Showing posts with label torture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label torture. Show all posts

November 2, 2011

Assange Loses Swedish Extradition Appeal

Details here.

The Swedish extradition effort is based on allegations of sexual misconduct by two women who do not want to press charges and after the first Swedish investigation concluded that the case should be dropped.

It's generally believed that Sweden will hand Assange over to the U.S.

Neither Assange nor Wikileaks has yet been charged with violating any law of any nation. Assange is being extradited for "questioning" by Swedish authorities.

Before leaving Sweden for London, he'd lingered in Sweden for two months in case they wanted to talk with him further. After arriving in London, he offered repeatedly to speak to Swedish authorities there.

Wikileaks has ceased operations due to financial strangulation by Bank of America, Mastercard, PayPal, and other companies, which have been refusing to process donations to WL (more here).

Meanwhile, Bradly Manning has now been jailed for 525 days (see Bradley Manning Support Network), with no trial in sight.

April 29, 2011

July 5, 2009

Innocent Detainee Sues to Prevent Destruction of Evidence He Was Tortured

Former Guantánamo detainee Binyam Mohamed has launched an urgent legal attempt to prevent the US courts from destroying crucial evidence that he says proves he was abused while being held at the detention camp . . . .

The image, now held by the Pentagon, had been put on his cell door . . . . because he had been beaten so badly that it was difficult for the guards to identify him.

. . . . The photograph will be destroyed within 30 days of his case being dismissed by the American courts – a decision on which is due to be taken by a judge imminently . . . .

[Mohamed] says he needs the image as a crucial piece of evidence to fight his case against US authorities for unlawful incarceration and abuse. "That is one piece of physical evidence that I know exists of my abuse," he says in the statement . . . .

After being kicked and punched, he says his guards . . . . "slammed me and my Qur'an into the fence." After he objected, he says, they "slammed me into the fence again. . . . They then strapped me into a restraint chair and cut off half my beard. They then performed the humiliating 'anal cavity search', although it was painfully obvious that there was nothing to find." . . . at one point he screamed and . . . this "made them redouble their efforts and my situation got worse."

He adds: "One [military guard] took the heel of my hand and pushed my nose up violently. One soldier pulled on my jaw. They slammed my forehead down on the concrete floor. One grabbed my testicles and punched me."
More at the UK Guardian.

September 3, 2008

Naomi Klein Responds to Attacks on her "Shock Doctrine"

Hm, this link disappeared; but I encourage you to search Naomi Klein and read it all. Here's something to get you going.

September 17, 2007

Naomi Klein on Disaster Capitalism:



. . . how conservatives have used "shock" as a political tool. Some years ago, researchers posited that one psychological effect of torture is that it makes people regress; they become disoriented and less able to protect their own interests. Klein says conservatives seem to have taken the lesson and have created or exploited various "shocks" or crises to advance an agenda of privatization and unfettered capitalism.

Lots of interesting ideas. Don't forget to go rate it up on YouTube.