The report published today by the US Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by Dianne Feinstein, makes horrifying, even disgusting, reading. The tactics used against prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay or foreign CIA black sites (i.e. torture chambers) included water-boarding (simulated drowning), ‘rectal rehydration’ (leading to anal fissures and rectal prolapse), sleep deprivation for a week or more imposed on those shackled, forced to stand and naked, hooding, iced-water immersion, slamming against walls, and threats of sexual and physical violence against prisoners’ families.
The Senate committee also notes that at least 26 of the detainees were ‘wrongfully held’, and the evidence used against them was often based on hearsay or mere rumour. In extreme cases Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was water-boarded 183 times, and Abu Zubaydah 83 times who emerged an utterly broken man – maybe the aim of the exercise. This was justified by the CIA on the grounds that the information extorted by torture ‘saved lives’ by revealing future plots. The Senate committee after years of investigation stated it could find not a single case of this kind, only that torture revealed false information (anything to stave off further torture) or information already gleaned by more traditional forms of intelligence gathering. Continue reading
Ten years ago this week, 100,000 American troops were assembled in
The news today that 3 more NATO troops have been killed by Afghan soldiers – bringing the number of such murders to 15 in this month alone and 45 this year so far – is serious enough, but it hides a much more disturbing background. It has been dismissed as a series of random killings, not connected by any common thread, simply the result of personal grudges. However, a recent US military psychologists’ investigation found that it actually reflected deeply ingrained hate stereotypes on both sides. 
The nature of the British state and the government’s contempt for personal freedom come to a head with new laws proposed for the Queen’s Speech next month. It was already known that the government intended to bring forward a law to allow the police and MI5/6, without a warrant, to access data from every phone call, email, text message and internet browsing. Now the government is proposing to add secret courts to total surveillance. 