No. Torture Is Not Okay. Ever.

Melissa Melton

Editor’s Note: In light of the revelation that Chicago was hosting a black site and that torture isn’t just coming home to roost but already here (and the mainstream media is basically covering it up by ignoring it), this seemed pertinent to post.

Below is an excerpt of something I posted on social media back after Dick Frankenstein Zombie Cheney was doing the rounds with his sick pro-torture stance following the release of the excerpt of the redacted torture report, but I decided to share it on Truthstream today.

If Chicago has a black site where Americans can be disappeared by the police who are supposed to serve and protect them, taken without their Miranda rights read and essentially held without charge for days at a time or longer, questioned without any legal representation, and yes, tortured,do you really think there aren’t other cities doing the same thing right now right under the thin veil of societal normalcy we barely have left in modern America today?

7 Ways the Matrix Coerces Public Consent for Torture

Sigmund Fraud

Cleverly at work for the dark side, the corporate media isn’t going into great detail about the recent discovery that the Chicago Police Department has for years been operating a secret, off-site, extra-judicial, unconstitutional detention and interrogation center in a nondescript warehouse on the West side of the Windy City. Americans, so the talking heads would have us believe, have more important things to busy ourselves with.

The protest against this outrage is growing, however, because at Homan Square, as it’s known, the local police ‘disappear’ American citizens before charging them with any crime. They hide them there for hours or days without the knowledge of lawyers, family, or friends, interrogating, threatening, abusing and at times coming up with cleverly inhumane ways to torture them.

Think Gitmo, think Abu Ghraib. Think Pol Pot, think Mao. Pardon my French here, but, c’est quoi ce bordel?

This sort of thing has always been in the play books of imperialists and barbarians, but in just over a short decade in the ‘land of the free,’ torture has clawed its gory soul into mainstream ideology, and it’s making the death march to becoming acceptable public policy for your local police goons. Who, by the way, are already up-armed to the teeth and better equipped than most of the world’s national armies.

Chicago “Black Site” Suggests America Has Passed the Point of No Return

Joshua Krause

This past week, the creepy “Homan Square” detention facility was revealed to the public, and the story has been trending heavily throughout the alternative media. First-person accounts of suspects being whisked away to the secret building without any official record of their whereabouts, with no access to a lawyer, while being subjected brutal interrogations, sounds like something you’d hear about from some 3rd world dictatorship.

But, unfortunately, it’s happening right here in America as we speak. And if this facility existed for so long without the public’s knowledge, that begs the question: are there any more of these police run “black sites” that we don’t know about?

Deli Customers Dragged into Chicago’s Secret Prison by Masked Police

Cassius Methyl

On September 29th 2011, a group of masked men burst into the Paseo Boricua Grocery & Deli in Chicago.

Witnesses say they initially thought it was a robbery. It turned out to be the police showing up to kidnap five men taking them to the secret detention warehouse known as Homan Square, a facility just publicly uncovered last week that sparked a protests in Chicago and nationwide.

Demands to Shut Down Homan Square Grow, 1,500 Expected to Protest in Chicago Saturday

Nick Bernabe

Nationwide opposition to the Chicago Police’s secret detention facility known as Homan Square is growing rapidly.

It was revealed last week that the CPD is using CIA-like tactics on suspected criminals and American dissidents — denying them of due process and basic rights.

Since then, a massive movement to shut down Homan Square has grown online and in Chicago, as well as around the country.

‘Black Site’ Discovered in Chicago, So Where Else Are American Police Disappearing People?

Nick Bernabe

The Chicago Police Department has been caught denying Americans due process; disappearing, torturing, and even killing people in an ominous building called Homan Square.

Following a bombshell report published by The Guardian last Tuesday and subsequent reporting by independent media, Americans are up in arms over this facility.

4 More Victims Come Forward From Chicago Secret Prison, Man Tortured Over Weed

Cassius Methyl

Four more victims of incarceration at Chicago’s Guantanamo Bay style secret detention/torture center,known as Homan Square, have come out and spoken to The Guardian about their experience being essentially treated like cattle.

They are four black males, Brock Terry, Kory Wright, Deandre Hutcherson and David Smith. Three of them were held in 2006, and one in 2011.

They were kicked in the genitals while helpless and bound, put in ‘kennels for humans’, and they heard the bloodcurdling screams of other helpless victims while they thought they would never see the light of day again.

Everything You Need to Know About the CIA Torture Report in Under 4 Minutes

Activist Post

If someone tries to hide something from you for ten years, it's probably pretty embarrassing or shameful. Over the past ten years, the CIA has misled Congress about their post-9/11 torture program, withheld evidence and tried to cover up the facts. In the next few weeks, a new bipartisan Senate report is expected to reveal the truth about the CIA's torture programs. Here's why you want to know what's in the Torture Report:


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Language as a Weapon of Tyrants

James Corbett

Language is the great tool of the tyrants. It always has been, and always will be. Patriots are expected to abide by a PATRIOT Act that destroys their Bill of Rights, support “surgical strikes” against “enemy combatants” by the Department of “Defense,” and cheer the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to those who wage war.

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This is Why No One Trusts Gov't, CIA Apologizes After Denying Torture Hack

Anthony Freda Art

Eric Blair

When will the American people learn that the government is filled with liars? The good news is that in the information age denial of facts is becoming much more difficult.

Today, the head of the CIA John Brennan apologized for hacking into US Senate computers to cover-up torture investigations, a charge he mockingly dismissed earlier this year.

Using very political language the CIA admitted their officers "acted improperly" and "inconsistent with the common understanding" of sharing classified data, and Brennan was forced to apologize to leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee for the breach.

What's most striking about this apology, is that Brennan told a bald-faced lie about these very allegations in March at the Council on Foreign Relations when he said:

"As far as the allegations of CIA hacking into the senate computers, nothing could be farther from the truth. We wouldn't do that. I mean, that's just beyond the scope of reason in terms of what we would do."

US Courts Approve Indefinite Detention and Torture

Stephen Lendman

America's a police state. It's ruthless. Iron fist authority rules. International law's quaint and out-of-date. US statute protections aren't worth the paper they're written on.

Constitutional rights don't matter. They never did for most people. It's truer now than ever. They're null and void. Executive diktat power rules. Congress and federal courts go along. They're complicit.

They support sweeping lawlessness. It's unprecedented. It affects domestic and geopolitical issues. No one's safe anywhere.

Obama has life and death powers. He can order anyone murdered. He can do so on his say alone. US citizens are as vulnerable as foreign nationals.

He can order anyone indefinitely detained. He can throw them in military dungeons. He can deny them due process and judicial fairness.

They can remain there uncharged and untried. They can stay there forever. They can be brutally tortured. It's OK. Federal courts said so. More on that below.

Day 150: Gitmo hunger strike continues amidst world's outrage

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Letters from Guantanamo Bay - Inside Story Americas - Al Jazeera English

As a detainee accuses US military guards of sexual assault, we ask if prison conditions are deteriorating even further.

In a letter obtained exclusively by Al Jazeera, a Guantanamo Bay detainee has accused United States military guards of sexually assaulting him, five months since a mass hunger strike began.

Letters from Guantanamo Bay - Inside Story Americas - Al Jazeera English

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White House delays release of secret torture report

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Why Has US President Already Delivered Guilty Verdict to Boston Bombers? Gitmo Comes to America

President delivers ‘executive verdict’ as Feds draft in Gitmo interrogators to handle 19-year-old student held in custody
Patrick Henningsen

Rule number one for any serious crime scene or investigation is to gather all the evidence and all the testimonies first, before being able to establish criminal charges, let alone deliver any meaningful verdict. 

In an extraordinary executive intervention, the President of the United States has weighed in on the Boston Bombing case – already delivering a guilty verdict for the Tsarnaev brothers.

Executive Verdict?

Barack Obama informed the nation this weekend, “Whatever hateful agenda drove these men to such heinous acts will not, cannot, prevail. Whatever they thought they could achieve, they’ve already failed.”

The President added to this conclusion,“Why did young men who grew up and studied here as part of our communities and our country resort to such violence?”

Why is there such an incessant rush by the White House to quickly draw a line under this case? Does the President know something yet to be discovered by CSI investigators and witness interviewers in this case?

One reason could be the ever-growing list of unanswered questions and evidence yet to be addressed by either the FBI and law enforcement in charge of this case.

'Zero Dark Thirty' Falling on the World

John Galt

Kathryn Bigelow is once again drawing attention; this time for the follow-up to her award-winning movie The Hurt Locker. The focus of her new movie is on the role torture has played in American foreign policy in a post-9/11 world. Namely, the hunting of Osama bin Laden and his subsequent death.

America's torture doctrine is now enshrined, as courts at all levels have concluded that it is best for the military to decide American morality. The latest insult comes via Jose Padilla's family who have had to appeal to an international human rights tribunal for basic protections that their son should have been afforded within the U.S. legal system as a natural-born American citizen.

The sweeping net of counterterrorism has subjected innocent people to medieval cruelties ... and these people have had their unjust suffering fall on deaf ears. Who would extol such barbarous acts as justified? Hollywood, of course.

Torture Continues to be Legitimized by U.S. Legal System

Dees Illustration

Joe Wright

In another blow to human rights, freedom, the law, and morality, the 7th Circuit Court has exonerated Donald Rumsfeld from prosecution for allegations of being a primary architect of U.S. torture policy.

At issue are two Americans, Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel, who worked for a private Iraqi security firm named Shield Group Security. Courthouse News reports the harrowing experience the two men encountered after attempting to blow the whistle to the U.S. government about their employer potentially being involved in illegal arms trades and bribery:

Shield became suspicious of Vance and Ertel in April 2006, confiscated their credentials and effectively trapped them in the firm's compound. U.S. forces allegedly came to the compound and took the pair to the U.S. Embassy. 

But Vance and Ertel say their rescue soon turned into a nightmare. According to their complaint, U.S. officials transported them to Camp Cropper, where they were kept in solitary confinement and subjected to physical and psychological torture with no ability to contact their families or lawyers. Vance allegedly endured solitary confinement for three months, and Ertel for six weeks. 

After being returned the United States without charges, Vance and Ertel sued Rumsfeld, claiming that he personally approved the interrogation and torture techniques they had endured.

Despite a U.S. District Judge ruling that the lawsuit had merit, and the 7th Circuit temporarily agreeing, the 7th Circuit Court finally voted 8-3 to dismiss the suit. The ruling follows another made by the Supreme Court that rejected all of the Guantanamo detainee torture suits.

In the Guantanamo ruling, Jose Padilla -- a U.S. citizen -- was at the center of claims made by detainees who have found themselves labeled enemy combatants within the global battlefield that is the War on Terror. The term "enemy combatant" was supposed to have been dropped in 2009, but it still persists within U.S. courts.
On June 11th of this year, all cases filed by detainees were rejected by the United States Supreme Court, leaving little doubt as to the path this country has chosen.  American citizen or not, your rights end where the U.S. government says they end, regardless of Constitutional principles or legal review.

In a previous article I wrote that:

Jose Padilla had been dealt legal blow after legal blow; first having Atlanta's 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rule against U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke in September 2011, who noted that Padilla had been confined under harsh conditions and had not injured anyone, among other considerations. The majority issued their opinion in vague language that alluded to 'an impermissible comparison to sentences imposed in other terrorism cases, and was based in part on inappropriate factors,' as well as his suspected Al Qaeda training. (Source) 

In January of this year, Padilla was then denied by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Virgina as having any right to even file suit for his claims of illegal detention and torture. 

(...)

The 4th Circuit specifically stated their conundrum, as the framework of enemy combatant status essentially circumvents the American legal system.  In response, they passed the buck to Congress, which they stated had not defined any appropriate remedy in their responsibility for military conduct.

This new case dismissal involving the two former security employees, similar to the Padilla case, allows Donald Rumsfeld to once again walk away scot-free for his crimes against humanity, all in the name of the supposed preservation of state secrets. Ditto for torture memo author John Yoo, as well as other officials who laid the foundation and/or gave the orders for confinement and mistreatment. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has made it clear; the 4th Circuit Court; the 11th Circuit Court; the Supreme Court; and now the 7th.

Welcome to the land of the lawless, home of the slave. Congress has clearly flatly refused to provide the framework under which to prosecute criminals at the highest levels. 

Congress, and the American legal system which gives it "deference," are both completely subservient to the U.S. military-government -- the "chain of command" as noted in the latest complaint dismissal -- which is hell-bent on having its way with citizens of all nations.

Now that the NDAA obliterates the right of Americans to be treated with dignity in peace time or war -- whether accused, falsely arrested, tortured, or found legitimately guilty -- the doctrine of U.S. torture is officially given free reign to engage in what used to be called atrocities and war crimes, but is now called preserving peace and democracy.

Anytime, anywhere . . . . 

Main source for this article:
https://www.courthousenews.com/2012/11/08/52119.htm

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Torture Memo Author, John Yoo, Immune from Prosecution: Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Dees Illustration

Joe Wright

A federal judge who ruled that "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla could file suit against John Yoo who authored the torture memo that legitimized the horrific treatment of detainees, has had his decision reversed by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals today. 

Jose Padilla, a United States citizen, was incarcerated for four years without trial for an alleged 2002 "dirty bomb" plot and has been trying to sue Donald Rumsfeld as well as other U.S. officials for his mistreatment while detained in a military brig in South Carolina. 

Padilla asserts that the torture treatment he received was as a direct result of the memos authored by Yoo that provided the authority needed to commence with "enhanced interrogation" for those labeled as "enemy combatants."  The ramifications of these memos have permeated throughout the military up to and including the authorization of drone bombings in Pakistan. 

It is not only Padilla asking for redress, but civil rights groups such as the ACLU.