torture
May 24, 2009
- The opacity of oppressive regimes obscures truth and harsh realities. But last month a video implicating Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan, brother of the President of the United Arab Emirates, in the torture of an Afghani grain dealer was smuggled out of the country by a Houston businessman. Supposedly the dealer had shorted Sheikh Issa out of US$5,000 worth of grain. For his alleged sin, he ...
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May 22, 2009
- There are true stories that are unfortunate. Then there are true stories that are really really unfortunate. I was kidnapped, tortured, robbed and released while traveling on business in Shenzhen, China, exactly 5 years, 21 days and 14.5 hours ago but who’s counting. At this pt in time feels like it happened to somebody else.I’m a bona fide New Yorker with street smarts so it is embarrassing ...
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May 20, 2009
- I'm sick of torture. And the fact that we're one of the countries way up there on the J.D. Powers annual "torture reliability" list makes me unwell as well. As does talking AROUND torture. What this country needs is an up front national referendum on whether we should or shouldn't be torturing people. Oh wait. That's right, we did have one. Last November 4th. These aren't your normal ...
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May 19, 2009
- What if Senator Bob Graham, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, are both telling the truth when they say they were lied to by the CIA, and Dick Cheney? Graham reportedly now claims that he was never briefed on the NSA's warrantless surveillance program just as Pelosi repeatedly says she was lied to about the use of so-called enhanced alternative interrogation techniques.
Increasingly, claiming ...
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May 15, 2009
- Pop Quiz:What crazy, right-wing extremist made the following comments/decisions in the last 48 hours?1. - Our current deficit spending is unsustainable and will result in skyrocketing interest rates for consumers. That we are mortgaging our children's futures.2. - That military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay should continue rather than release these terror suspects into our civilian courts.3. - That ...
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May 11, 2009
- The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats [published after the Great War of 1914-1918]Turning and turning in the widening gyreThe falcon can not hear the falconer.Things fall apart; the center can not hold;Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhereThe ceremony of innocence is drowned;The best lack all conviction, while the worstAre full of passionate ...
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April 27, 2009
- This conversation on torture is getting to an important point, that of activism and communication. Ultimately, how to construct consciousness of the kind of issues and of political violence we address in Plunder and in the Plunder Blog. I attach here a note that I eceived from a young Palestinian scholar. Images might make a big difference and perhaps some serius effort in using images as forms ...
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April 26, 2009
- Yoo and Bybee, among others, were the authors of the so-called Torture Memos. See my article here. Scott Horton, whom I quote in that piece, talks about culpability of lawyers who give intentionally incorrect legal advice in order to facilitate a crime. Is this what Yoo and Bybee were doing? Back in the mid-1990's, when I was in law school, I worked at the Executive Office of Immigration Review ...
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April 25, 2009
- I completely agree with both Michele and John. On the power of ideas and particularly on their power if they can originate some critical thinking that clearly exposes past horrors (which are still current).I really hope that Obama reads Galeano. That book was out there for almost fourty years and it would have been nice if it had already read it! But of course it had the "stigma" of ...
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April 24, 2009
- I have a couple of gripes, sorry for posting them: sometimes I can't help myself. First: What happened to unbiased reporting?I seem to remember there being a basic tenet of of news that reporters were to report on the news to the best of their ability, to show all sides, to dig deep and figure out the truths of the story. I honestly remember that being part of the curriculum in my Social Studies ...
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