WelcomeTo My World
Tuesday, 31 March 2015
Storyville 2014 2015 23 My Mother the Secret Baby BBC Documentary 2015
In this funny and moving documentary, acclaimed film-maker Daisy Asquith tells the very personal story of her mother's conception after a dance in the 1940s on the remote west coast of Ireland.
By exploring the repercussions of this act, Daisy and her mother embark on a fascinating and emotional adventure in social and sexual morality. Her grandmother, compelled to run away to have her baby in secret, handed the child over to 'the nuns'. Daisy's mum was eventually adopted by English Catholics from Stoke-on-Trent. Her grandmother returned to Ireland and told no-one. The father remained a mystery for another 60 years, until Daisy and her mum decided it was time to find out who he was.
Their attempts to find the truth make raw the fear and shame that Catholicism has wrought on the Irish psyche for centuries. It leads Daisy and her mum to connect with a brand new family living an extraordinarily different life.
Mumia Family & Friends in Visitation: More to Come
picture from google
UPDATE: Mumia’s captors relent to overwhelming international pressure; family and friends in visitation
Reports are coming in that visitation has been granted to family and friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, and that the press conference scheduled for 11:00 this morning has been pushed back
The reports, that prison and hospital authorities have submitted to an overwhelming and international outcry over Mumia’s abduction, confirm the SCI Mahonoy superintendent’s office’s claims made to Serve the People this morning that visitation rights had been approved, after a shamefully labyrinthine delay.
Mumia Abu-Jamal Moved from Prison to Intensive Care, Supporters Seek Acc...
http://democracynow.org - Imprisoned journalist and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal has been taken to the Intensive Care Unit of Schuylkill Medical Center in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, after he was removed from prison for a medical emergency without any notification to his family, friends or lawyers. Prison officials told his supporters he is in diabetic shock. We get an update from Abu-Jamal's longtime friend, Johanna Fernández who first discovered he was in the hospital Monday morning when she went to visit him in prison and was told he had been taken to the intensive care unit. Fernández is a history professor at Baruch College-CUNY, and one of the coordinators of the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home.
Listen to all Democracy Now! interviews with Mumia Abu-Jamal over the years in our online archive:
http://www.democracynow.org/appearanc...
“I Can’t afford to live anymore” #DWP #ESA #DLA #CarlGreen #socialcleansing #Homeless
picture from google
"I Can't afford to live anymore". Imagine that is true and what you are saying to yourself in despair. Bailiffs knocking and ringing, Council Tax Court letters, fines for being unable to pay Council Tax, rent arrears, eviction letters,debts piling up, mounds of unopened mail. Feeling a failure, abject poverty, not even a fag or a cuppa tea.
Imagine how tormented people are to even think of giving up on life. How humiliated and terrorised by others, how alone and desperate.
This Government has made more people feel that way than any other, including Thatcher. I hold them responsible for :
Terry McGarvey, 48. Dangerously ill from polycytheamia, Terry asked for an ambulance to be called during his Work Capability Assessment. He knew that he wasn’t well enough to attend his WCA but feared that his benefits would be stopped if he did not. He died the following day.
Elaine Lowe, 53. Suffering from COPD and fearful of losing her benefits. In desperation, Elaine chose to commit suicide.
Mark Wood, 44. Found fit for work by Atos, against his Doctors advice and assertions that he had complex mental health problems. Starved to death after benefits stopped, weighing only 5st 8lb when he died.
Paul Reekie, 48, the Leith based Poet and Author. Suffered from severe depression. Committed suicide after DWP stopped his benefits due to an Atos ‘fit for work’ decision.
Leanne Chambers, 30. Suffered depression for many years which took a turn for the worst when she was called in for a WCA. Leanne committed suicide soon after.
Karen Sherlock, 44. Multiple health issues. Found fit for work by Atos and denied benefits. Fought a long battle to get placed into the support group of ESA. Karen died the following month of a heart attack.
Carl Payne, 42. Fears of losing his lifeline benefits due to welfare reform led this Father of two to take his own life.
Tim Salter, 53. Blind and suffering from Agoraphobia. Tim hanged himself after Atos found him fit for work and stopped his benefits.
Edward Jacques, 47 years old and suffering from HIV and Hepatitis C. Edward had a history of severe depression and self-harm. He took a fatal overdose after Atos found him fit for work and stopped his benefits.
Linda Wootton, 49 years old. A double heart and lung transplant patient. Died just nine days after the government found her fit for work, their refusal letter arriving as she lay desperately ill in her hospital bed.
Steven Cawthra, 55. His benefits stopped by the DWP and with rising debts, he saw suicide as the only way out of a desperate situation.
Elenore Tatton, 39 years old. Died just weeks after the government found her fit for work.
John Walker, 57, saddled with debt because of the bedroom tax, John took his own life.
Brian McArdle, 57 years old. Suffered a fatal heart attack the day after his disability benefits were stopped.
Stephen Hill, 53. Died of a heart attack one month after being found fit for work, even though he was waiting for major heart surgery.
Jacqueline Harris, 53. A former Nurse who could hardly walk was found fit for work by Atos and her benefits withdrawn. in desperation, she took her own life.
David Barr, 28. Suffering from severe mental difficulties. Threw himself from a bridge after being found fit for work by Atos and failing his appeal.
David Groves, 56. Died of a heart attack the night before taking his work capability assessment. His widow claimed that it was the stress that killed him.
Nicholas Peter Barker, 51. Shot himself after being told his benefits were being stopped. He was unable to work after a brain haemorrhage left him paralysed down one side.
Mark and Helen Mullins, 48 and 59 years old. Forced to live on £57.50 a week and make 12 mile trips each week to get free vegetables to make soup. Mark and Helen both committed suicide.
Richard Sanderson, 44. Unable to find a job and with his housing benefit cut forcing him to move, but with nowhere to go. Richard committed suicide.
Martin Rust, 36 years old. A schizophrenic man who killed himself two months after the government found him fit to work.
Craig Monk, 43. A vulnerable gentleman and a partial amputee who slipped so far into poverty that he hanged himself.
Colin Traynor, 29, and suffering from epilepsy was stripped of his benefits. He appealed. Five weeks after his death his family found he had won his appeal.
Elaine Christian, 57 years old. Worried about her work capability assessment, she was subsequently found at Holderness drain, drowned and with ten self inflicted wrist wounds.
Christelle and Kayjah Pardoe, 32 years and 5 month old. Pregnant, her benefits stopped, Christelle, clutching her baby son jumped from a third floor balcony.
Mark Scott, 46. His DLA and housing benefit stopped and sinking into deep depression, Mark died six weeks later.
Cecilia Burns, 51. Found fit for work while undergoing treatment for breast cancer. She died just a few weeks after she won her appeal against the Atos decision.
Chris Cann, 57 years old. Found dead in his home just months after being told he had to undergo a medical assessment to prove he could not work.
Peter Hodgson, 49. Called to JCP to see if he was suitable for volunteer work. Peter had suffered a stroke, a brain haemorrhage and had a fused leg. His appointment letter arrived a few days after he took his own life.
Paul Willcoxsin, 33 years old. Suffered with mental health problems and worried about government cuts. Paul committed suicide by hanging himself.
Stephanie Bottrill, 53. After paying £80 a month for bedroom tax, Stephanie could not afford heating in the winter, and lived on tinned custard. In desperation, she chose to walk in front of a lorry.
Larry Newman suffered from a degenerative lung condition, his weight dropping from 10 to 7 stone. Atos awarded him zero points, he died just three months after submitting his appeal.
Paul Turner, 52 years old. After suffering a heart attack, he was ordered to find a job in February. In April Paul died from ischaemic heart disease.
Christopher Charles Harkness, 39. After finding out that the funding for his care home was being withdrawn, this man who suffered with mental health issues, took his own life.
Sandra Louise Moon, 57. Suffering from a degenerative back condition, depression and increasingly worried about losing her incapacity benefit. Sandra committed suicide by taking an overdose.
Lee Robinson, 39 years old. Took his own life after his housing benefit and council tax were taken away from him.
David Coupe, 57. A Cancer sufferer found fit for work by Atos in 2012. David lost his sight, then his hearing, then his mobility, and then his life.
Michael McNicholas, 34. Severely depressed and a recovering alcoholic. Michael committed suicide after being called in for a Work Capability Assessment by Atos.
Victor Cuff, 59 and suffering from severe depression. Victor hanged himself after the DWP stopped his benefits.
Charles Barden, 74. Charles committed suicide by hanging due to fears that the Bedroom Tax would leave him destitute and unable to cope.
Ian Caress, 43. Suffered multiple health issues and deteriorating eyesight. Ian was found fit for work by Atos, he died ten months later having lost so much weight that his family said that he resembled a concentration camp victim.
Iain Hodge, 30. Suffered from the life threatening illness, Hughes Syndrome. Found fit for work by Atos and benefits stopped, Iain took his own life.
Wayne Grew, 37. Severely depressed due to government cuts and the fear of losing his job, Wayne committed suicide by hanging.
Kevin Bennett, 40. Kevin a sufferer of schizophrenia and mental illness became so depressed after his JSA was stopped that he became a virtual recluse. Kevin was found dead in his flat several months later.
David Elwyn Hughs Harries, 48. A disabled man who could no longer cope after his parents died, could find no help from the government via benefits. David took an overdose as a way out of his solitude.
Denis Jones, 58. A disabled man crushed by the pressures of government cuts, in particular the Bedroom Tax, and unable to survive by himself. Denis was found dead in his flat.
Shaun Pilkington, 58. Unable to cope any more, Shaun shot himself dead after receiving a letter from the DWP informing him that his ESA was being stopped.
Paul ?, 51. Died in a freezing cold flat after his ESA was stopped. Paul appealed the decision and won on the day that he lost his battle to live.
Chris MaGuire, 61. Deeply depressed and incapable of work, Chris was summonsed by Atos for a Work Capability Assessment and deemed fit for work. On appeal, a judge overturned the Atos decision and ordered them to leave him alone for at least a year, which they did not do. In desperation, Chris took his own life, unable to cope anymore.
Peter Duut, a Dutch national with terminal cancer living in the UK for many years found that he was not entitled to benefits unless he was active in the labour market. Peter died leaving his wife destitute, and unable to pay for his funeral.
George Scollen, age unknown. Took his own life after the government closed the Remploy factory he had worked in for 40 years.
Julian Little, 47. Wheelchair bound and suffering from kidney failure, Julian faced the harsh restrictions of the Bedroom Tax and the loss of his essential dialysis room. He died shortly after being ordered to downgrade.
Miss DE, Early 50’s. Suffering from mental illness, this lady committed suicide less than a month after an Atos assessor gave her zero points and declared her fit for work.
Robert Barlow, 47. Suffering from a brain tumour, a heart defect and awaiting a transplant, Robert was deemed fit for work by Atos and his benefits were withdrawn. He died penniless less than two years later.
Carl Joseph Foster-Brown, 58. As a direct consequence of the wholly unjustifiable actions of the Job centre and DWP, this man took his own life.
Martin Hadfield, 20 years old. Disillusioned with the lack of jobs available in this country but too proud to claim benefits. Utterly demoralised, Martin took his own life by hanging himself.
Annette Francis, 30. A mum-of-one suffering from severe mental illness, found dead after her disability benefits were ceased.
Ian Jordan, 60. His benefits slashed after Atos and the DWP declared Ian, a sufferer of Barratt’s Oesophagus, fit for work, caused him to run up massive debts in order to survive. Ian was found dead in his flat after taking an overdose.
Janet McCall, 53. Terminally ill with pulmonary fibrosis and declared ‘Fit for Work’ by Atos and the DWP, this lady died 5 months after her benefits were stopped.
Stuart Holley, 23. A man driven to suicide by the DWP’s incessant pressure and threat of sanctions for not being able to find a job.
Graham Shawcross, 63. A sufferer of the debilitating disease, Addison’s. Died of a heart attack due to the stress of an Atos ‘Fit for Work’ decision.
David Clapson, 59 years old. A diabetic ex-soldier deprived of the means to survive by the DWP and the governments harsh welfare reforms, David died all but penniless, starving and alone, his electricity run out.
Chris Smith, 59. Declared ‘Fit for Work’ by Atos as he lay dying of Cancer in his hospital bed.
Nathan Hartwell, 36, died of heart failure after an 18-month battle with the Department for Works and Pensions.
Michael Connolly, 60. A Father of One, increasingly worried about finances after his benefits were cut. Committed suicide by taking 13 times the fatal dose of prescription medicine on the 30th October – His Birthday.
Jan Mandeville, 52, A lady suffering from Fibromyalgia, driven to the point of mental and physical breakdown by this governments welfare reforms. Jan was found dead in her home after battling the DWP for ESA and DLA.
Trevor Drakard, 50 years old. A shy and reserved, severe epileptic who suffered regular and terrifying fits almost his entire life, hounded to suicide by the DWP who threatened to stop his life-line benefits.
Death of a severely disabled Dorset resident, unnamed, who took her own life while battling the bedroom tax.
This is the tip on the iceberg.
Monday, 30 March 2015
SF Sheriffs - stage cage-fight style matches between inmates for their entertainment
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/S-F-jail-inmates-forced-to-fight-Adachi-says-6161221.php?cmpid=email-mobile
SF jail inmates forced to fight, public defender says
Mar 26, 2015By Vivian Ho
San Francisco sheriff’s deputies arranged and gambled on battles between County Jail inmates, forcing one to train for the fights and telling them to lie if they needed medical attention, the city’s public defender said Thursday.
Since the beginning of March, at least four deputies at County Jail No. 4 at 850 Bryant St. threatened inmates with violence or withheld food if they did not fight each other, gladiator-style, for the entertainment of the deputies, Public Defender Jeff Adachi said.
Adachi said the ringleader in these fights was Deputy Scott Neu, who was accused in 2006 of forcing inmates to perform sexual acts on him. That case was settled out of court.
“I don’t know why he does it, but I just feel like he gets a kick out of it because I just see the look on his face,” said Ricardo Palikiko Garcia, one of the inmates who said he was forced to fight. “It looks like it brings him joy by doing this, while we’re suffering by what he’s doing.”
An attorney for the San Francisco Deputy Sheriff’s Association, the union representing the deputies, called the allegations “exaggerated,” and said the fighting was “little more than horseplay.”
But in a recorded conversation with Adachi, Garcia described a predatory atmosphere of fear and retribution in which deputies would knock over his tray and force him to gamble for his food.
Garcia, who is in custody on drug and gun possession charges, said that earlier this month he was twice forced to fight another inmate, Stanley Harris, to the point where his ribs may have been fractured and he could not sleep on his side because of the pain.
Adachi said the four deputies involved were Neu, Eugene Jones, Clifford Chibaand Evan Staehely. All four have been placed on paid administrative leave.
“They took me down to the hallway and told me to fight another inmate, which was Stanley, and told me if I didn’t fight that I would basically get beat up by themselves, by Deputy Neu,” Garcia said. “And he told me he was going to Mace me and cuff me if I didn’t.”
'Anything goes’
Neu told Garcia and Harris that if they required medical attention, they were to lie and say they fell off a bunk, Garcia said.
“And he told me anything goes,” he said. “Just don’t punch the face, so no one can basically see the marks. But anything goes, other than the face.”
Garcia said that at 5 feet 9 and 150 pounds, he was the smallest man in the pod while Harris, at 6 feet and 350 pounds, was the biggest.
During the first fight, which took place in a part of a hallway that was blocked from view, Neu appeared to have been betting on Harris, Garcia said, who tapped out after the smaller man got him in a headlock.
“Deputy Neu told Stanley he would be coming on Saturday, the following day, to take him to work out and to basically train him,” Garcia said. “And he also told everyone that was there that there will be a round two and he does not like to lose money.”
Rape threat alleged
Harris, in another recorded conversation with Adachi, said Neu once made him do 200 push-ups within an hour as part of “training.” As he did his push-ups, Neu threatened to anally rape him, telling him “he’ll take my cheeks,” Harris said.
During other sessions of forced exercise, Neu also told him “he wanted to go a round with me,” taking off his belt and shirt to try and fight with Harris.
“This is sadistic behavior,” Adachi said. “This is something that goes beyond any sense of common decency.”
The public defender’s office hired a private investigator to look into the claims after learning of the allegations this month and the attorneys were going to wait until their clients were safe and out of the jail before they came forward with the allegations. But they received word that another fight was planned for next week, Adachi said.
In a report compiled by private investigator Barry Simon, Harris and Garcia said the deputies — Neu in particular — threatened to take them off their kitchen jobs or send them to a jail where more dangerous inmates were housed.
Witness to gambling
Another inmate, Jonathan Christopher, witnessed one of the fights between Harris and Garcia. He said Neu had a habit of making inmates gamble against him for their basic benefits of food and clean laundry. He carried red dice and a deck of cards with him for this reason, but even if they won, he would sometimes take their items anyway, giving them to other inmates as payoffs.
Harris said Neu had a tattoo on his right arm and lower leg reading, “850 Mob,” possibly in connection to the jail’s location at 850 Bryant St.
Harry Stern, an attorney for the deputies union, slammed what he called Adachi’s “cursory sham investigation.”
“The hypocrisy of Adachi engaging in trial by one-sided press conference cannot go unchallenged: He has done a cursory sham investigation by interviewing a few inmates over a scant two days rather than having the decency to request a serious impartial investigation,” Stern said in a statement. “It is unfortunate that Mr. Adachi didn’t initiate a formal complaint that would have been investigated thoroughly by the appropriate agencies. The investigators would have had the opportunity to interview witnesses, including the accused deputies, and look for physical evidence.”
Some inmates working with Adachi have exaggerated a rather benign situation, Stern said.
“A deputy may have encouraged one inmate to work out. The deputy may have also allowed two inmates to wrestle in order to settle a dispute about who was stronger,” he added. “The 'wrestling’ was essentially little more than horseplay. There was no betting. The inmates were never forced to work out. They were never forced to fight.”
A permissive culture
The fight allegations came to light after Garcia’s father asked his son’s attorney to help. Deputy Public Defender Scott Grant spoke to his client and learned Garcia had been forced to fight another inmate, who also was represented by the public defender’s office, Adachi said.
Matt Gonzalez, the public defender’s chief attorney, said the reported abuse indicates that there is a deeper, ongoing problem within the Sheriff’s Department.
“These acts cannot occur without the implicit acceptance of otherwise law-abiding deputies,” Gonzalez said. “It is impossible for just two or three or even four deputies to commandeer the jail and stage fights without other deputies being aware of it.”
Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, who was at Adachi’s news conference, said he was “extremely disturbed” when Adachi called him about the allegations Thursday morning. The department’s internal affairs unit has begun an investigation and the sheriff is asking the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct an independent investigation into the allegations.
He echoed Gonzalez’s concerns about a culture problem in his department.
“I do not accept any kind of culture within our county jail system that would resort to such barbaric or unlawful activity as these deputies have demonstrated,” he said.
Inmates transferred
Though Harris and Garcia told Adachi they wanted to stay where they were so they could work in the kitchen, Mirkarimi said they had been transferred to another San Francisco jail “for their protection.”
Meanwhile, Police Chief Greg Suhr said he received the report from Adachi and that his department will be investigating to see if there is any criminal wrongdoing.
The allegations “are egregious enough that I forwarded them on (to the special investigations division),” he said.
District Attorney George Gascón called the allegations “deplorable.”
“Common sense indicates that such conduct does not occur without the knowledge of numerous people,” he said in a statement. “These allegations require an independent and thorough investigation into the practices and supervision of the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department.”
'Sick, sick conduct’
The sexual assault lawsuits against Neu were settled out of court, said Adante Pointer, the attorney who represented a female inmate in that case. In addition to the woman, Neu was accused of forcing two transgender inmates to perform sexual acts on him.
“It was sick, sick conduct,” Pointer said. “I am surprised he was even still in the position to be with inmates unsupervised.”
Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: vho@sfchronicle.comTwitter: @VivianHo
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Freedom Archives
Freedom Archives
Action Alert: MORE NUMBERS TO CALL FOR MUMIA
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Dare to Dream
Dare to Dream
I dream of a day for my homeland to be free and in safe hands again
I dream of a day for my birthplace to be released from corrupt hands again
I dream of a day for my motherland to welcome back to its door honor and nobility again
I dream of a day for my Afghanistan to be commemorated as a land that has transformed itself against all odds yet again.
I dream of a day for my homeland to be free and in safe hands again
I dream of a day for my birthplace to be released from corrupt hands again
I dream of a day for my motherland to welcome back to its door honor and nobility again
I dream of a day for my Afghanistan to be commemorated as a land that has transformed itself against all odds yet again.
A land that has fought many evils, yet it still stands all over again.
A territory historically known for its spirited warriors, men and women-- one and the same.
A territory historically known for its spirited warriors, men and women-- one and the same.
In this New day we will embark on with a new weapon,
In one hand knowledge, and a pen in the other
we dream of a new Afghanistan, you and I cooperatively —we will deliver a new dawn to our worn-out nation all over again.
In one hand knowledge, and a pen in the other
we dream of a new Afghanistan, you and I cooperatively —we will deliver a new dawn to our worn-out nation all over again.
I see my dream wide awake—watching
Common people electing leaders based on values rather than a blood line.
Common people electing leaders based on values rather than a blood line.
I see my Afghanistan rising from darkness, breaking traditions ills once again.
Silently,
I carry on my dream of a life for every Afghan, young and old, man and woman, dancing with nature’s tunes, autonomy and equality hand in hand, interdependent working towards one common cause,
Peace entering our homes all over again.
I carry on my dream of a life for every Afghan, young and old, man and woman, dancing with nature’s tunes, autonomy and equality hand in hand, interdependent working towards one common cause,
Peace entering our homes all over again.
Anosha Zereh
The Afghan Mona Lisa
The Afghan Mona Lisa
Dare to dream.
Share your Dream !!!
Share your Dream !!!
People For Schapelle Corby #Time4TRUTH #Icare4innocentSchapelle
The last post discussed the value of marijuana in Indonesia. It presented a real life case from last week, which showed the value of the 4.2 kg marijuana in Schapelle's bag would have been just $388:
https://www.facebook.com/PeopleForSchapelleCorby/photos/a.119032021511601.28637.117859211628882/801421443272652/?type=1&theater
https://www.facebook.com/PeopleForSchapelleCorby/photos/a.119032021511601.28637.117859211628882/801421443272652/?type=1&theater
What about Australia? Well, AFP Commissioner Keelty’s boss, Christopher Ellison, gave an idea in his press release of 4th February 2005, which included a valuation of “Eight kg is 282 oz, with a street value of around $84,600”. That means that the marijuana in Schapelle’s bag would have sold for $44,415 in Australia.
So we have:
Indonesia = $388
Australia = $44,415
Indonesia = $388
Australia = $44,415
We see this in case after case after case. Not only this, but the United Nations conducts its own research, and publishes the results. It backs up every word of this with official data:
http://www.expendable.tv/2011/09/absence-of-motive.html
http://www.expendable.tv/2011/09/absence-of-motive.html
The idea that ANYONE would smuggle over 4kg of marijuana from Australia to Indonesia is absolutely absurd. They don’t.
Schapelle Corby is innocent.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Of course, the media hide this sort of information. They hide the tampering with Schapelle’s bags at Sydney Airport. They hide the suppression of the critical evidence by the AFP and Howard’s ministers. They hide the enormous cache of FOI material published by the Expendable Project, which proves her innocence.
Of course, the media hide this sort of information. They hide the tampering with Schapelle’s bags at Sydney Airport. They hide the suppression of the critical evidence by the AFP and Howard’s ministers. They hide the enormous cache of FOI material published by the Expendable Project, which proves her innocence.
See it for yourself, here:
www.expendable.tv
www.expendable.tv
The politics of corruption:
http://www.expendable.tv/…/background-briefing-business-as-…
http://www.expendable.tv/…/background-briefing-business-as-…
Where all this data comes from:
http://www.expendable.tv/…/source-information-and-primary-e…
http://www.expendable.tv/…/source-information-and-primary-e…
When Torturers Walk
Negative culpability
When Torturers Walk
by JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
Here’s what we learned from the release of the Senate’s report on the CIA’s use of torture: the Agency tortured some people, in the President’s flippant phrase. More than a few people it turns out, though we probably will never know exactly how many. The techniques of torture were brutal, even sadistic. Though, again, the most barbarous measures have been redacted from public disclosure. The CIA learned almost nothing of value from these heinous crimes. More strikingly, the Agency didn’t expect to pry out any fresh intelligence. Instead, what the torturers wanted most desperately was to extract false confessions, writhing accounts of fantastical ties between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, linking Iraq to the 9/11 attacks, that could be used retroactively to justify a phony war. Thus does one crime feast on another.
But here’s the rub. We still know much less than we know about the government’s torture program. And that’s not just because two-thirds of the CIA report remains sequestered at Langley. Why? To protect sources and methods? Hardly. You can find those easily enough in any book on the Spanish Inquisition. The techniques haven’t changed that much in five centuries. Just add a few jolts of electricity.
While the CIA wants to keep the details of its torture methods cloaked in mystery, the agency was very happy to let the fact that it was torturing prisoners of its covert operations slip out. Partly this was intended to send a message to the agency’s enemies, that terrible torments were going to be inflicted on the bodies and minds of anyone would stood in its way: from Jihadis to Edward Snowden, if they could just lay their hands on him.
But, and here’s where the psychology gets a little tricky, the Agency also wanted the existence of its torture program to leak out to the American public, to whet the growing appetite for vengeance and, perhaps, to distract attention from the agency’s record of massive blunders. And, by all accounts, the ploy worked. In the befouled moral consciousness of post-911, a stout majority of Americans, 59 percent in a recent poll, support the CIA’s torture program. Many of those back the use of torture even though they know it is totally ineffective as a means of intelligence gathering. In other words, they crave blood, and virtually any Muslim’s blood will do, regardless of culpability.
The declassified sections of the CIA report provide a grisly glimpse at the torture of 119 prisoners, many of them kidnapped. The agency now admits that at least 27 of those torture victims were absolutely innocent—though it is important to note that none of the others were proved to have committed crimes more serious than the ones committed against them. One of those guiltless men was tortured to death, that is: murdered by his American captors. In another case, the CIA nabbed the wrong guy off of a busy street, then tortured him until his mind snapped. A bystander was killed during this botched operation.
Aside from a few editorial boards and human rights groups, no one seems too distraught by the ghastly revelations, veiled as they are. Perhaps this is a kind of twisted sign of imperial maturity, the country finally coming to terms with its own true character. Only the most gullible seem to cling to the naïve notion that torture is “un-American.” This is, after all, the nation that has happily funded the School of the Americas for decades, where graduate seminars are offered in the finer points of torture and assassination for the butchers of Latin
America.
America.
Still it’s possible to briefly mourn the loss of American innocence. In his 1987 film Full-Metal Jacket, Stanley Kubrick devoted the first half of his film to a harrowing depiction of basic training for Marine recruits at Parris Island. Here the young soldiers are forced to endure a sadistic regime of ridicule, humiliation and abuse, aimed at de-humanizing them, stripping them of basic notions of morality and their capacity for human empathy. This kind of official debasement is what it took to compel young Americans in the late 1960s to torch peasant huts, machine-gun farmers in rice paddies or drop napalm on women and children.
These days that dehumanization process takes place in the lecture halls of Yale, Georgetown and the University of Chicago, where the architects of torture and rendition learn the bureaucratic tools and legalisms of their trade. These are the same species of managerial elites who consult the novels of Charles Dickens in order to learn new ways to punish the poor. Austerity, of course, is a kind of system-wide torture by other means.
We now know no one will be held to account for these egregious acts. There will be no naming of names. No disciplinary actions. No terminations. No prosecutions. Indeed, one of the CIA’s most notorious torturers, an officer who fetishized the waterboard, was promoted to lead the Agency’s “global jihad unit.” This is what John Keats might have described as Negative Culpability, where the perpetrators of some of the most vile crimes in American history simply dissolve into the mist of the system.
The logic of impunity for the torturers doesn’t just let government criminals off the hook; it sanctifies the crimes they committed and enshrines torture as a legitimate mechanism to enforce the American imperial enterprise. There can be no regrets when you aspire to dictate your terms to the rest of the world.
Jeffrey St. Clair is editor of CounterPunch. His new book is Killing Trayvons: an Anthology of American Violence (with JoAnn Wypijewski and Kevin Alexander Gray). He can be reached at: sitka@comcast.net.
Freedom Archives
Free All Political Prisoners!
www.jerichony.org
Victims of the actions of Iain Duncan Smith. DWP. ATOS and the ConDemnation.
Occupy Welfare UK pictures
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Victims of the actions of Iain Duncan Smith. DWP. ATOS and the ConDemnation. Over 10,600 people have died. Yet not many know about these deaths. Since then the figures for deaths are kept a secret and they are refusing Freedom of Information Requests
The people of Woodford Green and Chingford do not know the deaths caused by their MP, Iain Duncan Smith.
This is the result of privatisation. Labour brought in ATOS and the ConDems encouraged them to corporate man slaughter.
The same as Major's government brought in PFI and Blair/ Brown went ballistic with the idea and gave the NHS a £350 billion Odious Debt.
We will keep updating the memes with data and can use all the help we can get.
MP report finds benefit sanctions are starving and killing the jobless, even as a Cabinet man laughs at them over drinks at black tie do.
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-714f-KILLERS-OF-THE-PO…
https://www.facebook.com/carl.green.92102564/posts/442016885963277
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-714f-KILLERS-OF-THE-PO…
https://www.facebook.com/carl.green.92102564/posts/442016885963277
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