Such a degradation methods, the former US soldier said, were used on innocent men. Holdbrooks claims that it is the inmates’ religious perseverance in the face of pain and humiliation made him convinced that US was not fighting for the right cause.RT: What did you experience at the detention camp that changed you?Terry Holdbrooks: To be honest with you I would not even know where to begin with that. Initially seeing religion practiced the way that the detainees practice Islam is a really life changing experience in itself. I have not really seen any kind of any serious devotion, the faith like that growing up in the US.The torture and information extraction methods that we used certainly created a great deal of doubt and questions in my mind to whether or not this was my America. But when I thought about what we were doing there and how we go about doing it, it did not seem like the America I signed up to defend. It did not seem like the America I grew up in, I grew to believe in. And that in itself was a very disillusioning experience. There was a great deal of personal growth that took there as well.RT: Could you describe the relationship between the guards and detainees at Guantanamo back when you were serving (and how has it changed since then)?TH: I suppose that if we’re going to take a stroll down the memory lane, Brandon Neely was there first. He was there when it was camp x-ray. It was essentially dog cages, nothing more. It was dog kennels, I suppose you can say. When I was there camp Delta was in full swing. Delta housed about 612 men that would be the general population of the camps.RT: Were you given any orders as how to treat the inmates?TH: Our interaction with the detainees was such that we were told not to talk to them, not to treat them as humans, to not engage in conversation with them whatsoever. And the army sort of made a mistake by allowing somebody who is inclined to sociology and to studying people by leaving me with individuals from all over the world unsupervised for eight hours. I was very low in rank so I was delegated all the work, while those who were higher in rank were sitting in the air-conditioned shacks, nurturing their hangovers. So the instructions I was given were simple – don’t interact, don’t talk, they are not humans.RT: There have been reports of torture and other human rights violations happening at the prison camp. Could you tell us what you saw?TH: We can begin with experiences I had the pleasure of having. Myself, Eric Sarr and another Guantanamo guard were involved in this. Eric was a linguist and he was working with an interrogator.We took the detainee into interrogation and throughout the interrogation the interrogator took off her clothing. She essentially gave the detainee a lap dance, tried to arouse him and then let him believe that he had menstrual blood on him. We then took the detainee back to his cell and were told that he was not allowed to have shower privileges nor fresh water for days. The idea behind this being that if he could not clean himself he would not be able to pray, if he could not pray, he could not practice Islam. Essentially it was an idea to break him down spiritually.Omar Khadr and a number of other detainees, I remember hearing just few moments ago Shaker Aamer, they were privileged to something we called the frequent flyer program, where we would essentially move them every two hours. Whether we were moving them from camp Delta to camp Echo or moving them from Bravo block to Charlie block, be it a little move or a big move, the idea is that every two hours they would be moved and they would not be able to sleep. This was essentially to wear down their psyche and make them more probable to give out their information during interrogation. But what has questioned me ever since I first saw it, it seemed that most of these men were innocent and as numbers are starting to show, we’ve sent over 600 of them home, so they must have been innocent; if we knew that we were purchasing men that were innocent, why were we trying to interrogate innocent men? What were we hoping to get from them?Some of the tactics I saw practiced in Guantanamo, I just want to never want to relive again and then a great deal of regret takes place and then I did not take the most productive use of some years after Guantanamo. I tried to drown away some of those memories and that is something you cannot do. You have to confront it. … Read More
Keep Your Cool with Warm Weather Cooking Methods
As the mercury in the thermometer starts to climb, you may be looking for different ways to keep your home a bit cooler without an exponential increase in your electric bill. That battle starts in the kitchen. … Read More
‘Only way to end Gitmo strike fairly is to set cleared inmates free’
A fair trial would have been a natural step. To have all of the parties heard and resolve the crisis, believes Clive Stafford Smith, founder of legal group Reprieve, and an attorney for several detainees in the Guantánamo Bay camp.RT spoke to the activist who was first to reveal some of the harsh methods allegedly used in Guantanamo, including degrading body searches, which inmates have to undergo just to phone their representatives.RT: Why haven’t the U.S. authorities tried to negotiate an end to the hunger strike – instead of using controversial tactics like force-feeding or denying drinking water?Clive Stafford Smith: Of course in order to negotiate an end to the strike, we have to give justice to these prisoners. And we are talking about 96 of the 166 prisoners, who have been cleared for release, and that’s 52 per cent of them, including most of the people I represent. There’s only one way to end this strike fairly, and that’s to take prisoners who’ve been cleared for release and set them free. And Shaker Aamer, the last British resident, he could come back to London tomorrow if only President Obama would show him redemption and use the National Defense Authorization Act to let people go free. That’s the only way to solve this problem.RT: Is it not possible though, because Washington is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Here we have people who were scooped up from places like Afghanistan, put into Guantanamo Bay. Even if they weren’t radicalized before they arrived, they may have become radicalized because of their prison experience. CSS: I’ve been radicalized, I’m radicalized for justice not for violence. And that’s true for all the people I’ve represented. Every single prisoner, who’s been set free in Great Britain, and there’s been 14 of them, has behaved impeccably, when they came back here. Unless you think it’s wrong to go around telling the truth, giving speeches and writing books. None of them have done any criminal offense, save for one who got a traffic ticket one time. And it would be so perverse if we argued that we can snatch innocent people, abuse them for 11 years and say, because we’ve abused them, they might hate us, therefore we keep them forever. That’s ridiculous. RT: The hunger strike has gone on for 100 days. It is a long time without food. What can you tell us about the health conditions of your clients?CSS: Well I can, and I’m actually glad that a standard operating procedure for Guantanamo Bay was leaked this Monday. I have a copy of it. It’s not classified. And it corroborates everything my clients have been telling me about how the force-feeding is being done. And you know what’s really worrying about this is General Bantz Craddock of SOUTHCOM – back when they changed the protocol to make it more painful for prisoners – said they were doing it to make it “inconvenient” for the prisoners to keep on hunger striking. In the earlier days they used a smaller tube up one’s nose, it’s a 120cm long, and they would leave that tube in for weeks at a time. Now what they are doing is they are using larger tubes and they are sticking those up one’s nose twice a day and pulling them out again.RT: You revealed that Guantanamo detainees undergo full body cavity searches before they can contact their representatives. Camp authorities claim everything they do is lawful and justified. Isn’t this just normal practice in prisons?CSS: No, it’s not normal practice. But let’s face it – when my clients are coming to have a telephone call with me they can’t smuggle anything on a telephone line. And so the idea that they threaten the prisoners with full body search, and I won’t go into the really graphic part, but it’s basically a sexual assault, is just a threat to try to get them not to talk to us and frankly the reason for this is fairly obvious. That there’s been an awful lot of information coming out of Guantanamo Bay that doesn’t suit the authorities. Now they say what they say is the truth, we say what we say is the truth. Of course, the natural thing to do about this is to have a proper trial, but we are not allowed one of those. I’m confident that my clients are telling me the truth and just want that truth to come out of there.RT: How long has the practice of body searches been in place and has it prevented inmates from contacting their lawyers?CSS: The threat of the anal cavity search only came about ten or twelve days ago, and yes indeed it has. Last Friday two of my clients refused to have a call with me for the simple reason that they didn’t want to go through that process. I had one of the other lawyers from Reprieve, who was at the base last week and twice prisoners didn’t want to come out for a visit, because of what they’ve been threatened with. This is just not civilized. I speak as an American when I say we should not be doing this sort of thing. We are upholding the rule of law, not trying to suppress it. What’s sad about it is of course people at Guantanamo have studied what Muslim man are particularly sensitive to. And so one thing that obviously a conservative traditional Muslim male is not used to is having a stranger basically assault them sexually. And this is something which is far more humiliating for someone from Yemen, than it would be for someone perhaps from America. And these things have been studied rather carefully, so it’s a great tragedy that the US has used studies on how to be sensitive to Muslims and turned these around to use them to humiliate them. … Read More
Government preparing to fine tech firms that don’t comply with wiretaps
The government has for many years sought the means, through tech giants like Google and Facebook, to wiretap communications with the use of in-built backdoors. According to the Washington Post, a Justice Department task force, prompted by FBI efforts, is preparing legislation that would pressure companies such as Facebook and Google to comply with law enforcement wiretaps. Via WaPo:There is currently no way to wiretap some of these communications methods easily, and companies effectively have been able to avoid complying with court orders. While the companies argue that they have no means to facilitate the wiretap, the government, in turn, has no desire to enter into what could be a drawn-out contempt proceeding. Under the draft proposal, a court could levy a series of escalating fines, starting at tens of thousands of dollars, on firms that fail to comply with wiretap orders, according to persons who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. A company that does not comply with an order within a certain period would face an automatic judicial inquiry, which could lead to fines. After 90 days, fines that remain unpaid would double daily. … The proposal, however, is likely to encounter resistance, said industry officials and privacy advocates.Continue Reading… … Read More
US help might see Syrian rebels form alternate govt
It appears that the US State Department under John Kerry willsoon shift its focus to helping the rebels establish a full-fledgedalternative government on Syrian territory and recognize it as thelegal government of Syria. Such a move would legitimize thetransfer of heavy weaponry and would allow the US to directlyemploy air strikes or Patriot anti-missile batteries againstAssad’s forces.Some would argue that these moves could help to marginalize thenotable al-Qaeda presence among rebel forces. Pumping more arms andheavier weapons into Syria is unconscionable at this point, andcontinuing to do so will inevitably bolster the muscle and reach ofjihadi and Salafist fighters. The argument that the US and itsallies have only armed the “moderate” rebels is a deeply flawedone; weapons are in high demand by all rebel factions and there islittle means to effectively prevent arms from gravitating towardhardcore Al-Qaeda fighters.In his famous 1962 description of irregular warfare operations,US President John F. Kennedy alluded to “another type ofwarfare,” one that is “new in its intensity, ancient in itsorigin—war by guerrillas, subversives, insurgents, assassins; warby ambush instead of by combat, by infiltration instead ofaggression, seeking victory by eroding and exhausting the enemyinstead of engaging him. It preys on unrest.”After two harrowing years of division, senseless killing andcivil war, the scared Syrian nation and its people are wellacquainted with these unconventional methods of warfare denouncedover 50 years ago.Yet Western and Gulf states have proven their double standardsby enabling radicals elsewhere – lest we forget the presence ofLibyan military commander Abdulhakim Belhadj, former leader of themilitant Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (officially designated as aterrorist organization by the US State Department), who was sent toSyria to aid the Free Syrian Army on orders of the entity formerlyknown as the Libyan National Transition Council (NTC). The trackrecord of allied Western and Gulf states shows that they are moreinterested in enabling terrorism for their own purposes rather thanpreventing it.Since the eruption of violence in March 2011, Syria has enduredtargeted assassination campaigns, ceaseless suicide bombings andshelling, and massacres where infants have had their throats slitto the spine – the time has come for the opposition to engage theAssad government in dialogue and finally bring about a ceasefireand the total cessation of violence and insurgency.From the reports of third-party sniper-fire targeting bothprotesters and security personnel in the southern city of Daraa atthe very onset of the conflict, to the horrendous attacks on thestudents of Aleppo University in January 2013 – those who havecritically monitored the situation from the beginning are under noillusions – the influx of armament and mercenary elements fromabroad into Syria has brought the situation to where it is today.Western capitals have provided logistics, coordination, politicalsupport, and non-lethal aid, Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia andQatar have openly provided weapons and monthly salaries for rebelfighters, and Turkey has allowed rebel fighters to receive trainingand arms from the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in thesoutheastern part of the country, allowing militants to pass intoSyria freely.There are those who say that Syria is the subject of an internalrevolution that is brutally repressed by a malicious dictator, andthose who say instead that Syria is being attacked by foreignpowers who have deployed mercenaries and extremist fighters fromabroad to engage in the destruction of infrastructure and conducttargeted assassinations to bring about an end to the Assadregime. Despite Washington’s concerns of heavy weaponsfalling into the hands of Al-Qaeda-linked militants, the US-backedcampaign to coax regime change in Damascus has from the very onsetenabled militants who justify their acts of terror in the name of aperverted interpretation of Islam. Reports in the Washington Postindicate that US support for anti-government groups in Syria beganin 2005, transcending two presidential administrations:“The U.S. money for Syrian opposition figures beganflowing under President George W. Bush after he effectively frozepolitical ties with Damascus in 2005. The financial backing hascontinued under President Obama, even as his administration soughtto rebuild relations with Assad. Syrian authorities ‘wouldundoubtedly view any U.S. funds going to illegal political groupsas tantamount to supporting regime change,’ read an April 2009cable signed by the top-ranking U.S. diplomat in Damascus at thetime. ‘A reassessment of current U.S.-sponsored programming thatsupports anti-[government] factions, both inside and outside Syria,may prove productive,’ the cable said. The cables report persistentfears among U.S. diplomats that Syrian state security agents haduncovered the money trail from Washington.”The article describes how Washington funnelled about $12 millionto anti-government programs in Syria between 2005 and 2010 torecipients affiliated with the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. Israel,which is now illegally conducting exploratory drilling in theoccupied Golan Heights, and the US view the toppling of Damascus asa means of extinguishing the critical conduit between Iran andHezbollah, the political and militant Shi’a organization centeredin Southern Lebanon, in addition to helping isolate the Palestinianresistance.The non-violent route: Laying aside differencesBoth the incumbent Syrian authorities and the opposition mustfind strength to come to a mutually acceptable compromise. Theseparties have no other option than to search for a solution, laydown an agreeable constitutional basis for elections, and face eachother in international monitored polls once the situationstabilizes. The Syrian people must not have democracy imposed onthem, and the victor of this war should not be decided on thebattlefield, but by the ballot box.To gain the confidence of the electorate, election observers fromthe US, Qatar, Russia, and Iran could be sent to monitor thetransition process – if the people of Syria want Assad to remain inpower, then the rule of majority must be honored. Militant groupscomprised of mostly hard line foreign fighters such as Jabhatal-Nusra and the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham cannot be expected toparticipate in a ceasefire, so the true test of a short-termalliance between Assad and the SNC would be in its ability tocooperate in quelling radical militants and restoring stability –such is a perquisite for any kind of transition.Former US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton once threatened Russiaand China that they would “pay a price” for their position on theSyrian issue. It should be noted that these powers maintained abalanced approach throughout and advocated dialogue from the start,in addition to stringently adhering to former UN Envoy Kofi Annan’ssix point peace plan. Iran should also be given due credit forhosting an International Consultative Conference in August 2012,which brought together representatives of thirty nations to callfor ending the flow of foreign arms into terrorist hands insideSyria, proposals to broker a meaningful ceasefire, the coordinationof humanitarian aid, and support for Syrian people’s right toreform without foreign interference.Accommodating diversity in Syrian societyIranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted in theWashington Post stating, “Syrian society is a beautiful mosaicof ethnicities, faiths and cultures, and it will be smashed topieces should President Bashar Assad abruptly fall. The idea that,in that event, there would be an orderly transition of power is anillusion. Abrupt political change without a roadmap for managedpolitical transition will lead only to a precarious situation thatwould destabilize one of the world’s most sensitive regions.”It is clear that the Assad government is more stable than manyWestern states anticipated, and it continues to enjoy popularsupport.Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah recently warned againstsectarian infighting in Lebanon related to the Syrian civil war,arguing that outsiders are pushing Lebanon “toward civil andreligious strife, and specifically Sunni-Shia strife.” Iraqi PMNouri al-Maliki also warned that a victory for rebels would“create a new extremist haven and destabilize the wider MiddleEast.” The Syrian regime will not imminently collapse but if itis brought down by military intervention, the consequences couldlead to a highly unpredictable situation where match and tinder canmeet at any moment with debilitating consequences for the region.It is time for both parties to convene. It is time to end thiswar.Selective supportReports published in 2007 in the New Yorker by veteranjournalist Seymour Hersh detail how the US, Israel and Saudi Arabiasupported a regional network of extremist fighters and terroristsaffiliated with al-Qaeda with the aim of stomping out Hezbollah andSyria’s Assad in a bid to isolate Iran, who is viewed as anexistential threat to the US and its allies in the region. Aprincipal component of this policy shift was the bolstering ofSunni extremist groups, hence the ever-deepening sectarian natureof the Syrian conflict:“To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, theBush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure itspriorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration hascooperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, inclandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, theShiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also takenpart in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. Aby-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunniextremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and arehostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.”While the CIA has purportedly claimed to distribute arms only to“secular” and “moderate” rebel forces, Washingtoninsiders from various academic and think-tank circles have openlyendorsed bizarre positions in favor of integrating terrorists intoSyria’s rebel forces. “Al-Qaeda’s Specter in Syria,” penned byCouncil on Foreign Relations senior fellow Ed Husain, argues infavor of Al-Qaeda terrorists and their inclusion in the Free SyrianArmy, stating, “The influx of jihadis brings discipline,religious fervour, battle experience from Iraq, funding from Sunnisympathizers in the Gulf, and most importantly, deadly results. Inshort, the FSA needs al-Qaeda now.” Foreign Policy’s, “TwoCheers for Syrian Islamists,” penned by Gary Gambill of the heavilyneo-conservative Middle East Forum, argues in favor of Al-Qaeda,“Islamists — many of them hardened by years of fighting U.S.forces in Iraq — are simply more effective fighters than theirsecular counterparts. Assad has had extraordinary difficultycountering tactics perfected by his former jihadist allies,particularly suicide bombings and roadside bombs.”While many Western media outlets once likened Syria’s rebels topro-democracy freedom fighters, it has become more challenging toview them as anything other than Salafist radicals – the former’sexistence was amplified specifically to provide cover andlegitimacy for the violence and subversion of the latter. As aresult of a foreign-backed insurgency, the Assad regime resorted totactics of shelling and conducing air strikes on rebel strongholds,which were mostly in densely populated urban areas. It should notbe denied that these heavy-handed tactics have also led to asubstantial and regrettable loss of life.The Friends of Syria group recently convened in Rome, where theUS State Department has pledged $60 million to help the oppositionmaintain “the institutions of the state” in areas under theircontrol, such as establishing terms of governance, the rule of law,and police forces. Reports have also claimed that the US is alsodeliberating more open engagement in Syria under newly appointed USSecretary of State John Kerry, however Washington has stopped shortof openly providing arms and military training. American andwestern officials have told the New York Times that Saudi Arabiahas recently financed a large purchase of infantry weapons fromCroatia and funnelled them to Syrian rebel groups. Although theUnited States is not credited with providing arms to rebel forces,the New York Times has reported the presence of CIA operatives insouthern Turkey since June 2012, who are distributing weapons withthe Obama administration’s blessing. US spokesperson Jay Carney wasquoted as saying, “We will continue to provide assistance to theSyrian people, to the Syrian opposition, we will continue toincrease our assistance in the effort to bring about a post-AssadSyria.”In early March 2013, the Syrian National Council (SNC) will meetin Istanbul to form a provisional government that would overseerebel-held areas of the country. This wouldn’t be the first timethe SNC has attempted to form a government; previous attempts inJanuary 2013 fell apart, with many factions refusing to consider aprime ministerial nominee. SNC President Moaz al-Khatib has angeredseveral factions for proposing his readiness to negotiate with theAssad government, a position that many in the opposition refuse toaccept.The Syrian Ambassador to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari has urged theFriends of Syria states to convince the Syrian opposition to sitdown for an unconditional national dialogue, which al-Khatib hasexpressed his willingness to take part in. One could surmise thatal-Khatib’s shift toward dialogue indicates that the SNC is feelingless secure and more wary of a possible military defeat or rivalrywith radical factions. Such a dialogue would undoubtedly representa step in the right direction. Despite political differences andtwo years of deep conflict, these two parties must establish agenuine ceasefire and partnership to restore a climate of normalitythroughout the country. In this context, both parties must be ableto agree on coordinating aid distribution to all parts of thecountry.International recognition of a provisional SNC government wouldonly create further divisions at a time when national unity is mostneeded. Although rebel-held areas are badly isolated and in need ofhumanitarian supplies, the delivery of aid must be facilitatedthrough direct talks and partnership between Moaz al-Khatib’sSyrian National Council and Bashar Al-Assad’s government.Nile Bowie for RTThe statements, views and opinionsexpressed in this column are solely those of the author and do notnecessarily represent those of RT. … Read More
Nate Silver, Microsoft researcher analyze Oscar voting: ‘they provide for plenty of parallels to political campaigns’
Nate Silver, Microsoft Researcher Analyze the Oscars Nate Silver, famous for applying rigorous statistical methods to U.S. political elections, has focused his predictive powers on a somewhat more lighthearted topic: this weekend’s Academy Awards. “The Oscars, in which the voting franchise is…
Panetta admits to torture in the hunt for Bin Laden
http://www.youtube.com/v/-5g8MuPKECE?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata Read More: Panetta admits to torture in the hunt for Bin Laden
