tagged w/ Politiics
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"A year on, the [Obama] administration continues to look the other way when it comes to full disclosure of and remedy for human rights violations perpetrated by the U.S.A. in the name of countering terrorism." Amnesty International
What is Torture? It can be physical or physchological, quick or unhurried. It implies lasting trauma unbefitting a human. The U.N. defines torture as: " ...any act by which severe pain or suffering, physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him, or a third person, information or a confession"" (U.N. Convention Against Torture).
By this definition the U.S. continues to practice torture. Yes, Obama outlawed some especially shocking forms of torture -- waterboarding, for example -- but other types of torture were not labeled "torture" and thus continue.
Surprisingly, this fact was recently discussed at length in The New York Times, under an Op-Ed piece appropriately entitled Torture's Loopholes. In it, an ex-interrogator explains some of the more glaring examples of how the U.S. currently tortures and argues for the practices to end. In reference to Obama's vow to end the systematic, obscene torture under Bush, the article states: "the changes were not as drastic as most Americans think, and elements of our interrogation policy continue to be both inhumane and counterproductive."
The author says bluntly, "If I were to return to one of the war zones today" I would still be allowed to abuse [torture] prisoners." The article also explains how the U.S. "legally" continues a practice that thousands of people in the U.S. prison system already know to be psychological torture: "extended solitary confinement is torture, as confirmed by many scientific studies. Even the initial 30 days of isolation could be considered abuse [torture]."
Yet another blatant form of torture that Obama refused to stop practicing is "extraordinary rendition," or what critics call "outsourcing torture." This is the practice of flying a prisoner to a country where torture is routinely practiced, so that the prisoner can be interrogated. As reported by The New York Times: "The Obama administration will continue the Bush administration's practice of sending terrorism suspects to third countries for detention and interrogation, but pledges to closely monitor their treatment to ensure that they are not tortured, administration officials said Monday." (August 24, 2009).
Human rights groups instantly called Obama's bluff: why transport terrorism suspects to other countries at all? If not for the fact that torture and other "harsh interrogation methods" are routinely practiced there? No justifiable answer has been given to these questions.
Another common way the U.S. continues to outsource torture is performed in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. There, the U.S. military often arrests suspects and hands over the interrogation duties to Iraqi or Afghan security forces, knowing full well that they regularly torture (this was also the strategy in the Vietnam war). Unfortunately, handing over someone to be tortured means you are also guilty of the crime.
A less obvious form of torture is the concept of "indefinite detention" -- holding someone in prison indefinitely without a trial. The terrible experience of hopelessness that a victim of this crime experiences, over years, is a profound form of psychological torture. This is one of the reasons why the US Constitution guarantees due process -- a legal detail that the Obama administration continues to ignore.
Other forms of torture commonly practiced -- since they are part of the Military's updated Field Manual -- are "stress positions [shackling prisoners in painful positions for extended periods of time], putting detainees into close confinement or environmental manipulation [hot or frigid rooms]" Also mentioned as torture is sleep deprivation, a tactic used in combination with 20-hour interrogation sessions. http://www.opednews.com/articles/Torture-Never-Stopped-Unde-by-shamus-cooke-"A year on, the [Obama] administration continues to look the other way when it... more
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How Many Catholic abuse cases will it take for the people to wake up to the truth? How many of Obama's lies will it take for the people to wake up and dump Obama?
http://www.theospark.net/2009/09/video-7-lies-in-under-2-minutes.html
Just what will it take for the American peoples to stand up and declare the US Goverment as a world crime syndicate,cartel or just an out of control mob of gangsters? To export killing machines as their only manufacturing base. To export hate and murder and Empire building as their sole production is not what the men died for in 1776, this country was opened as a land of the free but ever since the white men came to America they have killed off the Buffalo and the Indians, they have robbed the Indians and where they didn't rob them they slaughtered them and stole their gold and land. and from Andrew Jacksons administration up to the present this nation has been in a state of undeclared war. One president after another lying to become our national leader and contracting the nation out to corporations who will pay the most, they have sold this nation to China and have ran up a debt that is impossible ever to pay back. China is even lending more money back so that Washington can carry on with the war in Asia (Iraq, Afghanistan) and continue to support the 800 military installations throughout the world. This nation has been bankrupt for so long that the national debt is still adding up at ultrasonic speeds faster than all Americans working 24 hours a day will never be able to pay for the out of control continously upward spiraling debt.How Many Catholic abuse cases will it take for the people to wake up to the truth? How... more
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Ragan
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added this
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2 years ago
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Iran has confirmed it will attend a US-backed international conference on the future of Afghanistan next week.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi said Tehran had not yet decided who it will send to the summit in The Hague next Tuesday.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said earlier this month that Iran should attend the high-level meeting.
While the US and Iran are at odds over Tehran's nuclear plans, the two share an interest in a stable Afghanistan.Iran has confirmed it will attend a US-backed international conference on the future... more
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The economy shrank at a 6.3 percent pace at the end of 2008, the worst showing in a quarter-century, and probably isn't doing much better now.
"The Commerce Department on Thursday reported that the economy was sinking a bit faster than the 6.2 percent annualized drop for the October-December quarter estimated a month ago.
"And the pain has persisted in the current quarter. New claims for unemployment benefits last week rose to a seasonally adjusted 652,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 644,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. The total number of people claiming benefits jumped to 5.56 million, higher than economists' projections of 5.48 million, and a ninth straight record-high.
"The figures indicate the labor market remains weak even as some other economic indicators come in better than expected....
"Economists were bracing for an even sharper 6.5 percent annualized decline in the government's third and final estimate of gross domestic product for the fourth quarter.The economy shrank at a 6.3 percent pace at the end of 2008, the worst showing in a... more
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A US military spokesman in Iraq on Wednesday said the number of attacks countrywide had dropped to the lowest level since the months which followed the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
"Attacks are at their lowest since August 2003," Major General David Perkins told reporters in Baghdad, saying incidents were 90 percent down compared with June 2007.
"There were 1,250 attacks a week at the height of the violence, now sometimes there are less than 100 a week," he added.
His comments came despite a suicide attack against Kurdish mourners in central Iraq that killed 27 people and wounded 50 on Monday. An explosion near a car repair workshop on the outskirts of Baghdad on the same day killed a further eight.A US military spokesman in Iraq on Wednesday said the number of attacks countrywide... more
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African Americans are far more likely than whites to be poor, out of work or in jail, and are "hurting worse" in the floundering US economy, a report published Wednesday showed.
"Ironically, even as an African American man holds the highest office the country, African Americans remain twice as likely as whites to be unemployed, three times more likely to live in poverty and more than six times as likely to be incarcerated," the State of Black America report said.
Blacks and whites have both made progress in educational attainment, but progress was slower for African Americans, the report, which tracks trends between 2001 and 2007, showed.
The number of white children enrolled in preschool increased by about three percent, while among black children, it fell by one percent, causing the education gap to grow.
Real median household income fell 1.7 percent for blacks and nearly four percent for whites during the period, the report said.
But the poverty rate for blacks increased nearly eight percent, while for whites it rose by around five percent.African Americans are far more likely than whites to be poor, out of work or in jail,... more
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NASA's online contest to name a new room at the international space station went awry. Comedian Stephen Colbert won.
The name "Colbert" beat out NASA's four suggested options in the space agency's effort to have the public help name the addition. The new room will be launched later this year.
NASA's mistake was allowing write-ins. Colbert urged viewers of his Comedy Central show, "The Colbert Report" to write in his name. And they complied, with 230,539 votes. That clobbered Serenity, one of the NASA choices, by more than 40,000 votes. Nearly 1.2 million votes were cast by the time the contest ended Friday.NASA's online contest to name a new room at the international space station went... more
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Colin Powell will have a role as a top presidential adviser in an Obama administration, the Democratic White House hopeful said Monday.
"He will have a role as one of my advisers," Barack Obama said on NBC's "Today" in an interview aired Monday, a day after Powell, a four-star general and President Bush's former secretary of state, endorsed him.
"Whether he wants to take a formal role, whether that's a good fit for him, is something we'd have to discuss," Obama said.
Being a top presidential adviser, especially on foreign policy, would be familiar ground to Powell on a subject that's relatively new to the freshman Illinois senator. Obama has struggled to establish his foreign policy credentials against GOP candidate John McCain, a decorated military veteran, former prisoner of war and ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Colin Powell will have a role as a top presidential adviser in an Obama... more
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Remember in late July when Barack Obama predicted John McCain's attack strategy? Remember McCain's howls of protest in response? Well, it turns out that Obama was right about McCain's attacks. As it turns out, he knew McCain better than McCain knew McCain. I guess that means we can call him "Nostrobamus."Remember in late July when Barack Obama predicted John McCain's attack strategy?... more
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