Showing posts with label Torture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Torture. Show all posts

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Waterboarding "a ticking time bomb" is NOT torture

January 08, 2015 ABC News , AP 0 Comments
Feinstein Urges Changes To Avoid Repeat Of CIA Torture

Ken Dilanian, Jan. 5, 2015, AP

Feinstein said she will introduce legislation in the upcoming Congress to codify Obama's executive order banning torture and prohibiting the CIA from detaining prisoners.

Her office said she introduced similar legislation in 2009, but then began to focus on the investigation and wanted to wait for its outcome before pressing for changes.

"We didn't know then that the study would not be completed until the end of 2014, so we went down the track of the investigation with the idea that recommendations would follow from what we found," her top intelligence aide, David Grannis, said in an email.

Read more: abcnews.go.com

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Sunday, January 4, 2015

the "facts" seem to depend on where you stand

January 04, 2015 CIA , Contra Costa Times 1 Comments
What The Report On Terror Got Right And What It Got Wrong

Rebecca Gordon, Jan. 2, 2015, Contra Costa Times

It doesn't matter whether torture worked. Torture is illegal under U.S. and international law, and it is a moral abomination. The framers of the United Nations Convention Against Torture -- which this country ratified in 1994 -- knew that people (and nations) tend to forget their promises when they are afraid. That's why it includes these words: "No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture."

Read more: www.contracostatimes.com

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Sunday, December 14, 2014

What about wrapping really hard on the knuckles?

December 14, 2014 British military , England 0 Comments
Don't Yell At Terrorist Suspects, Soldiers Told

Robert Mendick and Tim Ross, Dec. 13, 2014, The Telegraph

The rules on interrogation are contained in a Court of Appeal judgment handed down in the summer and obtained by The Sunday Telegraph. The policy was introduced two years ago after outrage over the death of Mr Mousa, an innocent Iraqi civilian who was beaten to death while in British custody in Basra in 2003. An inquiry into his death, published in 2011, disclosed that he had been subjected to sustained and gratuitous beatings by soldiers from 1st Battalion the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment.

Read more: www.telegraph.co.uk


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Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Hard to blame Bush nowadays

December 10, 2014 Bloomberg View , CIA 0 Comments
CIA Torture Report: Bush Was Kept In The Dark for Years

Josh Rogin and Eli Lake, Dec. 9, 2014, Bloomberg View

The White House also resisted CIA efforts to brief other cabinet officials in the beginning stages of the program, Senate Democratic aides said. The CIA acting general counsel at the time, John Rizzo, wrote in an internal agency e-mail that the White House had told the CIA not to brief cabinet officials in 2002 because they feared press leaks, but Rizzo said the White House’s clear implication was that if Secretary of State Colin Powell were aware of the details, “he would blow his stack.”

Read more: www.bloombergview.com

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Monday, November 10, 2014

A Heroic Combat US Marine, Sgt Andrew Tahmooressi, USMC Speaks Out

November 10, 2014 al Qaeda , Benghazi 1 Comments
By Joseph R. John, USNA ‘62, Capt USN(Ret), Nov. 7, 2014, Chairman, Combat Veterans For Congress PAC
 
If you watched Sgt Andrew Tahmooressi, USMC interview with Greta Van Sustran, no matter how tough you are, it will break your heart. Sgt Tahmooressi is a “Heroic” US Marine, with two Combat Tours of Duty in Afghanistan. He and his fellow Marines had been fighting for every American. Sgt Tahmooressi was moving back to San Diego so he could be treated for PTSD at the San Diego VA Hospital; all his belongings were in his truck including his 3 weapons.

Sgt Tahmooressi made an “INNOCENT MISTAKE” and took a wrong turn at night in San Diego where there were no lighted signs, and he ended up in Mexico. He explained to the Mexican Border Guards that he made a wrong turn, explained he had all his personal belongings, including 3 weapons in the back of his truck, and asked for directions back to San Diego. Sgt Tahmooressi was then manhandled Mexican police, and was subsequently incarcerated for 214 days by the Mexican Federal Government, a government with double standards. The Mexican Government has been encouraging thousands of illegal aliens to “INTENTIONALLY” violate US Federal Immigration Laws, and has supported over 20 million illegal aliens to “INTENTIONALLY” cross the wide open southern border “by foot”; the Mexican government continues to promote the violation of US Immigration Laws because, for the last 6 years, they’ve received a wink and a nod from Obama who by his policies of preventing ICE from deporting illegal aliens, approves and encourages illegal aliens to cross illegally into the US.

Jill Tahmooressi mother of Sgt Andrew Tahmooressi calls on Mexican authorities to free her son.

Yet when just “ONE” Heroic US Marine makes an “INNOCENT MISTAKE” by crossing the Mexican border at San Diego, openly driving in his truck at night with headlights on, not by sneaking into Mexico on foot, like millions of Mexican illegal aliens cross into the US every year. The mistaken entry occurred because of poor signage on the San Diego side of the border, that eventually resulted in Sgt Tahmooressi being put in Mexican prisons where he was mentally abused and tortured by Mexican Prison Guards while still suffering from PTSD (I made the same innocent mistake during daylight hours while in San Diego near the Mexican border, like Sgt Tahmooressi made in his innocent mistake at night when he crossed the Mexican border; when I showed the US Border Patrol my Federal Law Enforcement Officer’s badge and asked to be allowed to turn around at the border, they told me I would have to continue south, there wasn’t any place for them , so I had to continue into Mexico to be able turn around and head back into the US). Recently, because of what happened to Sgt Tahmooressi, the State of California, corrected the signage, modified the entry roads at the border to allow a turn around, in order to prevent others from doing what Sgt Tahmooressi and I did----when we “INNOCENTLY MISTAKENLY” entered Mexico.

The torturous incarceration and mental abuse that followed for Sgt Tahmooressi over a 7 month period was unconscionable. He suffered consistent beatings by Mexican Prison Guards with sticks and their hands, was forced to his knees facing the wall, was forced to face abuse and threats from Mexican criminals in jails with him who said there was hiring a “hit man” who would kill him (those abusive threats continued for 214 days), he was stripped naked & forced to stand thru the night, forces to remain in his cell naked with no blankets at night to keep him warm, was handcuffed by his legs and wrists in a 4 point restraint without the ability to properly go to the bathroom, Mexican Prison Guards laughed at Sgt Tahmooressi’s attempts to relieve himself while handcuffed by his wrist and leg, those Mexican Prison Guards beating him and laughing at him had less of an IQ than Sgt Tahmooressi. For Obama to allow those mental abuses and those torturous practices to be visited upon a heroic Combat US Marine by the Mexican Government is disgusting. What would the Mexican Government do if the US immigration Service tortured even one of the millions of Illegal aliens in the US like Sgt Tahmooressi was tortured?

The occupant of the Oval Office did nothing to help a “Heroic” Combat US Marine while he was being mentally abused, threatened, and tortured for 214 days, even when the US Consul in Mexico knew Sgt Tahmooressi was suffering from PTSD as a result of his Combat service in defense of the Republic. The Obama administration was informed by the US Consul in Mexico, that out of desperation and in an attempt to escape the torturous incarceration, Sgt Tahmooressi tried to escape from prison. The US Consul was also informed the Obama administration that three days after his escape from prison failed, in order to escape the continued torture and mental abuse, Sgt Tahmooressi tried to commit suicide by cutting his neck with broken florescent light bulb, and that he nearly bled to death. Yet Obama did absolutely nothing; finally just before the election, a judge in a Mexican Court released Sgt Tahmooressi, because Mexico had no way to treat PTSD. Anyone who watched the interview by Greta Van Sustran of Sgt Tahmooressi, in the first 10 minutes into it, would have been aware that the US Marine is obviously suffering from PTSD---the US Consul must had determined that 214 days ago, and would have relayed that to the Obama administration.

The same occupant of the Oval Office who not only refused to help a US Marine for over 7 months, also refused to execute “Cross Border Authority” during the Battle of Benghazi, so the Pentagon was unable to dispatch fighter aircraft that were only 2 hours away in Sigonella Italy. American personnel on the ground in Benghazi, under attack by over 125 Al Q’ieda terrorists for 8 hours pleated for military re-enforcements, yet Obama still refused for 8 hours to issue “Cross Border Authority,” so the Pentagon was never able to dispatch a US Marine rescue mission that was on the tarmac in Europe and ready to go, resulting in 2 US Navy SEALs being murdered by Al Q’ieda terrorists (the US Ambassador had been captured & murdered, and a Communications Specialist had been murdered by Al Q’ieda terrorists during the first hour of the attack). If you are a US Marine or a US Navy SEAL don’t expect the occupant in the Oval Office to help you, if you get in trouble

During the same 7 months period that Sgt Tahmooressi was in a cage in a Mexican prison, Obama exchanged a soldier who deserted in the face of the enemy in Afghanistan, where Sgt Tahmooressi served heroically, for 5 of the most dangerous terrorists incarcerated in Gitmo; that traitorous deserting soldier remained with the enemy for 5 years, while Sgt Tahmooressi returned to Afghanistan to serve a second combat tour of duty. Those 5 dangerous terrorist are now in support of ISIL’s fight in Iraq, along with other Al Q’ieda terrorists Obama released from Gitmo. We also received unconfirmed reports that the Obama administration paid the Taliban a substantial sum of money, as a ransom payment, for releasing of that dishonorable “Army Deserter” Any Army Deserter who deserts his unit in the face of the enemy, should be either jailed or executed.

What would President Ronald Reagan have done, on his watch, if a US Marine with PTSD was improperly incarcerated for over 7 months, was mentally abused, and was tortured by the Mexican Prison Guards---would he have picked up the phone and called the Mexican President, and convinced him to release the US Marine? . The nation and 23 million US military Veterans were shamed by the way the occupant of the Oval Office allowed an Honorable Combat US Marine with PTSD who made an “INNOCENT MISTAKE” and was locked up in a cage in a Mexican Prison for 7 months, was tortured, and was mentally abused while he twisted in the wind because of his abandonment by the occupant in the Oval Office.

The Combat Veterans For Congress Honor Sgt Andrew Tahmooressi, USMC for his service in defense of the Republic, we---all US Marines--& all Americans are so very proud of Sgt Tahmooressi for how he courageously faced his horrible torturous incarceration in a Mexican prison, and trust his mental abuse at the hands of Mexican Prison Guards and his PTSD suffered from two combat tours of duty in Afghanistan will finally receive proper medical attention & treatment in a US Hospital. Semper Fi.

For more visit:  www.combatveteransforcongress.org


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