Amnesty Int'l slams tolerance of torture
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:40:54

Amnesty International accuses Europe of enactment over serious torture issues

Amnesty International has slammed Europe for tolerating human rights abuse and torture, highlighting cases that support its claims.

Coinciding with the UN's International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, Amnesty International has issued a report accusing European governments of complicity and inaction over US-led rendition and secret detention by which people have been unlawfully detained and transferred from one country to another outside of any judicial process.

The report focuses on a number of notorious rendition cases, one of whom is Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian national and UK resident, rendered in 2002, allegedly tortured in Morocco and now detained for nearly fours years without trial at Guantanamo Bay.

"European governments are in a state of denial and have been sidestepping the truth for too long," said Amnesty International. "Their involvement in renditions and secret detention runs in stark contrast to their claims to be responsible actors in the fight against terrorism."

The report highlights six cases involving 13 individuals, details the involvement of European states.

This ranges from governments permitting CIA flights headed for rendition circuits to use European airports and airspace, as with Shannon Airport, to hosting secret detention centers, or "black sites" and includes the participation by security services from European states in interrogations of their own citizens while concealing their whereabouts from their families.

Also US detainees are being regularly transferred to detention centers such as Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; a facility known for its brazen use of torture to extract information from prisoners.

A number of individuals have also been subjected to enforced disappearance and the whereabouts of some three dozen people remain unknown. Every one of the victims of rendition interviewed by Amnesty International has said they were tortured or otherwise ill-treated in custody.

FBA/MMN

Why is nothing said about CANADA? It used Goosebay for landings, it did illegal interrogations, it refuses to obey court orders to release Omar Khadr and there are "detainees" going around talking about their abuse !! And then there's the curious case of CHINA which "observed" illegal interrogations at Guantanamo Bay .. yet where is the international torture prosecutor on this?

Oh, yeah, I forgot! Canadian Amnesty International is ABOVE THE LAW !! And I should know.

As George Bush visits London, Reprieve tells Bush and Brown: Bring Binyam Back to Britain

Where: Trafalgar Square, in front of the National Gallery
When: 3 pm, Sunday 15 June
Who: Reprieve Director Clive Stafford Smith, former Guantánamo prisoners, Barney the Dinosaur and other special guests

On Sunday 15 June, US President George W. Bush is visiting London as part of his valedictory world tour, and will be having tea with the Queen and dinner with Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Reprieve, the legal action charity that represents over 30 Guantánamo prisoners, is using this opportunity to highlight the suffering of Binyam Mohamed, the London resident who remains in Guantánamo Bay. The US military has announced that it wants to put him through its discredited military commission process, and a final decision will be made in the next two weeks. The commission system is so corrupt that Col. Morris Davis recently quit as the chief military prosecutor, because of the system’s many flaws, one being that evidence derived from torture was going to be used against the prisoners. 

Nothing could be more true of Binyam, who was taken to Morocco where his genitals were razor-bladed for 18 months. After that he was rendered to more abuse in the CIA-run “Dark Prison” in Kabul, where he was tortured psychologically, hung up and subjected to incredibly loud music for 20 days at a time. He has been imprisoned in Guantánamo Bay since September 2004.

The timing of President Bush’s visit to London is fortuitous but only if we can make sure that he gets the message. We are meeting at 3 pm outside the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square and are working towards a finale outside the Southbank Centre, where Massive Attack are hosting a series of Reprieve events as part of Meltdown 2008, at 4.30pm.

Throughout this initiative, Reprieve will dramatize the torture-by-music that Binyam and other prisoners have suffered. Barney the Purple Dinosaur will be making a personal appearance, as the theme tune to this popular children’s show has been one of the US torturers’ favourite pieces of torture music. We are also hoping to involve other creative “cartoon characters”: Katy the Kangaroo Court, and even Roger the Razor Blade. Cosmetics firm Lush, who have been supporting the work of Reprieve, have kindly agreed to bring along their massive “Fair Trial My Arse” orange underpants, to highlight the nature of the unjust process that Binyam is facing.

You don’t have to sing the Barney theme song with us (although you’d be welcome to!). Or you can dress up in any outfit you think dramatises Binyam’s torture over the past six years. We are also very keen for credible spokespeople to stand up for Binyam and demand that Gordon Brown place his immediate repatriation to Britain on the summit agenda.

Please join us!

WAR CRIMES DOSSIER: photographic evidence of torture

U.K. rights group: U.S. has photographic evidence of torture 11 Jun 2008 The U.S. government has photographic evidence that a Guantanamo Bay inmate was tortured with a knife after being taken to Morocco by U.S. forces, a British human rights group said Tuesday. Reprieve said their client, Binyam Mohamed, had his genitals slashed repeatedly with a doctor's scalpel while in custody in Morocco after he was flown there from Pakistan by American officials in 2002. It also said his U.S. captors later took pictures of the torture to show authorities that his wounds were healing.