate. This would allow Equatoguineans to improve their personal lots — instead of those of the ruling dynasty.

James Bovard points out that Porter Goss Hates America:

“The Iraq conflict, while not a cause of extremism, has become a cause for extremists,” CIA director Porter Goss told a congressional committee yesterday. “ Goss warned: “Islamic extremists are exploiting the Iraqi conflict to recruit new anti-U.S. jihadists. Those jihadists who survive will leave Iraq experienced and focused on acts of urban terrorism.”

Bovard: “Goss’s comments are perhaps the most serious theological deviation of the Bush era. Perhaps the CIA director has forgotten that positive thinking and blind allegiance are America’s best hopes in the Global War on Terrorism.”

Serbian president Boris Tadic visited Kosovo this week, touring besieged Serbian enclaves and opposing the occupied province’s independence. The visit was met with mixed sentiments by the Imperial press, largely depending on the degree of their Albanian favoritism. Unsurprisingly, Albanians themselves met it with open hostility. From Viceroy Jessen-Petersen’s statements, the impression is that UNMIK hoped Tadic would continue to pressure local Serbs to collaborate – which did not turn out to be the case.
The visit merits a more detailed analysis, but for the time being, here is an excerpt from a special communique of the Serbian Orthodox Church regarding Tadic’s visit, dispelling the myth of Albanian “frustration” with “Serb provocations” (such as, oh, existing):

“Kosovo still remains very explosive with high potential for ethnic violence. This violence emanates not so much from social problems of Kosovo Albanians (which exist elsewhere in the Balkans) but rather from the surprising lack of basic tolerance for others who live beside them, share different culture and religion.”

Kevin Carson comes out in favor of torture “under certain limited circumstances.”

I’m afraid Condi isn’t going to like his proposal.