The Ratio

Here's Condi:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice chastised Europe leaders today, saying that before they complain about secret jails for terror suspects in European nations, they should realize that interrogations of these suspects have produced information that helped "save European lives."

Let's say we believe her. Let's say they have saved some European lives. Are those lives more valuable than the lives destroyed? We can't assume that every life destroyed is the life of a mad, homicial terrorist as the Counterpunch story demonstates. In fact, knowing even a little of the history of the CIA or U.S. Military, we would tend to assume the opposite: that many innocents will be swept up by mistake, or neglect, or malice.

Tags: Torture

A clinical instructor in neurology at Harvard Medical School provides insight into Porters Goss' creative redefinition of shaking as "aggressive interrogation" rather than torture:

When this kind of violent shaking is done to babies, it can result in brain damage and death.

The same consequences can occur in adults. I interviewed and examined a dozen Palestinians who had been violently shaken while in Israeli custody. Many had personality, behavioral and cognitive changes consistent with frontal lobe brain damage. At least one man died in custody when violent shaking caused, as an autopsy revealed, tearing of the blood vessels under the skull and lethal intracranial bleeding.

In 1999 the Israeli Supreme Court deemed shaking to be torture and banned it. The effect of the court's ruling has been murky, but the judgment that shaking constitutes torture is inescapable.

Tags: Torture

Things are heating up in Britain with MPs considering an investigation into the rendition flights, and other parties also increasing the pressure.

Sarah Ludford, a British member of the European Parliament's civil liberties committee, said: "I am not at all reassured that there is sufficient determination by [member states] to establish the truth," she said. "The allegations are now beyond speculation. We now have sufficient evidence involving CIA flights. We need to know who was on those flights, where they went."

Also look for Condi to be challenged when she's in Brussels next week.

Tags: Torture

Peter Phillips reports on an ACLU report from October about the clear evidence in U.S. Military Autopsies that detainees are being tortured to death while in US military custody. Haven't heard of it?

A thorough check of Nexus-Lexus and Proquest electronic data bases, using the keywords ACLU and autopsy, showed that at least 95percent of the daily papers in the US didn't bother to pick up the story

Tags: Torture

The human rights group Liberty is asking the Chief constables of 11 U.K. police forces to "investigate allegations the US is using UK airports to send terror suspects to countries that carry out torture." I wish them luck.

Some in the European Parliament are not convinced the EU presidency holder Britain is taking the investigation into the European wing of the CIA Torture Gulag seriously.

Meanwhile in Iraq Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's promised investigation into torture by his own government seems to be stalled, while former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi levels torture charges against the current government (he should know).

"We are hearing about secret police, secret bunkers where people are being interrogated," he said. "A lot of Iraqis are being tortured or killed in the course of interrogations."

Ridha Jawad Taqi, a senior SCIRI member eased everyone's concerns by stating: "...mistakes are bound to happen."

Now Voice of America is reporting a new excuse for the failure of the investingation:

Iraq's Shi'ite-led government says it has not been able to investigate allegations of torture of Sunni Arab prisoners in an interior-run detention center in Baghdad because mistakes made at the site by Americans have tainted some of the evidence and files.

While the office of Deputy Prime Minister Rowsh Nuri Shaways, who is leading the investigation, simply said that they needed more time.




Tags: Torture