Torture Awareness Month and The Torture Report Diary

[Solly Mack]

Throughout the month of June, we’re observing Torture Awareness Month by posting a formerly-secret document every day on the Torture Report Diary.


The Torture Report, an initiative of the ACLU’s National Security Project, aims to give the full account of the Bush administration’s torture program. It will bring together everything we know from government documents, investigations, press reports, witness statements and other publications into a single narrative – one that is updated regularly and subject to critical review and improvement as it unfolds.

This Diary page will guide you through newly added sections, recent additions and changes and other relevant information about the Report.

Document a Day: The Plan Has Been Signed Off On

Document a Day: Orchestrated Torture

Document a Day: Calling the Illegal "Legal"

Chapter 1 - Origins

[Solly Mack]

1. kick

It won't go away

[G_j]

2. K&R

Thank you for posting this!

[EFerrari]

3. Kick

[chill_wind]

4. K & R.

Thank you Solly for keeping consciousness alive.

[Senator]

5. And Everyday, Obama Drives The Torture Getaway Car

With no awareness that it will be his ONLY legacy.

---

[Solly Mack]

6. Document a Day: “We Need to Take a Deep Breath”

LINK


Document a Day: Tortured to Death


Document a Day: Abuse as Standard Operating Procedure

[Senator]

8. "...you're doing it wrong.”

“If the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong.”

And it's murder. No statute of limitations. Never going away.

--

[Solly Mack]

9. And several, that we know of, were murdered...

and we still don't know everything

[Solly Mack]

7. Document a Day: The “Gun and Drill” Incident

Document a Day: The “Gun and Drill” Incident


Document a Day: Early Reports of Abuse



Coming in June: A Document a Day

On June 26, 2003, President Bush marked the day by issuing this statement:

Today, on the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the United States declares its strong solidarity with torture victims across the world. Torture anywhere is an affront to human dignity everywhere. We are committed to building a world where human rights are respected and protected by the rule of law.

Freedom from torture is an inalienable human right. The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, ratified by the United States and more than 130 other countries since 1984, forbids governments from deliberately inflicting severe physical or mental pain or suffering on those within their custody or control. Yet torture continues to be practiced around the world by rogue regimes whose cruel methods match their determination to crush the human spirit. Beating, burning, rape, and electric shock are some of the grisly tools such regimes use to terrorize their own citizens. These despicable crimes cannot be tolerated by a world committed to justice.

Notorious human rights abusers, including, among others, Burma, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, and Zimbabwe, have long sought to shield their abuses from the eyes of the world by staging elaborate deceptions and denying access to international human rights monitors….

The United States is committed to the world-wide elimination of torture and we are leading this fight by example. I call on all governments to join with the United States and the community of law-abiding nations in prohibiting, investigating, and prosecuting all acts of torture and in undertaking to prevent other cruel and unusual punishment….

End the lies and hypocrisy - prosecute.

[Jefferson23]

32. Thank you for posting Solly Mack. n/t

[mod mom]

10. k & r

[Solly Mack]

11. For today - Document a Day: “If you think this is tough . . .”

Document a Day: “If you think this is tough . . .”

[Solly Mack]

12. Monday. Document a Day: Old Torture Made New

Document a Day: Old Torture Made New

[Solly Mack]

13. Tuesday. Document a Day: Interrogators Ordered This Treatment

Document a Day: Interrogators Ordered This Treatment

[Scurrilous]

14. Kick

:thumbsup:

[Solly Mack]

15. Wednesday. Document a Day: A Repentant Persecutor

Document a Day: A Repentant Persecutor

[spanone]

16. k&r

Error: you can only recommend threads which were started in the past 24 hours

[Soylent Brice]

17. KICK

[Solly Mack]

18. Thank you everyone for keeping this thread kicked.

I'll try and post the next document-a-day as it becomes available...around 4 PM EDT. Should someone get to it before me...that's OK too. :)

[Solly Mack]

19. Thursday. Document a Day: Not Even if Ordered

Document a Day: Not Even if Ordered

[bobthedrummer]

20. Kick

[mmonk]

21. Thanks Solly.

[Solly Mack]

22. Friday. Document a Day: Looking for Cover

Document a Day: Looking for Cover



A very apt document to release on this day.

[Solly Mack]

23. Kick. In case someone wants to read today's document.

[leftstreet]

24. Kick

Solly, thanks for putting all this together AND for kicking it.

Easy to miss things here

[bobthedrummer]

25. Kick

:patriot:

[spanone]

26. Error: you can only recommend threads which were started in the past 24 hours

[Solly Mack]

27. Kick

No new document today...just keeping it kicked. Makes it easier to find later. :)

[Solly Mack]

28. Another "Thank You" for helping me keep this kicked.

Thank you one and all!!!

[bobthedrummer]

29. kick

[Solly Mack]

30. Monday, the 21st. Document a Day: Generic Torture

Document a Day: Generic Torture


Thank you everyone!

[Solly Mack]

31. kick

:D

[Solly Mack]

33. kick

I kick it if the thread is on page 5 or 6 with still a few hours to go until a new document. Thank you for your patience, tolerance and support.

[amborin]

34. K&R and the return of knuckles:

http://motherjones.com/media/2010/06/mark-fiore-torture-obama-knuckles

[Solly Mack]

35. I saw that

:(

[Solly Mack]

36. 6-22-10. Document a Day: I Believe the Technique Used Was Acceptable

Document a Day: I Believe the Technique Used Was Acceptable

[Solly Mack]

37. :)

[Solly Mack]

38. 6-23-10. Document a Day: What We’ve Seen, What We Haven’t Seen

Document a Day: What We’ve Seen, What We Haven’t Seen

[Solly Mack]

39. kick

[Solly Mack]

40. Chapter 2 - Experimenting With Torture

Chapter 2 - Experimenting With Torture

[Solly Mack]

41. Chapter 3 - Black Sites, Lies, and Videotapes

Chapter 3 - Black Sites, Lies, and Videotapes

[Solly Mack]

43. Chapter 4, Part 1 - A Ponzi Scheme of Torture

Chapter 4, Part 1 - A Ponzi Scheme of Torture

[Solly Mack]

44. Chapter 4, Part 2 – A Ponzi Scheme of Torture

Chapter 4, Part 2 – A Ponzi Scheme of Torture

[Solly Mack]

45. Chapter 4, Part 3 (new) – A Ponzi Scheme of Torture

Chapter 4, Part 3 (new) – A Ponzi Scheme of Torture

[Solly Mack]

42. 6-24-10. Document a Day: The Waterboarding Tapes We’ll Never See

Document a Day: The Waterboarding Tapes We’ll Never See

[Solly Mack]

46. 6-25-10. Document a Day: More “Missing” Evidence

Document a Day: More “Missing” Evidence

[Hell Hath No Fury]

47. Thank you for this.

To think this is still going on in secret prisons disgusts me.

[Solly Mack]

48. You're welcome, HHNF.

[Solly Mack]

49. kick

[Solly Mack]

50. International Day in Support of Victims of Torture - June 26, 2010

"Torture seeks to annihilate the victim’s personality and denies the inherent dignity of the human being. The United Nations has condemned torture from the outset as one of the vilest acts perpetrated by human beings on their fellow human beings.

Torture is a crime under international law. According to all relevant instruments, it is absolutely prohibited and cannot be justified under any circumstances. This prohibition forms part of customary international law, which means that it is binding on every member of the international community, regardless of whether a State has ratified international treaties in which torture is expressly prohibited. The systematic or widespread practice of torture constitutes a crime against humanity."

[Solly Mack]

51. Sticks and stones break bones, but songs can hurt forever

Sticks and stones break bones, but songs can hurt forever

As the UN marks its International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, victims' advocates warn that torture that leaves no physical scars – like torture by music – can be as devastating as other techniques.

[Solly Mack]

52. June 26, is the United Nations' International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

Open Forum: June 26, is the United Nations' International Day in Support of Victims of Torture



"The CIA engaged health professionals to pursue unethical and illegal research and experimentation on detainees held by the agency in their secret "black site"prisons. Our report for Physicians for Human Rights documents that health professionals, including psychologists, used detainees as research guinea pigs, inflicting and then studying the effects of varying levels and combinations of harmful "enhanced interrogation" techniques, such as stress positions, slaps, sleep deprivation and waterboarding, to assess their effects. The resulting data was used by the CIA and Justice Department lawyers to permit the use of tactics that our government had always previously regarded as torture.

Legal prohibition against unethical research was weakened during the period that these egregious practices were implemented. The 2006 revisions to the War Crimes Act, made retroactive to 1997, reduced protections for research on military and CIA detainees....."

[Solly Mack]

53. Torture remains prevalent in too many countries, UN warns

Torture remains prevalent in too many countries, UN warns

26 June 2010 – Too many countries are still practising or tolerating “cruel, degrading and illegal” acts of torture, top United Nations officials said today as they pledged the UN's solidarity with the millions of torture victims worldwide.



“The prohibition of torture is absolute and unambiguous,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message marking the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. “Torture cannot be justified under any circumstances whatsoever, whether during a state of war or in response to terrorism, political instability or any other public emergency.”




UN High Commissioner of Human Rights Navi Pillay used her message for the Day to warn that no one suspected of committing torture should be allowed to benefit from an amnesty.




“Torturers, and their superiors, need to hear the following message loud and clear: however powerful you are today, there is a strong chance that sooner or later you will be held to account for your inhumanity,” she said.

[Solly Mack]

54. These 150,000 Pages Demand Accountability

These 150,000 Pages Demand Accountability

"As you know if you’ve been keeping up with the “Document a Day,” all month long we’ve been commemorating “Torture Awareness Month” by highlighting documents from the voluminous pages of previously secret government records that show that hundreds of prisoners were abused or tortured in U.S. custody, and that the torture policies were devised and developed at the highest levels of the Bush administration. However, there has been very little public outcry for meaningful accountability, and despite the extensive documentation that exists, the U.S. has yet to hold any high-level officials accountable for their roles in the torture program."

[Solly Mack]

55. kick for Monday

[bobthedrummer]

56. Monday, monday kick

[Solly Mack]

58. Thank you, btd!

[Solly Mack]

57. 6-28-10. Document a Day: Obstructing Justice Overseas

Document a Day: Obstructing Justice Overseas

[bobthedrummer]

59. Cheney Is Linked to Concealment of CIA Project (Scott Shane NYT 7-11-09 via CommonDreams)

"Leon Panetta alledgedly ended the program June 23, 2009

The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, the agency's director, Leon E. Panetta, has told the Senate and House intelligence committees, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday..."

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/07/11-5

That was about one year ago-it's not a document--though many of US get it.

[Solly Mack]

60. Thank you!

The more the better!

[Solly Mack]

61. 6-29-10. Document a Day: Layers of Concealment

[Solly Mack]

62. Oops! Hafta fix my link.

Document a Day: Layers of Concealment


Sorry!

[Solly Mack]

63. There's a new document up.

Almost done for the month. Thank you to everyone for their help.


If we just forget or pretend it didn't happen - or find that we're just too busy to worry about someone's penis being sliced up in some far-away country, then we have made the choice to accept torture as just something else we have to live with...we make the choice to give up when that happens. We become complicit.

Our past doesn't have to be our future....move forward with honor. Move forward with dignity. Move forward with integrity....by moving forward with prosecutions.

[midnight]

64. Wish I would of seen this earlier so I could of voted it up.

[Solly Mack]

65. Thank you for kicking the thread!

I'm waiting on today's document and will post it shortly.

[G_j]

66. bump

[Solly Mack]

72. Thank you, G_j!

[bobthedrummer]

67. The Torture Archive: more than 83,000 full text, indexed pages from The National Security Archive

it's the end of the month, Solly Mack, so here's another kick +
The Torture Archive
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/torture_archive/index.htm

[Solly Mack]

68. Thank you so very much, bobthedrummer!!

I appreciate it!

I'm still waiting to see if there will be a document today. So far...none.


ETA...no sooner said than updated! (new document up)...and it's a good one!

[Solly Mack]

69. 6-30-10. Document a Day: The Secret Beginning

Document a Day: The Secret Beginning

[Solly Mack]

70. If you haven't bothered to read the other documents - READ TODAY'S!!!

[Solly Mack]

71. As Torture Awareness Month comes to a close and the nation prepares

to celebrate its independence, let us not forget the stench that lingers over our country still...not just the stench of torture... of war crimes and crimes against humanity...but the stench that comes from pretending those things never happened. Make a choice to stand for those ideals the nation will be celebrating in a few short days.

Remember the victims of our government's torture program.

Remember them and ask yourself if the promise of America means allowing war criminals to go free.


Thank you for your recommends and kicks.

[G_j]

73. 'moving on'

is the greatest sin of all. It gives license to others, and severely erodes human rights standards around the world.

[Solly Mack]

74. When you know no one can stop you and no one will ever hold you accountable

then any atrocity is possible.

ETA..well, it isn't really about someone not being able to stop you...because it was more a case of those who could do it - refused to do it.

[Overseas]

75. K&R! //nt