Dilawar ist in seinem Taxi unterwegs, als ihn afghanische Soldaten aufgreifen und an US-Soldaten übergeben. Er habe etwas mit einem Raketenangriff zu tun. Fünf Tage später stirbt Dilawar in seiner Gefängniszelle in Bagram. – Der oscarprämierte Dokumentarfilm geht Dilwars Schicksal nach und deckt auf, wie tief die US-Regierung in die Vorgänge in den Gefängnissen im Irak und Afghanistan verstrickt ist.

(10.06.2010) Untersuchungsbericht von “Ärzte für Menschenrechte” zu den menschenverachtenden Verhalten der beteiligten Ärzte bei Foltermethoden durch die CIA

What You Need to Know ..

(10. Mai 2009) The prisoners had their feet shackled to the floor and their hands cuffed close to their chins, according to the Justice Department memos.

Detainees were clad only in diapers and not allowed to feed themselves. A prisoner who started to drift off to sleep would tilt over and be caught by his chains.

The memos said that more than 25 of the CIA‘s prisoners were subjected to sleep deprivation. At one point, the agency was allowed to keep prisoners awake for as long as 11 days; the limit was later reduced to just over a week.

(12. März 2014)

Nicht in einem einzigen der 20 vom Stab des Geheimdienstausschusses untersuchten Fälle waren unter der Folter herausgepresste Informationen militärisch, polizeilich oder nachrichtendienstlich verwertbar.
Im Gegenteil: Zumindest in einem Fall wurden den Folterknechten der CIA Lügen aufgetischt. Und viele der Informationen waren bereits anderweitig verfügbar. Offenbar versuchten es die CIA-Mitarbeiter zuweilen nicht einmal mit gewöhnlichen Verhörmethoden: Man folterte von Beginn – und log später über die Wirksamkeit der Praktiken.

It was not a liberal Democrat, but rather a retired general, Dwight Eisenhower, who counseled the American people to always remember that “only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”

(28. März 2011) In another exclusive report for Truthout, my friends and colleagues Jason Leopold and Jeff Kaye continue to shine an unerring light on the Bush administration’s torture program (see previous examples here and here), this time focusing on the role played by Bruce Jessen, the Air Force psychologist, who, with his colleague James Mitchell, established the torture program used in the “War on Terror.”

( 22 March 2011) the handwritten notes obtained exclusively by Truthout drafted two decades ago by Dr. John Bruce Jessen, the psychologist who was under contract to the CIA and credited as being one of the architects of the government’s top-secret torture program, tell a dramatically different story about the reasons detainees were brutalized and it was not just about obtaining intelligence.

Rather, as Jessen’s notes explain, torture was used to “exploit” detainees, that is, to break them down physically and mentally, in order to get them to “collaborate” with government authorities.

(18. April 2014) Dr James Elmer Mitchell has been called a war criminal and a torturer. He has been the subject of an ethics complaint, and his methods have been criticized in reports by two congressional committees and by the CIA‘s internal watchdog.

But the retired air force psychologist insists he is not the monster many have portrayed him to be.

…

…

#CIA #BND

(12. März 2014) Seit (mindestens) 2002 hat die C.I.A. weltweit mit den entsprechenden Kollaborateuren in Ländern auf allen Kontinenten ihre Folterkeller und Kerker installliert und eine unbekannte Anzahl von Menschen ermordet, verstümmelt, gefoltert, zerstört. Der Geheimdienst-Ausschuss des Senats erfuhr, so Feinstein, davon im September 2006 – durch die C.I.A. selbst, natürlich, namentlich den damaligen leitenden C.I.A.-Direktor Michael Hayden, vorher Leiter der National Security Agency (N.S.A.) von 1999 bis 2005, also während des Kriegsausbruchs am 11. September 2001.

Als Dianne Feinstein – in etwa vergleichbar mit dem Lorbeerkranz, der reihum wechselnden Cäsaren aufgesetzt wird – dann also im September 2006 von denjenigen die sie “kontrolliert” erfährt was sie seit (mindestens) 4 Jahren hätte wissen müssen, passiert wieder über ein Jahr lang nichts.

Dann liest Senatorin Feinstein Ende 2007 die Zeitung. Dort steht, dass Aufzeichnungen über das “Gefangennahme und Verhör”-Programm (“Detention and Interrogation Program”) der C.I.A. vernichtet wurden. Da fragt Senatorin Feinstein dann C.I.A.-Direktor Hayden. ob das denn alles in Ordnung sei. Der sagt, jaja.

Wieder vergeht über ein Jahr…

…

Sen. Dianne Feinstein speaks on the Senate floor about major findings in the CIA‘s Bush-era interrogation program.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein comments on the release of a Senate report on Bush-era interrogation techniques. CNN‘s Dana Bash reports.

An exhaustive, five-year Senate investigation of the CIA’s secret interrogations of terrorism suspects renders a strikingly bleak verdict of a program launched in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, describing levels of brutality, dishonesty and seemingly arbitrary violence that at times brought even agency employees to moments of anguish.

The Untied Nations General Assembly declared Dec. 10 to be Human Rights Day in 1950, the day on which the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted.

The day continues to be commemorated as, globally, the worldwide human rights mission is far from complete.

In light of this, perhaps the U.S. government should clean up its own backyard first and respect the rights of other countries to resolve their issues by themselves.

Approved December 13,2012
Updated for Release April 3, 2014
Declassifications Revisions December 3, Ml4

I have not been a fan of boycotts in the past, so why did I change my mind?

The Gaza war in June and the continuing settlement finally made me reconsider. All the hand wringing over the Palestinians and pronouncements critical of Israel and its policies were doing absolutely no good. I spoke to a number of colleagues and friends, two of them Israeli, and two of them not (no Palestinians I regret to say) about the pros and cons of the proposed boycott, and after contemplating what they said for several weeks, I finally decided to sign.