What the hell is happening here?

luka

Well-known member
What has been glimpsed in Afghanistan is a radical plan to replace Guantánamo Bay. When that detention centre was set up in January 2002, it was essentially an offshore gulag - beyond the reach of the US constitution and even the Geneva conventions. That all changed in July 2004. The US supreme court ruled that the federal court in Washington had jurisdiction to hear a case that would decide if the Cuban detentions were in violation of the US constitution, its laws or treaties. The military commissions, which had been intended to dispense justice to the prisoners, were in disarray, too. No prosecution cases had been prepared and no defence cases would be readily offered as the US National Association of Criminal Defence Lawyers had described the commissions as unethical, a decision backed by a federal judge who ruled in January that they were "illegal". Guantánamo was suddenly bogged down in domestic lawsuits. It had lost its practicality. So a global prison network built up over the previous three years, beyond the reach of American and European judicial process, immediately began to pick up the slack. The process became explicit last week when the Pentagon announced that half of the 540 or so inmates at Guantánamo are to be transferred to prisons in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia.

Since September 11 2001, one of the US's chief strategies in its "war on terror" has been to imprison anyone considered a suspect on whatever grounds. To that end it commandeered foreign jails, built cellblocks at US military bases and established covert CIA facilities that can be located almost anywhere, from an apartment block to a shipping container. The network has no visible infrastructure - no prison rolls, visitor rosters, staff lists or complaints procedures. Terror suspects are being processed in Afghanistan and in dozens of facilities in Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Egypt, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the British island of Diego Garcia in the southern Indian Ocean. Those detained are held incommunicado, without charge or trial, and frequently shuttled between jails in covert air transports, giving rise to the recently coined US military expression "ghost detainees".

Most of the countries hosting these invisible prisons are already partners in the US coalition. Others, notably Syria, are pragmatic associates, which work privately alongside the CIA and US Special Forces, despite bellicose public statements from President Bush (he has condemned Syria for harbouring terrorism, for aiding the remnants of the Saddam Hussein regime, and most recently has demanded that Syrian troops quit Lebanon).

All the host countries are renowned for their poor human rights records, enabling interrogators (US soldiers, contractors and their local partners) to operate. We have obtained prisoner letters, declassified FBI files, legal depositions, witness statements and testimony from US and UK officials, which document the alleged methods deployed in Afghanistan - shackles, hoods, electrocution, whips, mock executions, sexual humiliation and starvation - and suggest they are practised across the network. Sir Nigel Rodley, a former UN special rapporteur on torture, said, "The more hidden detention practices there are, the more likely that all legal and moral constraints on official behaviour will be removed."
 

rewch

Well-known member
luka said:
this is the most fascinating article i've ever read on the 'war on terror'

utterly fascinating & enormously disturbing... has probably been standard practise for a while but never involving such large numbers... a real indication of the fear of the intelligence agencies concerning their abilities to gather intelligence & their willingness to compromise everything to that end, no matter that that intelligence is necessarily distorted...
 

dominic

Beast of Burden
b/c so few americans speak arabic, and b/c so few arab-americans are in u.s. secret services, the u.s. govt has failed to nfiltrate the terrorist organizations or networks -- they can't get good intelligence -- or at least not enough of it

therefore the u.s. has opted for torture -- which may or may not yield good intelligence, but at least yields something (even if false accusations of others) -- torture is "productive"

who knows? perhaps some of this "intelligence" has proven helpful, as there haven't been any major attacks on u.s. soil since 9/11 -- or perhaps the terrorist threat to america has been grossly exaggerated, which would explain why nothing has happened since -- or perhaps the terrorists are far more patient than the u.s., willing to wait years before executing next operation . . . . again, nobody knows

and as for u.s. govt's willingness to dispense w/ due process, to circumvent the law, to deal w/ prisoners in (geographic) areas outside the law, perhaps this is the first explicit stage of the u.s. ceasing to be a country of laws . . . . if only the dictatorship will prove enlightened when it indeed comes to pass

in the meantime call me mystified
 

bat020

Active member
The Pentagon's "extraordinary renditions" programme of shipping "terror suspects" off to torture camps was highlighted earlier this month at the extradition hearing of Babar Ahmad, the south London IT worker currently facing extradition to the US on bogus terrorism charges.

Babar's defence is arguing that he risks being transferred to military custody if he is handed over to US authorities. The prosecution have conceded that if such a risk exists it would be arguable that an extradition would violate his human rights. The hearing restarts on 18 April in Bow Street magistrates court in London.

See here for more details on the case.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
A little less utter credulity regarding testimony of those captured (on the part of you lot) need not be divorced from codemnation of panic measures (or otherwise) that undermine civil liberty, law, justice, and, say, natural right.

And may I suggest, as well, reading Giorgio Agamben's State of Exception.

I think it's being a little hard on the US intelligence community (leaving aside their dismal track record in recent years, which itself serves to discredit the nefarious deeds attributed to them) expecting them to infilterate al-Qaeda or any of its affiliates - or even recruit any number of informers - just regarding the nature of the foe for even a moment.

It seems that the terrorits threat to America has been seriously hampered by America's rather active reponse to 9/11 - no?

Although it's not as if "they've" been quiet since then.
 

sufi

lala
abderezzak el-para - where is he now?

hi all, anyone been following the story of Amari Saïfi aka abdelrezzak 'el para'? it's a rip-roaring romp by all accounts, involving kidnapped tourists, spy-planes, rebel groups... neatly documented at damntheman
0712chad100.jpg
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RnzafOrionThumbnail.jpg

the ex-algerian army paratrooper was last heard of in the hands of an obscure malian rebel group, having ransomed a group of tourists for an enormous sum from the german govt, with which he purchased a small but well-equipped militia before being chased 1/2 way across the sahara by a succession of US proxy states, the rebel group who eventually caught him seemed to be unable to get any western power to agree about extradition procedure so he was last heard of somewhere in the sahara.

the way the states is prosecuting TWOT is really quite impressive in this case for it's scope and disregard for norms of international law... there is a new base in djibuti with an impressive army specifically for TWOT activities, i saw on CNN yesterday that they've just berthed some gurt naval ship in Massawa in neighbouring warmongering eritrea. i digress :rolleyes:

so... anyone heard anything of el-para since 2004 ? or has abdelrezzak also now 'disappeared'??
 

luka

Well-known member
my mates says...
'
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yeah, some of this article was lifted word for word
out of an amnesty report on afghanistan - i helped
work on!
its fucked. I worked on a case of a man arrested in
macedonia while travelling to Germany, held in a hotel
by US agents and tortured, then shipped off to
afghanistan and held with out charge for months. He's
sueing, but who does he sue? the us, macedonia
authorities or Afghan, and who?

Also the article doesn't properly explain the pull out
of medicin sans frontiers - a ngo that worked in
afghanistan all through the civil war and the taliban
regime but pulled out now its supposed to be
liberated? The US were dropping leaflets connecting
aid ngos with the cooperation with the us army i.e. if
you don't help us, ngo's won't help you. Which is a
lie. But after that aid agencies started to targetted
by insurgents. Also the us has taken to moving around
in humvees painted like ngo transport thus blurring
the distinction between them.

not to mention all the other fucked up things
happening in afghanistan that is surported by the us.
But thats another story.'

as for you craner
A little less utter credulity regarding testimony of those involved in the invasion of iraq need not be divorced from your idolisation of christiopher hitchens. hehehe
 
O

Omaar

Guest
thanks luka, that was real interesting. I've read disparate things about the unmarked black jets, torture camps etc but that article really puts things in perspective.

latest on this that I've read:

"BRADENTON, Fla. -- Phillip H. Morse, a minority partner of the Boston Red Sox, confirmed yesterday that his private jet has been chartered to the CIA and said he was aware that it had been flown to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where more than 500 terrorism suspects are held, as well as other overseas destinations.

''It's chartered a lot," Morse said by phone from his winter home in Jupiter, Fla. ''It just so happens one of our customers is the CIA.

''I was glad to have the business, actually. I hope it was all for a real good purpose."

''When it's chartered, it never has the logo of the Red Sox on it," Morse said. ''They cover it up."

Asked if he would stop allowing the CIA to use his plane if he determines it has been involved in renditions, Morse said: ''Sure, sure, but . . . I don't know how you go about checking that.""

Full Article
 

Yuri

Active member
You'll also note in that article about the plane:
According to FAA records, the Gulfstream's owner is not Richmor but Assembly Point Aviation, a company with an address in Albany, N.Y., but no telephone number. Dun & Bradstreet describes Assembly Point as a "religious organization" that is somehow involved with "churches, temples and shrines."

When W ran to congress about Terry Schiavo, to use this case as a political football, I thought I would point out the obvious hypocrisy displayed when one looks at his record of executions as governor of Texas, including the unseemly mocking of Karla Faye Tucker. Then he let the notorious Henry Lee Lucas go.

I'm almost sorry I looked:

http://www.whale.to/b/henry.html
 

sufi

lala
https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/885

Put Babar Ahmad on trial in the UK
Babar Ahmad is a British Citizen who has been detained in the UK for 7 years without trial fighting extradition to the USA under the controversial no-evidence-required Extradition Act 2003. In June 2011, the Houses of Parliament, Joint Committee on Human Rights urged the UK government to change the law so that Babar Ahmad’s perpetual threat of extradition is ended without further delay. Since all of the allegations against Babar Ahmad are said to have taken place in the UK, we call upon the British Government to put him on trial in the UK and support British Justice for British Citizens.

9 days to reach 100,000 signatures, nearly there, pass it on
 

sufi

lala
Put Babar Ahmad on trial in the UK

Responsible department: Home Office

Babar Ahmad is a British Citizen who has been detained in the UK for 7 years without trial fighting extradition to the USA under the controversial no-evidence-required Extradition Act 2003. In June 2011, the Houses of Parliament, Joint Committee on Human Rights urged the UK government to change the law so that Babar Ahmad’s perpetual threat of extradition is ended without further delay. Since all of the allegations against Babar Ahmad are said to have taken place in the UK, we call upon the British Government to put him on trial in the UK and support British Justice for British Citizens.

Sign this petition
Number of signatures:
99,478
Created by:
Ashfaq Ahmad
Closing:
10/11/2011
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/885
nice one, that's about 30,000 since last night
(& fuck migrationwatch & the bnp)
 
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