Torture – Page 4 – Antiwar.com Blog

The ICRC Torture Report

A few weeks ago, Mark Danner at the New York Review of Books published an article about a classified International Committee of the Red Cross report written for the CIA’s eyes only. It described in detail the tortures committed against those held in the CIA’s “Ghost Prison” “Black Sites,” including pretty much everything the Soviet GPU would have done.

In my interview with Danner on February 18th, he explained that the U.S. government granted full access to the ICRC in the understanding that the report would be kept between them.

Well, on April, 2, Danner published a second article: “The Red Cross Torture Report: What it Means,” and published also the entire text of the ICRC report.

We here at Antiwar.com just wanted to make sure you all had a chance to read it [.pdf]. Please do.

Colin Powell: War Criminal

Rachel Maddow busts Colin Powell, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former Secretary of State of the United States, as he pretends on live TV to not be qualified to know whether someone (him) would be in violation of the laws of war if that person had done what he did.

Powell also, as The Other Scott Horton notes, acknowledges the need for an investigation – of him.

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“Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly.” –John Ashcroft

Do you know Binyam Mohamed?

Two senior British judges accused the U.S. of threatening to stop sharing intelligence with Britain if the British Government released details of the extraordinary rendition of British citizen, Binyam Mohamed.

Why?

Perhaps this explains it:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqBFY0xxAIQ&feature=channel_page[/youtube]

So, while a few die hard “24” fans — and Alberto Gonzales, and Michael Mukasey — might still claim confusion about waterboarding being torture, nearly everyone else would agree that having your penis sliced with razors once a month IS torture.

According to the close-the-barn-door-late theory, should official confirmation of this behavior escape the U.S. establishment cone of silence, it would be a PR disaster. That, not the perennial whine of “National Security,” is the source of the pressure the British Judges felt.

There is a lot of smoke around the L.A. Times article suggesting Barak Obama’s Executive Order ending extraordinary renditions was bogus.

But even if Mr. Obama did end the extraordinary brand of renditions, according to a Democracy Now! interview with Michael Rattner of The Center for Constitutional Rights, there is still a hole big enough to drive tour busses full of victims into the Gulag.

Will this be another big disappointment like Mr. Obama’s plans to double the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan — and his authorization of Predator drone strikes on the tribal people of Pakistan? And will we meet other Binyam Mohameds in the future, this time created by the Obama Administration?