Monday, March 12, 2007
Excerpt on the Present State of Iraq
NEWS BRIEF: "Marked for death: where tattoos are a barcode on lost relatives", by Ned Parker and Saad Abdul Wahab, Times Online, March 10, 2007
"Tattoos, once the domain of the low-life criminals, hard drinkers and gamblers of Baghdad, now serve a practical purpose for ordinary Iraqis. Middle-class men are getting tattoos to spare their families the misery of visiting morgues and police stations in vain for loved ones abducted by death squads or killed in a bombing. They believe that the markings will act as a human bar-code and help their families to identify them. At least 200 unclaimed bodies are buried every week in Iraq."
Can you believe this kind of practical macabre thinking and planning? So many people are being killed every week in Baghdad that at least 200 bodies cannot be identified. Therefore, people are turning to tattoos as a means by which a loved one can identify their dead body!
These people have lost so much hope that they expect to be murdered soon!
Can you know understand how it can be true that the average citizen throughout Iraq are now wishing that the old "repressive" regime of Saddam Hussein could come back?
Cutting Edge has long taught that, in these most deceptive days, you must look to the opposite end of the public rhetoric to discover the truth. Nowhere is this principle more appropriate than this Iraqi War! Please consider:
1) President Bush says that he ordered the invasion of Iraq to "liberate" the people and bring peace.
The reality is that this invasion has thrust the citizens of Iraq into an oppression of all-out civil war and wanton murder. The only "peace" these poor citizens know now is the "peace of the grave".
2) President Bush said that he ordered the invasion of Iraq so that Saddam could not use his WMD against his neighboring countries.
The reality is that Bush was deliberately lying. Saddam had abandoned his WMD program shortly after the 1991 Gulf War.
3) President Bush said that he only wants force "democracy" upon Iraq -- whether they want it or not!
The reality is that Bush has forced a Depleted Uranium genocide upon all of Iraq and surrounding countries at least 1,000 miles away from the battlefields. Within 20 more years, Iraq and Afghanistan will be unlivable, with the vast majority of its citizens dead or dying.
We can only read this news article and weep.
Labels: inhuman torture, insecurity, Iraq war fiasco, Iraqi quagmire
Thursday, January 11, 2007
National Call-in Day to End Torture
While the newspapers are filled today with accounts of President Bush's plan to escalate the Iraq war -and we hope that you are contacting Congress or otherwise demonstrating your opposition to this insane plan - we must also remember that today is an important anniversary in Bush's so-called "war on terror."
Five years ago today, on January 11th, 2002, twenty hooded and shackled men shuffled off a plane from Afghanistan, arriving at the U.S. prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Since that day, more than one thousand men and boys have been imprisoned at Guantanamo amid accounts of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, with absolutely no legal recourse in what amounts to a judicial black hole.
On the fifth anniversary of that dark day, we say: no more. Hundreds of peace and justice activists will be risking arrest to deliver the names of Guantanamo prisoners into the judicial system in Washington D.C. today, January 11, 2007. We ask you to support them and help us bring our nation back to the side of humanity, justice and the rule of law.
Call your members of Congress through the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and demand that
• Guantanamo Bay prison be closed;
• all detainees there be either charged and tried, or released;
• torture and all other forms of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment by the U.S. military, the CIA, prison guards, civilian contractors, or anyone else, be clearly and unequivocally forbidden.
It is incredible but true: not a single prisoner at Guantanamo has been charged, tried or convicted of any crime. Many prisoners have been released because no evidence has been found against them, yet more than 430 people continue to languish in indefinite detention without hope of release, fair trial, or even a hearing on the charges against them Fear and desperation mark their confinement. The prisoners have resorted to hunger strikes as a way of protesting their treatment, and many have attempted suicide.
We cannot claim to be a just or humane society while our government abandons all accepted standards of justice and law, both our own and international law.
Please call your members of Congress today through the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121. Demand that Guantanamo Bay prison be closed; that all detainees there be either charged and tried or released; and that torture and all other forms of cruel, inhuman by any agent or employee of the U.S. government or armed forces be clearly and unequivocally forbidden.
Thank you for participating in this International Day of Action to End Torture and Close Guantanamo, for acting on behalf of our fellow human beings in Guantánamo, and for joining us to defend the law and our common humanity.
Demonstrators rallied at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and around the globe to call for the closure of the US prison, five years after its first "war on terror" detainee arrived. Around 395 people are
being held at the controversial US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, most without legal safeguards such as access to courts or legal counsel. UN chief Ban Ki-moon joined in the world refrain, saying "like my predecessor (Kofi Annan), I believe the prison should be closed." His comments came as the London-based human rights group Amnesty International appealed to world powers to press the United States to shut down the prison at the US enclave at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
SBS World News
Labels: Gitmo Bay, Guantanamo Bay, inhuman torture, Iraq war, unjust imprisonment, war on terror
Friday, December 29, 2006
End Torture and Shut Down Guantanamo
On January 11th, 2002, twenty hooded and shackled men shuffled off a plane from Afghanistan, arriving at the U.S. prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
In an attempt to sidestep the Geneva Convention protections for prisoners of war, the Bush administration created a new category of “enemy combatant” for these men captured in the
“war on terror.”
Since that time, more than one thousand men and boys have been imprisoned at Guantánamo. Accounts of cruel, inhuman, and degrading
treatment have been condemned by the United Nations, Human Rights Watch and other reputable bodies. The prisoners have resorted to hunger strikes as a way of protesting their treatment, and many have attempted suicide; three men killed themselves on June 10, 2006. Fear and desperation mark their confinement.
Five years later, not a single prisoner has been charged, tried or convicted of any crime. January 11th, 2007 marks five years of unjust
imprisonment, isolation, beatings, interrogation and abuse. We say: no more. We must say: no longer.
Click here to join the International Day of Action to End Torture and Shut Down Guantanamo on the fifth anniversary of that prison’s ignominious entry into the war on terror, January 11, 2007.
Many prisoners have been released because no evidence has been found against them, yet more than 430 people continue to languish in indefinite detention without hope of release, fair trial, or even a hearing on the charges against them. The outgoing Republican-led Congress
passed laws to condone or cover up many of these grossly illegal and immoral actions. The United States government has abandoned law and justice.
For our nation of laws, for our democracy, for our humanity and theirs, we demand small but essential steps to help return our nation to the best of our own traditions.
In addition to a major action in Washington, D.C., where names of detainees will be delivered to a federal court, local actions and vigils will be taking place across the country and the world, from Amsterdam to Boise, Idaho. To find out how you can take part and join the International Day of Action to End Torture and Shut Down Guantanamo on January 11, 2007, click here.
This International Day of Action is being organized by Witness Against Torture, and co-sponsored by Peace Action Education Fund and many other peace and justice organizations. Specifically, the January 11 actions will call on the United States government to:
• Repeal the Military Commissions Act and restore Habeas Corpus.
• Charge and try or release all detainees.
• Withhold funds for the proposed $125 million construction of new military courts at Guantánamo.
• Clearly and unequivocally forbid torture and all other forms of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, by the military, the CIA, prison guards, civilian contractors, or anyone else.
• Pay reparations to current and former detainees and their families for violations of their human rights.
• Shut down Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram and all other U.S. prisons overseas, including secret CIA detention facilities.
We will be marking January 11, 2007 as a day of national shame. But we can also mark it as a day of citizen action. How? By acting on behalf of our fellow human beings in Guantánamo, their bereaved families and all victims of the “war on terrorism.”
We declare January 11, 2007 an International Day of Action to End Torture and Shut Down Guantánamo. Click here to find out more about the action in Washington, D.C. that day or to find out about vigils or actions at courthouses, federal buildings and public squares in your own communities – or to plan one of your own. (Also, be ready to spread the word for a national call-in day on January 11 as well.)
The stakes are too high to be silent any longer. Thank you for joining us to defend the law and our common humanity on January 11, 2007 during the International Day of Action to End Torture and Shut Down Guantanamo.Labels: Geneva Convention, Guantánamo Bay, inhuman torture, unjust imprisonment
