Storm the keep

Has Obama lost his morals?

Tue, 26 May 2009 18:14:58 +0200

Obama's recent decision to endorse indefinite detention without trial betrays the American people and alienates the states once again from much of the world community. Just as Obama seemed to be inspiring hope that a new dawn of American foreign policy was here that would help to wash and dress the wounds of the Bush administration's legacy and allow them to begin to heal, he granted immunity to those involved in torture from prosecution. And now he has followed this up with something far worse...although he has ordered that all American black sites including the Guantanamo black site be closed, advocating detention without trial is essentially a U-turn on what this represents. So, no black sites, just detention without trial? Really...we'll be waterboarding again soon.

Given how easily past presidents have been manipulated by America's corporate elite, think tanks, neo-cons, and the Washington consensus, could it be that Obama is towing the Republican line on certain issues? And isn't it far easier for a supposedly left-wing president of the people with vast popular support to push through unpopular policies which even the Republicans failed to pass?

Many people died for the rights that Obama is proposing to tear down. Rights which are protected by international law and the Geneva convention. Indefinite detention has been used in many countries around the world to disappear people by encouragement from the Chicago boys and the CIA as shown in CIA declassified documents. There is no reason why people in the US couldn't be disappeared in much the same way using these laws. And a key problem with never having a trial is that you never have to justify why you are locking somebody up...lets hope you don't make any mistakes, and lets hope you don't have any bad intentions, because we'll never know about it if you do.

One more thing...perhaps you feel you can trust Obama...that he speaks with compassion, that he speaks of equality and freedom...oh wait...hang on...

Since my elation at the election of Obama, I am becoming distrustful of him...let us hope that the age old adage of absolute power and corruption skips a president for once.

Comments

Obama - more of the same?

Wed, 20 May 2009 16:16:54 +0200

This is an excellent article about the use of interrogation techniques by the CIA and private sector contractors hired by the CIA: Pelosis loss, our gain

A couple of thoughts:
Many of todays references in the media seem to suggest that it is somehow better to have hired a private contractor to do your dirty work over whom you claim to have had no control, and who you claim is incompetent...I'd like to point out that as with everything, the buck stops at the top level, especially when you are deliberately hiring someone because you know that if you did it yourself you might be prosecuted.

It is criminal of the Bush administration to have excluded private sector contractors from prosecution. This excludes the majority of the army and special forces that were operating in Iraq. And by the same yardstick, it is criminal of the Obama administration to have excluded CIA members from prosecution. Their victims, and their victim's families deserve justice. And future generations deserve justice so that next time CIA members are asked to do this kind of work, they refuse because they know that they are not immune. Obama is sending a message that it is ok to let torturer's off the hook. But I think that everyone who participates in torture knows as they do it that it is a criminal act, and they do it anyway.

Comments

A very brief history of waterboarding

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:20:20 +0200

Waterboarding is an interrogation technique illegal in the United States but used by the CIA under the Bush administration. A presidential finding, signed in 2002, by President Bush, Condoleezza Rice and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft approved various torture techniques, including waterboarding.

The objective of waterboarding is to mentally traumatise the victim by making them believe that they are just about to die. The victim is strapped upside down to a board that is at an angle in order to enhance their disorientation and keep the head at the right angle for the experience of drowning. The victim has cellophane or a cloth wrapped around the head so that they can't see. A small opening is left for the mouth, and water is poured over their head and into this opening in order to induce the feeling of drowning. Within a few seconds of this experience the victim usually 'cracks' and divulges whatever information their torturer is asking about regardless of its authenticity (interrogation under torture is very unreliable). Waterboarding torture can result in a variety of injuries to the victim both physically and mentally. Physical results can be broken limbs due to struggling against the restraints, damage to lungs due to breathing in the water, and death (its not uncommon for the faked drowning to actually become real by mistake). The mental trauma of this torture is significant, and will often include post traumatic stress disorder. Waterboarding was first used by the Italian inquisition in the 1500s.

Thankfully president Obama recently banned US special forces from using waterboarding as well as ordering that the US special forces 'black sites' (used for torture) around the world to be shut down, but he stated that he did not think that those who used the technique under the bush administration should face trial. International law dictates that those responsible for torture should face trial, US special forces should not be above the law.

Gulf War veteran Joe Tougas, dressed as a Guantanamo Bay detainee, volunteered to be waterboarded during a demonstration at UC Berkeley to show that the practice is a severe form of torture. – Photo: John Han

ABC news story on waterboarding
suspected US black sites

Comments

A conversation with a friend

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:24:54 +0100

A conversation with my friend Sylvana who lived through the Pinochet era in Chile.

Nick: Ah yes, I remember you telling me. Thats great! History is a fantastic subject to understand the world. I read an amazing book recently by Naomi Klein called The Shock Doctrine...have you heard of it?
Nick: It's about Chicago school economics and how U.S. corporations and government have been involved in countries in South America, Asia, the Eastern block (inc. Russia), and more recently Iraq
Sylvana: I guess I heard about it.
Sylvana: Yes, the writer was in Chile this year she was interviewed on tv
Sylvana: She is really bright and I am glad someone wrote about that.
Sylvana: By the way, did the UK government have to give bailout packages to certain industries?
Nick: I think so...we bought a bank at one point!
Nick: (Northern Rock)
Nick: I have started donating to War on Want as a result of reading that book. They form pressure groups to campaign and lobby governments about things like banning the use of mercenaries in the army.
Sylvana: That is awful, reminds me of Iraq. There were mecenaries, not in the Army but in the facilities of Oil Companies. Blackwater, I guess was the name of a company, even Chilean security guards travelled to Iraq because they were offered good money
Sylvana: There is a book that will be published about Blackwater and its activities. Last night they interviwed the author, she spoke about the ties of that company with many others even the State Department.
Sylvana: Since they train mercenaries (security staff), the governments can wash their hands and let others do the dirty work.
Nick: Actually lots of private security companies were in the army too approx. 1/2 of the U.S. occupation forces, and 1/3 of British forces are mercenaries, and as you point out they are recruited from all over the place to make it cheap, and not properly trained. Then they are paid to 'interrogate' prisoners and paid based on how much information they can extract, regardless of it's authenticity.
Nick: I imagine some of the interrogators from Chile learnt their techniques during the Pinochet era.
Sylvana: Sure!!
Nick: It makes me very sad to think that the owners of these companies and people in the U.S. governement hold human life in such low regard.
Nick: when you have such extreme forms of market capitalism completely free from any kind of control by people, just driven by making profit for shareholders who don't care how it is achieved, then you get these kinds of abuse of human life. I think some system needs to be devised to incentivise companies to work for the good of everyone, not just a few shareholders who turn a blind eye or even encourage this kind of thing.
Sylvana: You are right! And the worst thing is that many of those peopla are still in high posts.
Nick: exactly! it's outrageous.
Sylvana: I am now at an event of corporate social responsibility organized by the Embassy of Canada
Nick: cool
Sylvana: the purpose is exactly what you say, that companies do not turn a blind eye on what they do. But I don't kno to what extent this is just to wash their image and say they are doing something.
Nick: the thing is that CSR usually means that the company promises to do things but isn't held to account by anybody if they don't do them. They need to be held accountable by the law, and by people, and other incentives so that its not just a marketting exercise but instead has real consequences.
Sylvana: You are absolutely right. They just say they will do this and that to get a permission (a mining company, for instance) and once they are operating they just forget...
Sylvana: and sometimes the legal mechanisms are not there to deal with such a situation and these big transnationals hire very expensive lawyer who do whatever it takes to help their clients.
Nick: Thats true, the legal system tends towards helping whoever can pay more. And thats always the Haliburton's and Tesco's of the world not the Iraqi oil workers or this mining companies employees.
Sylvana: The conversation is very interesting but I'll have to leave you because I have to move to another room and I have to disconnect my computer.
Nick: ok.
Nick: do you mind if I put this on my blog? I'll change your name if you like.
Nick: (and details such as the conference you are at)
Sylvana: Ok. no problem! I donot mind your putting my name. I could have expressed many more things but I was writing to you while I was translating hahaha! It is diffcult to keep one's train of thought.

Comments

Jeremy Scahill

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:36:03 +0100

I just ordered Jeremy Scahill's book:

Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army

And you can check out an interview with him here where he talks about the mercenary forces in Iraq.

Here's another interesting video

Comments

Corporate + Government Power vs. People Power

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 23:47:32 +0100

Many thanks to Naomi Klein for changing how I see the world. If you still believe that unrestrained market economics work to give us the kind of society that we want to live in then please read Naomi's book The Shock Doctrine:

http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine

Once you have read it, you may be wondering what you can do about it:

- Donate to War on Want: A charity who lobby government to encourage them to make laws that put people before corporations' profit margins.
- Write a blog to share this information
- Talk to people you know about things like: Why we really went to war in Iraq (which The Shock Doctrine makes crystal clear).
- Get the message out in any way you can think of: email, chat, etc.

Comments