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New Details of Torture of CIA Detainee in Black Site Prisons


Never forgive, never forget. The media barely mentions the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba or its detainees anymore, some of whom have been held for 20 years without trial. But the facility remains open at an exorbitant cost ($13 million per year per detainee as of 2019 -- 40 detainees remained at that time) and pretrial hearings for many of these remaining detainees are ongoing.

Earlier this week, Carole Rosenberg of the New York Times, who has dedicated the last 20 years of her career to covering Gitmo, reported on a hearing at Gitmo at which James E. Mitchell, "the psychologist who helped develop the C.I.A.’s torture program", testified as to the "approved and unapproved interrogation techniques (aka torture) he personally participated in and witnessed of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who will be facing a death penalty trial sometime this century for the 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole near Yemen that killed 17 U.S. sailors.

Maybe water-boarding is considered too ho-hum to report on these days, but Dr. Mitchell's testimony regarding forced anal feedings; forcing naked detainees into a small crate box (image here) like a dog; using a stiff bristle brush to scrape the detainees an*s and then put it in his face and mouth, and other disgusting treatments are not.

We should all make it a point not to forget the atrocities that have occurred in our name at the behest of some of the most heinous politicians in U.S. history. Dick Cheney, are you listening?

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  • Display: Sort:
    Dick Cheney and his war criminal buds (none / 0) (#1)
    by cpinva on Fri May 06, 2022 at 10:34:42 AM EST
    could not give a rat's ass less what anyone says/thinks about them. they will never suffer any punishment for the atrocities ordered by them and they know it, just as the most recent band of Republican criminals won't. any attempt at justice (in its most Christ-like, charitable definition) will have to come at the hands of individuals/groups ready and willing to take that task on themselves, personally, because our government certainly isn't going to do it. it would be rude.

    Under either international law or (none / 0) (#2)
    by Peter G on Fri May 06, 2022 at 10:42:02 AM EST
    U.S. military law, no prosecution that developed "evidence" in that way could proceed to trial. The case would have to be thrown out. And if somehow the case were not dismissed, then no "evidence" obtained by such methods, nor any evidence in any way derived, directly or indirectly, from the use of torture, could be used at any trial. That's entirely separate from and in addition to the fact that participating in the design, approval or use of such methods is itself a crime under both U.S. (civilian and military) and international law.

    Sadly (5.00 / 3) (#3)
    by BGinCA on Fri May 06, 2022 at 11:37:04 AM EST
    it is indeed a crime. The perpetrators of which are known to all and who will never be held accountable. Those screaming for the war criminal Putin to be punished would do well to look closer to home.

    Parent
    The War Is Over, Free All Prisoners (none / 0) (#4)
    by john horse on Mon May 16, 2022 at 06:26:02 PM EST
    Does anyone remember the right wing bogus claim after the Vietnam war ended that there were still Americans being held in Vietnamese tiger cages?  The claim was nothing but a big pile of sh*t.  Not a single American POW or MIA was ever found being kept in Vietnam against his will.

    Here we have a situation where the war is over and our government still refuses to release its prisoners.  Turns out that the person on the POW/MIA flag is now a Moslem.  As it says on the POW/MIA flag "You are not forgotten."