Saturday, March 04, 2006

Europe knew: 4 proofs of complicity in CIA torture flights  

FPF-fwd.: from Hallmark_cl@earthlink.net

THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE MARCH 1, 2006 RELEASED ITS REPORT ON COUNTRIES' SAFEGUARDS AGAINST CIA KIDNAPPING, TORTURE, AND PRISONS IN EUROPE. IT SAYS THE SAFEGUARDS AREN'T ADEQUATE.

MY REPORT GOES THEM ONE BETTER. BELOW ARE FOUR PIECES OF PHOTO EVIDENCE.

The US and European governments (even in their reports to the COE) dare to deny this smoking-gun photo evidence that:

1.--The CIA has been sneaking its prisoners in and out of Europe on cargo transport planes.

2.--CIA and foreign spy agencies work out of the same office (CTIC) in 31 countries.

3.--USA and European Union have an agreement for torture flights. Here is last copy left on the Web.

4.--Here are key passages of USA - EU torture pact. Here's how to download the rest. Public needs this information.

NEWS WRITERS NEED THIS INFORMATION. INVESTIGATORS NEED IT.

By Hallmark_cl@earthlink.net

The complete report of the COE of March 1, 2006, is at: http://www.coe.int/T/E/Com/Files/Events/2006-cia/ . Reports from individual countries are linked there as well. Basically the reports go: " See no evil, hear no evil. Don't search the planes, don't even ask if they hold prisoners. And speak no evil to the COE or any other investigators. " It's a European whitewash worthy of U.S. Sen. Pat " Coverup " Roberts' intelligence committee.

PHOTO 1 -- PRISONERS ON CIA / US ARMY TORTURE FLIGHT

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d70/GDoole01/CIA_Cargo_Plane_Captioned.jpg
The US says the planes carry " embassy cargo. " European governments pretend to believe them -- and never inspect the planes. But, " Who you gonna believe, them or your lying eyes? " Just look at the photograph. See your flag? See your Stars and Stripes, Old Glory? See the MPs? See the prisoners? All of them (prisoners) are INNOCENT! Innocent until proven guilty, remember? They haven't even been legally arrested. What you see here, though, IS crime in progress. Kidnapping. Torture.

GRAPHIC 2 -- LIST OF COUNTRIES WHERE CIA / FOREIGN SPIES SHARE AN OFFICE

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d70/GDoole01/CIA_CTIC_GERMAN.jpg

The list shows the 31 countries where the CIA shares an office (CTIC, Counterterrorist Intelligence Center) with the foreign spy agency. Notice that the European countries on the list include the origination points of rendition (kidnap for torture) flights. The North African and Middle East countries include the destination countries, which the US admits practice torture. The CIA pays the bills for the joint offices. Top officials of the countries -- prime ministers and presidents -- have agreed to the CTICs. http://www.refdag.nl/artikel/1238465/CIA%20spil%20van%20groot%20antiterreurnetwerk.html The CIA's Director of the National Clandestine Center (aka Deputy Director of Operations, DDO), Jose Rodriguez, made his name setting these up.

GRAPHICS 3 AND 4 -- AGREEMENT BETWEEN US AND EU FOR TORTURE FLIGHTS

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d70/GDoole01/CIA_EU_US_TorturePact_Highlights.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d70/GDoole01/CIA_EU_US_Rendition_Pact_Crop10.jpg

The US and the European Union signed an agreement on 22 Jan. 2003 that provides further evidence of EU cooperation with CIA torture flights and prisons. I know of only one unedited version of this on the Web. I have saved it and show you how to download it. (Save it to disk, then open it with Adobe Reader.) http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=35352 Less than a month after the agreement, the CIA pulled the infamous Abu Omar rendition in Italy. There is no way the Italian secret service SISMI didn't know in advance, since it shares a CTIC office with the CIA. There is no way Prime Minister Berlusconi didn't know in advance, since his government approved both the Italian CTIC and the EU agreement. BREAKING...The Agreement now is posted at another site: http://www.declarepeace.org.uk/captain/murder_inc/site/texts/rendition.pdf

MORE ON PHOTO 1 (CARGO PLANE) AND COUNCIL OF EUROPE REPORT

http://www.coe.int/T/E/Com/Files/Events/2006-cia/Germany.pdf The link is to the German response to the COE. One passage from Germany says: " The competent Federal Police authorities therefore ensure that, for all transit operations accompanied by foreign officials, the citizen from the third state and the police officers accompanying him or her are met at the border and accompanied by members of the Federal Police until they leave the country. "

That means that if the cargo plane shown landed in Germany carrying a Muslim prisoner from Afghanistan (the " third state " ) enroute to the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the German Federal Police would accompany the US military policemen ( " foreign officials " ) in the photos. The German police would have seen what you see in the photo. This is not a humane way to accomplish " transit. "

Why don't the police in Germany and other countries just board the planes and see if they see what you see here? Why don't they make sure that human rights safeguards they assure COE are being met actually are met? Here's what Europe needs to do before granting landing permission:

REQUEST TO INSPECT THE PLANE UPON LANDING AND THEN DO IT!

THE FINNISH DEFENSE MINISTRY WILL BELIEVE ANYTHING

The following is an example of what investigators like the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, the British Parliament, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, CIA victims' lawyers in the US and Europe, and others are up against.

A US plane, N8213G, a Lockheed L100-30, serial number 5055 (SEE ACCOMPANYING TABLE), landed at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport in May 16, 2003. This large cargo plane, which was emblazoned with the name "Prescott*," may even be the one in the photograph. It is the civilian version of the huge C-130 Hercules military transport.

Asked to investigate, the Finnish defense ministry confirmed that such a plane landed in Finland on May 16, 2003. It was just on a cargo flight, they explained. In a statement issued Nov. 19, 2005, they averred: " No available information suggests that the aircraft in question would have been used to transport prisoners. "

CARGO PLANES CAN CARRY ONLY CARGO, RIGHT?

Well the photo in this article is " available information. " Cargo aircraft are indeed used by to transport CIA prisoners, and not under the most humane conditions, the photo shows.

Now, what information was the defense ministry going on? It seems that the plane's owner, the US " company " Prescott Support, made a request for landing at Helsinki-Vantaa and that the Civil Aviation Administration (Finland's version of the FAA) had received the request on April 23, 2003. Since the application said the plane would be used to carry " embassy cargo, " the CAA referred it to the ever-credulous defense ministry, which granted landing permission.

THAT'S IT. PRESCOTT SUPPORT (AN UNTRACEABLE, NONEXISTENT COMPANY) SAID SO, SO IT MUST BE SO. HOW COULD A PHONY COMPANY LIE?

" WE DO NOT TORTURE, " PRESIDENT BUSH DECLARED DURING A PRESS CONFERENCE IN PANAMA IN NOV. 2005. YES, AND AS PRESIDENT NIXON FAMOUSLY SAID, " YOUR PRESIDENT IS NOT A CROOK. "

Condoleeza Rice also claims the US doesn't torture. Before Ms. Rice left the US last December to establish a relationship with the new female Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, and to put out some fires in Europe over rendition (kidnapping) and secret-prison allegations against the CIA, Ms. Rice admitted that terror suspects were flown abroad for interrogation but denied they were tortured. She said suspects were moved by plane under a process known as rendition, and she called this " a lawful weapon. "

CONDOLEEZA, MINISTER'S DAUGHTER AND GENIUS THAT YOU ARE, DOES THE PROCESS IN THE PHOTO LOOK TO YOU LIKE A " LAWFUL WEAPON " TO BE USED BY AN HONORABLE NATION UNDER AN HONORABLE FLAG?

CLIP-AND-SAVE LIST OF CIA PLANES http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d70/GDoole01/CIA_NEWLIST_2_23.jpg

The table (click here: http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d70/GDoole01/CIA_NEWLIST_2_23.jpg ) will prove useful in following (or even writing) news stories about CIA renditions and flights. And there *will* be headline stories and lead stories on TV news.

The table shows the planes the CIA might use to transport prisoners. Some are executive jets -- Learjets and Gulfstreams -- like corporate America uses. Some are large transport planes like the military uses for cargo. As the photo shows, any of them might be used to carry prisoners. ALL OF THEM MUST BE CONSIDERED SUSPECTS.

Planes marked with an " r " are known rendition planes. Most of the rendition planes have not been identified yet, because government ministries like the Finnish defense ministry are covering up or disinterested and the US uses subterfuges like flying the prisoners in cargo planes. More rendition planes will be identified as public awareness grows and as investigations, lawsuits, and prosecutions proceed.

There are 51 different planes in the table but 57 N-numbers (FAA registration numbers, or tail numbers). Thus some planes have duplicate numbers. This is because of the CIA practice of moving a plane to another shell company once it becomes known to the public. You are not supposed to know how people are transported to torture.

THE CIA BUYS AND SELLS PLANES THROUGH THE FRONTS

There are 26 planes operated by 8 known CIA front companies ( " air proprietaries " ). The number of planes varies from time to time. The front companies are marked with asterisks (*) at the end. The list is as up to date and complete as practicable. Planes are moved from one front to another in a kind of shell game. The CIA buys and sells planes through the fronts and occasionally creates and deletes fronts. Some of the leasing companies in the list, like ALAMEDA Corp. (which owns former US Marshals Service prison plane N822US), might be CIA front companies that have not been identified yet. (The real cover was not Brewster Jennings but was Burke Dennehy and Paul Jennings.)

Another 10 of the planes are registered to Blackwater USA of Moyock, NC, the famous mercenary (soldiers of fortune) company. This company is an important contractor for the CIA and the US military, providing personnel and training as well as aviation services. It provides aviation services through its subsidiaries, Aviation Worldwide Services and Presidential Airways. (The latter is not to be confused with Presidential Aviation, an aircraft-leasing company owned by the super-rich Mark J. Gordon, who sold his telemarketing company for over $600 million.)

THE 26 CIA-FRONT PLANES AND 10 BLACKWATER PLANES ARE CIA FREQUENT FLIERS.

The other 15 planes in the list (26 + 10 + 15 = 51 planes, total) represent occasional leases from companies like Gordon's. For example, N85VM is leased out by Richmor Aviation and is hangared in Schenectady, NY. This plane was used in the rendition to Egypt of militant cleric Abu Omar from Milan, Italy, in 2003. The 22 CIA abductors soon might be tried there in absentia. The plane is owned by Assembly Point Aviation.

That in turn is owned by Phillip H. Morse, a Jupiter, FL, inventor/businessman who also made hundreds of millions on the sale of a business (NAMIC USA [cardiac catheters] of Glen Falls, NY) and who co-owns the Boston Red Sox. Asked about his plane's use to fly prisoners to Guantanamo Bay, Morse said, ''It just so happens one of our customers is the CIA. I was glad to have the business. " http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11988

THE RICH WORK FOR THE CIA BECAUSE THE CIA WORKS FOR THEM.

THE FRONT-ORGANIZATION (FO) COMPANIES

THE EIGHT CIA SHELL COMPANIES THOUGHT TO BE EXTANT ARE:

AVIATION SPECIALTIES, INC.
BAYARD FOREIGN MARKETING, LLC.
CROWELL AVIATION TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
DEVON HOLDING AND LEASING, INC.
KEELER & TATE MANAGEMENT, LLC
PATH CORPORATION
RAPID AIR TRANS, INC./RAPID AIR TRANSPORT, INC.
STEVENS EXPRESS LEASING, INC.
Some of the numbers in the list formerly were registered to a ninth company, PREMIER EXECUTIVE TRANSPORT SERVICES, INC. Its planes have been moved to other companies in the shell game.
THE OPERATING COMPANIES
AERO CONTRACTORS, LTD. (NORTH CAROLINA)

The operation of the front-company (CIA-owned) planes is the job of a company called Aero Contractors Ltd, founded by a former CIA pilot. Aero Contractors operates all but one of these out of the Johnston County Airport in Smithfield, NC. The Boeing 737, N4476S (formerly N313P), operates out of the Kinston Regional Jetport in Kinston, NC. Both locations have been recent targets of anti-torture protests.

The mailing address and phone number given for the 737's front (Keeler & Tate), by the way, belong to the law office of former US Senator Paul Laxalt of Nevada, once called the " First Friend " for his relationship with President Reagan.

The US Air Force base (Rhein-Main) at Frankfurt, Germany, is the European base of the 737.

TEPPER AVIATION, INC. (FLORIDA) - Three other large transports on the list -- Lockheeds N2189M, N4557C, and N8183J -- are owned by the shell company Rapid Air Tran (Transport). Tepper Aviation, Inc., maintains and operates these planes out of the Bob Sikes Airport in Crestview, FL. Tepper was started by a CIA pilot of that name and was and is CIA-financed. The European base of the Lockheeds also is Rhein-Main.

THE LARGE CIA PLANES ARE INVOLVED IN AFGHANISTAN OPERATIONS.

The N8183J, like the N8213G, was investigated by a European government but got a pass because it is a cargo plane. Two Austrian Draken fighter planes intercepted N8183J intruding into Austrian airspace on Jan. 21, 2003. The Drakens normally would have forced the plane to land, but they only intercepted it. The Austrian foreign ministry considered the aircraft as civilian (Is the CIA civilian?) and saw no reason to authorize the ministry of defense to force the plane to land. After all, it was a cargo plane (see photo).

AVIATION WORLDWIDE SERVICES, INC. (FLORIDA)

PRESIDENTIAL AIRWAYS (FLORIDA)

SUBSIDIARIES OF BLACKWATER USA (NORTH CAROLINA)

Presidential and AWS are owned by the mercenary firm Blackwater USA. They operate out of the Melbourne International Airport in central Florida. They are run by the former owners, Richard Pere and Tim Childrey.

The companies fly Spanish CASA C-212 wide-body passenger/cargo aircraft. These carry paratroops and oversized cargo and can operate from short and unimproved runways.

In Europe, Malta is the base for these planes and the ATRs in the list, both of which operate in Afghanistan.

PEGASUS TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

Pegasus Technologies works on the avionics (aviation electronics), sensor, and electrical systems of the CIA planes. This presumably includes top-secret encrypted-communications systems and night-vision systems.

At the company's airstrip near Green Cove Springs, FL, in the Reynolds Industrial Park, at a former naval base, you are apt to see many of the planes in the list. Few if any other companies would have the security clearances to work on the CIA's electronics.

FOR MORE PHOTOS, FURTHER INFORMATION...

FOR PHOTOS OF OUTRAGES: http://www.declarepeace.org.uk/captain/murder_inc/site/rendition.html

FOR PHOTOS (AND DETAILS) OF PLANES:
http://www.planespotters.net
http://wwwjetphotos.net
http://www.jetspotter.com
http://www.airliners.net
http://www.planepictures.net

[andend] - 2006 Indymedia Antwerpen -- Url.: http://antwerpen.indymedia.org/news/2006/03/3666.php

FPF-FWD. IN AGREEMENT:

Related:

* "Sarah, if the American people had ever known the truth about what we Bushes have done to this nation, we would be chased down in the streets and lynched." - George Bush Senior speaking in an interview with Sarah McClendon in December 1992. - And here's why: 'George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography' - by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin - Chapter - II - *INCLUDES 'PRESSCOTT': The Hitler Project - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/57qxk

* AND THIS WAS THE INSIDE JOB, THE 'NEW PEARL HARBOUR' THE 'CRAZIES' NEEDED TO REALIZE THEIR MAD ABSOLUTELY INHUMAN PLANS: Anybody who after seeing this video - '9/11 revisited' - still believes in the version from the Washington cabal is beyond all help - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/r5sx4

* The Top Ten American War Criminals Living Freely Today - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/dvudx

* What Bush c.s. - the neocons* and their collaborators - are afraid of - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/95nk2

* Entertainer Harry Belafonte, one of the Bush neocon administration’s harshest critics, compared the US Homeland Security Department to the Nazi Gestapo - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/8uvoe

* On the buckles of the belts Hitler's Nazi-SS wore, it said the same as George Bush is using now: "Gott mit Uns" - 'God is on our side' - SS/CIA - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/9xqcr

* Google search "Biggest threat to world peace" - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/dk2lj

* The Pentagon's propaganda war - BBC - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/3ser2

* 'Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one' — A.J. Liebling - The infamous US 'Lie Factory' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/8ncal

* Those who first of all start shouting about 'conspiracy theory' and 'paranoïa' or similar, are always the evil INFORMANTS The paid INFILTRATORS which are afraid of being disclosed. They are the real Judas's working for treacherous 'masters' - they are the 'Quislings' that will go to jail - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/clcjn

* 'Crying Wolf' - Media Disinformation and Death Squads in Occupied Iraq - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/7ttx8

* The 9/11 WTC drama was by the PNAC criminals planned terror - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/b7ygk - It was an inside job - Google - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/7tj9d

* Who's financing? - The 'Federal Reserve' and it's usurers is the absolute biggest crime against all humanity ever. - Url.: http://www.apfn.org/apfn/reserve.htm

* NWO letter: ''we can cancel your credit or freeze your accounts'' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cjo7l

* Wayne Madsen - ''The neo-cons have done to the U.S. Intelligence Community what Hurricane Katrina did to the Gulf Coast and New Orleans. America has never been weaker. Rather than creating a "New American Century," the neo-cons have created a new global "Dark Age" of fear and constant war.'' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/bj754

* MSNBC - Live Vote: Do you believe President Bush's actions justify impeachment? - Url.: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10562904/

* 'Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one' — A.J. Liebling - The merciless engine of propaganda has been turned on: The infamous US 'Lie Factory' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/8ncal

*Read the Fightin' Cock Flyer - Url.: http://fightincockflyer.blogspot.com/

* Help all the troops - of whatever nationality - to come back from abroad! - AND WITH ALL THEIR WEAPONS, WHICH WE ARE FORCED TO PAY FOR BY TAXES - [http://www.apfn.org/apfn/reserve.htm] - We need them badly at home in many countries to fight with us against our so called 'governments' and their malignant managers - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/

FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
http://forpressfound.blogspot.com/
Editor: Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/amn3q
The Netherlands
fpf@chello.nl

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Katarina: Bush & Chertoff's 'manslaughter'?

NEWS YOU WON'T FIND ON CNN

KATARINA: WHY AREN’T WE TALKING ABOUT CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE?

By Mike Whitney

03/03/06 "ICH" - "I have kind a sinking feeling in my gut right now... You know, from this tape it looks like everybody was fully aware." New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin

It is clear now that Michael Chertoff and George Bush can be directly implicated in the deaths of the 1,300 Americans who died in Hurricane Katrina. The newly released video from the Associated Press proves beyond a reasonable doubt that they were adequately warned of the gravity of the approaching storm and the risks it posed to people of New Orleans. The only question now is whether the charges should be criminal negligence or manslaughter. We leave that to the attorneys.

AS THE VIDEO SHOWS ( http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12132.htm ) both Bush and his Homeland Security chief were told by federal disaster officials in unambiguous language “that the storm could breach levees and overwhelm rescuers”.

WHAT COULD BE CLEARER THAN THAT?

Bush’s comments three days later that, “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees”, was obviously meant to mislead the public and redirect the blame away from himself.

For some unknown reason, Bush and his lieutenants ignored the warnings of the Hurricane experts and stubbornly refused to take timely action that would have saved lives. Even when Chertoff was notified that the levees had been breached, he failed to respond until hours later.

WHY?

AFTER ALL, AS ONE OFFICIAL NOTED, “IT WAS NOT ONLY PREDICTABLE; IT WAS PREDICTED.”

INDEED, IT WAS. BUT BUSH AND COMPANY OBVIOUSLY HAD DIFFERENT PLANS IN MIND.

What those plans were; no one knows, but that doesn’t minimize the scale of the disaster or keep us from assigning blame. The video proves that both Bush and Chertoff are guilty of dereliction of duty and, very possibly, manslaughter.

THE QUESTION NOW IS ONE OF “INTENTIONALITY”, NOT “CULPABILITY”.

The media has played a crucial role in blocking attempts for an independent investigation and for absolving Bush of guilt. From the beginning, they singed-out ex-FEMA-chief Michael Brown as the scapegoat for the obvious failures of the administration. We know now that “Brownie” was perhaps the only high-ranking official who acted responsibly and tried to protect the public from harm. Brown repeatedly warned of the potential dangers of Katrina but no one paid attention. On the video he is heard saying, “My gut tells me…that this is a bad one and a big one…To put it mildly, this is the big one”.

Brown cautioned that the Superdome was 12 ft below sea-level and could be swamped if the levees broke. He later alerted Homeland Security that, “They’re not taking patients out of the hospitals, taking prisoners out of the prisons, and they’re leaving hotels open in downtown New Orleans. So, I’m very concerned about that.”…”I’m concerned about the medical and mortuary resources and their ability to respond to a catastrophe within a catastrophe.”

He also added later, “I want to jam up supply-lines. I want to cut the bureaucratic red-tape. I want it, balls-to-the-wall, in doing everything we could.”

BROWN WAS OBVIOUSLY DOING THE BEST HE COULD UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES.

Unfortunately, his efforts were rewarded by a “swift-boat” media-campaign that portrayed him as a clownish-bungler who botched the relief-effort from start to finish. The media deftly shifted the blame from the White House (where it belonged) to a bit-player in the government bureaucracy who was only trying to save lives. The AP video shows where the guilt really lies.

There’s no evidence that anyone else in the administration was particularly worried by the tragedy or the loss of life. Three days passed before troops were deployed to the region and the relief-effort was hampered at every turn by federal agents.

As more and more incriminating evidence has surfaced, the recalcitrant media has stuck to its narrative of a “blundering bureaucracy” unable to deal with a massive natural disaster like Katrina. All of the 2,200 articles which first appeared about the storm invoked the very same phraseology.

BUSH: "I DON'T THINK ANYBODY ANTICIPATED THE BREACH OF THE LEVEES"

According to the MSM, Katrina showed a “failure of imagination” or, Homeland Security was “slow to react” or, Chertoff was in “a fog of war” or, (Bush’s much repeated) "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees".

These carefully-worded phrases have built a protective wall around Bush and Chertoff; shielding them from direct involvement in the deaths of 1,300 Americans and 2,300 missing.

We may not know what Bush or Chertoff had in mind when they refused to carry out their duties, but we do know that it was not the result of a “bungling bureaucracy”. That’s just baloney.

The “buck-passing” media is trying to deflect blame and hoodwink the public, but the charges remain the same; criminal negligence or manslaughter.

[andend]

Click to post a comment on this article via the story's Url.: http://tinyurl.com/kszgu

FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
http://forpressfound.blogspot.com/
Editor: Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/amn3q
The Netherlands
fpf@chello.nl

* "Sarah, if the American people had ever known the truth about what we Bushes have done to this nation, we would be chased down in the streets and lynched." - George Bush Senior speaking in an interview with Sarah McClendon in December 1992. - And here's why: 'George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography' - by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin - Chapter - II - The Hitler Project - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/57qxk

* CNN-Poll - Question: "Do you believe there is a U.S. government cover-up surrounding 9/11?" - 'Yes' - 89% - 'NO' - 11% - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/7w7c5

* Anybody who after seeing this video - '9/11 revisited' - still believes in the version from the Washington cabal is beyond all help - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/r5sx4

* 9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB - SUBTITLED IN ENGLISH - Could the Bush administration have had anything to gain from the attack? - Special - 23 minutes - Dutch National Television Documentary - Video - Url.: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11222.htm

* What happened on 9/11? - We have been lied to! The PNAC racket killed the people. - What is happening to our world? - More information on 9/11 at Url.: http://www.scholarsfor911truth.org/

* The Top Ten American War Criminals Living Freely Today - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/dvudx

* What Bush c.s. - the PNAC criminals - [http://tinyurl.com/bdpmw] - the bankrolling dynasty and their collaborators - are afraid of - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/95nk2

* Those who first of all start shouting about 'conspiracy theory' and 'paranoïa' or similar, are always the evil INFORMANTS The paid INFILTRATORS which are afraid of being disclosed. They are the real Judas's working for treacherous 'masters' - they are the 'Quislings' that will go to jail - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/clcjn

* P.M. - Compliant media - Hitler: An Officer and a Gentleman? - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/3eepa

* Douglas Herman, a USAF veteran, served in the Vietnam era. Captain James Herman, the author's father, fought the Nazis during World War II. - Achtung! Are We the New Nazis?" - Soldiers, God and Empire - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/2tdfp

* "People do not forget. They do not forget the death of their fellows, they do not forget torture and mutilation, they do not forget injustice, they do not forget oppression, they do not forget the terrorism of mighty powers. They not only don't forget: they also strike back." - 2005 Nobel Literature Prize winner Harold Pinter - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/9cyeq

* The 9/11 WTC drama was by the PNAC criminals planned terror - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/b7ygk - It was an inside job - Google - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/7tj9d

* Who's financing? - The 'Federal Reserve' and it's usurers is the absolute biggest crime against all humanity ever. - Url.: http://www.apfn.org/apfn/reserve.htm

* 'Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one' — A.J. Liebling - The merciless engine of propaganda has been turned on: The infamous US 'Lie Factory' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/8ncal

* Independent & FREE press in Kansas - Pls. read the 'Fightin' Cock Flyer' - Url.: http://fightincockflyer.blogspot.com/

* Help all the troops - of whatever nationality - to come back from abroad! - AND WITH ALL THEIR WEAPONS, WHICH WE ARE FORCED TO PAY FOR BY TAXES - [http://www.apfn.org/apfn/reserve.htm] - We need them badly at home in many countries to fight with us against our so called 'governments' and their malignant managers - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/

FPF-COPYRIGHT NOTICE - In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107 - any copyrighted work in this message is distributed by the Foreign Press Foundation under fair use, without profit or payment, to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the information. Url.: http://liimirror.warwick.ac.uk/uscode/17/107.html

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US Torture: Bush Flummoxes Kafka, Orwell

Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek.

Consortiumnews.com

by Robert Parry

March 3, 2006 - Even Kafka and Orwell, masters at dissecting the cruel absurdities of totalitarian state power, might be at a loss for words in the face of George W. Bush’s latest legal and rhetorical formulations on torture.

Bush, of course, insists that the United States does not torture despite extensive evidence that detainees in the Iraq War and the War on Terror have been subjected to simulated drowning by “water-boarding,” beatings to death, suffocations, coffin-like confinements, painful stress positions, naked exposure to heat and cold, anal rape, sleep deprivation, dog bites, and psychological ploys involving sexual and religious humiliation.

But Bush says none of this amounts to torture, even as his protection of abusive practices now ventures beyond word games into mind-bending legal rationalizations.

Bush’s lawyers went into federal court in Washington on March 2 and argued that a new law that specifically prohibits cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees – known as the McCain Amendment after its sponsor, Sen. John McCain – can’t be enforced at Guantanamo Bay because another clause of the law grants these prisoners only limited access to U.S. courts.

In other words, the Bush administration is contending that the McCain Amendment might make it illegal to abuse the Guantanamo prisoners, but that the inmates have no legal recourse to enforce the law by going to court and getting an order for the abuses to end.

With the courts removed from the picture, the administration’s legal reasoning holds that only Bush can act.

He, after all, asserts that he is the nation’s “unitary executive ,” meaning that he and he alone decides what U.S. laws to enforce.

But, in this case, Bush also is the ultimate authority behind the criminal behavior. Bush and his top advisers, such as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, were the ones who ordered “the gloves off” in the treatment of prisoners seized in both the worldwide War on Terror and the resistance to the U.S. military occupation of Iraq.

In December, Bush specifically asserted this “unitary” power over enforcing the McCain Amendment by attaching a “signing statement” that reserved for Bush the right to ignore the law if he so wished.

“The Executive Branch shall construe [the ban] in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President . . . as Commander in Chief,” the signing statement read.

So, Congress went through the trouble of enacting a new law barring cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of inmates – to go along with earlier laws prohibiting torture – only to confront a variety of administration arguments that make all the laws meaningless.

Forced Feedings*

While Bush’s intent to circumvent the McCain Amendment has been apparent since December, administration lawyers made it official in arguing that a U.S. District Court judge must dismiss a complaint by Guantanamo inmate Mohammed Bawazir, whose lawyers complained that the Yemeni national was subjected to “systematic torture.”

Bawazir’s lawyers cited an “extremely painful” new tactic of brutally force-feeding their client and other inmates on hunger strikes.

The procedure involved strapping Bawazir into a special chair, forcing a larger-than-normal feeding tube through his nose to his stomach, and then leaving him in the restraints for almost two hours while he soiled himself.

“These allegations … describe disgusting treatment that, if proven, is treatment that is cruel, profoundly disturbing and violative of” both U.S. and international laws banning torture, said U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler. [Washington Post, March 3, 2006]

But Bush’s lawyers argued that the federal courts had no jurisdiction over the treatment of the Guantanamo inmates because a section of the December law – an amendment sponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Carl Levin, D-Mich. – limited Guantanamo appeals only to judgments by military commissions about the inmates’ status as “enemy combatants.”

If that argument prevails, Bush will have wrapped the Guantanamo prisoners in a legal strait-jacket, preventing them from proving their illegal mistreatment in court or getting a judge to order that the criminal behavior be stopped.

In effect, Bush is calling on the Executive Branch, the Congress and the Judiciary to collude in a charade that lets the U.S. government publicly condemn torture and other mistreatment of detainees, but then permits this criminal behavior to continue unabated while barring the victims any legal recourse to justice.

Bush’s legal arguments turn the Rule of Law inside out, essentially making all branches of the U.S. government complicit in a criminal conspiracy that is perpetuated even as anti-torture laws are held up as shining examples of the American commitment to humanitarian principles.

It’s a case that would leave Kafka and Orwell either scratching their heads or contemplating how to incorporate these twisted legal absurdities into a new book.

[andend]

Robert Parry's latest book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq, can be ordered at secrecyandprivilege.com . It's also available at Amazon.com, as is his 1999 book, Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth.'

[andend] -

FPF-Related:

US Concentration camp Guantanamo: tougher measures to force-feed. - STRAPPING RECALCITRANT DETAINEES INTO "RESTRAINT CHAIRS" - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/flaq8


RELATED REFERENCES & LINKS:

* "Sarah, if the American people had ever known the truth about what we Bushes have done to this nation, we would be chased down in the streets and lynched." - George Bush Senior speaking in an interview with Sarah McClendon in December 1992. - And here's why: 'George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography' - by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin - Chapter - II - The Hitler Project - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/57qxk

* Anybody who after seeing this video - '9/11 revisited' - still believes in the version from the Washington cabal is beyond all help - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/r5sx4

* The Top Ten American War Criminals Living Freely Today - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/dvudx

* What Bush c.s. - the neocons* and their collaborators - are afraid of - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/95nk2

* Entertainer Harry Belafonte, one of the Bush neocon administration’s harshest critics, compared the US Homeland Security Department to the Nazi Gestapo - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/8uvoe

* On the buckles of the belts Hitler's Nazi-SS wore, it said the same as George Bush is using now: "Gott mit Uns" - 'God is on our side' - SS/CIA - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/9xqcr

* Google search "Biggest threat to world peace" - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/dk2lj

* The Pentagon's propaganda war - BBC - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/3ser2

* MSNBC - Live Vote: Do you believe President Bush's actions justify impeachment? - Url.: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10562904/

* "People do not forget. They do not forget the death of their fellows, they do not forget torture and mutilation, they do not forget injustice, they do not forget oppression, they do not forget the terrorism of mighty powers. They not only don't forget: they also strike back." - 2005 Nobel Literature Prize winner Harold Pinter - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/9cyeq

* Those who first of all start shouting about 'conspiracy theory' and 'paranoïa' or similar, are always the evil INFORMANTS The paid INFILTRATORS which are afraid of being disclosed. They are the real Judas's working for treacherous 'masters' - they are the 'Quislings' that will go to jail - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/clcjn

* The Nuremberg principles: "Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefor and liable to punishment." - Url.:  http://tinyurl.com/byurp

* 'The war in Iraq is illegal' - BBC: video & text-interview of the United Nation's Secretary General Kofi Annan - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5pl2v

* 'Spreading democracy' - Countries & US Death Squads - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/drnca - A 55' second sound bite concerning the US 'bringing democracy' everywhere - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5u98v

* 'Crying Wolf' - Media Disinformation and Death Squads in Occupied Iraq - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/7ttx8

* Reference guide to the Geneva Conventions - Url.:  http://www.genevaconventions.org

* Al Qaeda – The Database - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cqx69

* The 9/11 WTC drama was by the PNAC criminals planned terror - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/b7ygk - It was an inside job - Google - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/7tj9d

* Wayne Madsen - ''The neo-cons have done to the U.S. Intelligence Community what Hurricane Katrina did to the Gulf Coast and New Orleans. America has never been weaker. Rather than creating a "New American Century," the neo-cons have created a new global "Dark Age" of fear and constant war.'' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/bj754

* Who's financing? - The 'Federal Reserve' and it's usurers is the absolute biggest crime against all humanity ever. - Url.: http://www.apfn.org/apfn/reserve.htm

* NWO letter: ''we can cancel your credit or freeze your accounts'' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cjo7l

*Read the Fightin' Cock Flyer - Url.: http://fightincockflyer.blogspot.com/

* 'Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one' — A.J. Liebling - The merciless engine of propaganda has been turned on: The infamous US 'Lie Factory' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/8ncal

* He who travels far will often see things

Far removed from what he believed was the Truth.

When he talks about it in the fields at home,

He is often accused of lying,

For the obdurate people will not believe

Inexperience, I believe,

Will give little credence to my song.

'Journey to the East' - Hermann Hesse

* Help all the troops - of whatever nationality - to come back from abroad! - AND WITH ALL THEIR WEAPONS, WHICH WE ARE FORCED TO PAY FOR BY TAXES - [http://www.apfn.org/apfn/reserve.htm] - We need them badly at home in many countries to fight with us against our so called 'governments' and their malignant managers - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/

* FPF-COPYRIGHT NOTICE - In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107 - any copyrighted work in this message is distributed by the Foreign Press Foundation under fair use, without profit or payment, to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the information. Url.:  http://liimirror.warwick.ac.uk/uscode/17/107.html

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