September 2015 Archives

DePaul University students, faculty and alumni invite media to a press conference in conjunction with critically acclaimed academics Dr. Frank Summers and M. Cherif Bassiouni to demand removal of Gerald P. Koocher from his position of Dean of the College of Science and Health.

Dr. Koocher's name is mentioned over 200 times in the 542-page Hoffman Report, detailing APA and DoD collusion over "enhanced" interrogation tactics. 

Petition here: chn.ge/1OLtfkf.

Press Conference Thursday, October 1st 
9:00 am 
DePaul University's Lincoln Park Student Center
2400 N. Sheffield Avenue, Chicago 

"We have been through a terrible ordeal and we ask the British and American governments not to prolong that ordeal any longer and tell us when we can expect our husband, father, and son-in-law to walk back into our lives." -- Shaker Aamer's family 

Cleared for release from Guantánamo in 2007 Mr Aamer has never faced trial or been charged with any crime. His lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, sees no cause for further delay. "We will need to get him a full medical as he has been so unwell for so long, then he needs to be with his family."

Psychologists have shown that human beings find nothing more stressful than indefinite, arbitrary imprisonment, which usually has long-lasting consequences - 'complex post-traumatic stress disorder', a form more severe and difficult to treat than usual...

Pending Release Welcome, but No Victory

World Can't Wait Calls for Immediate Release of Shaker Aamer. Not One More Day of Torture for the Last British Resident of Guantanamo Bay Prison Camp.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter's notice of intent to repatriate the illegally detained "terror suspect" -- Mr Aamer has never been charged with a crime -- is a welcome development.

It would be premature to celebrate the prisoner's release, as this is hardly a done deal, but we call on people of conscience to seize the moment to redouble efforts to free Shaker Aamer and all 113 remaining survivors of extrajudicial incarceration.

We condemn the 30 day waiting period for Congressional deliberation, and hold that the delay constitutes unconscionable punishment on top of the 13 year disruption of his life. Mr Aamer has yet to meet his youngest son, born after his detention.

It is up to us to "walk the talk" to see that President Obama's promise to close Guantanamo becomes a reality. We will celebrate Shaker Aamer's repatriation when he boards a plane for London. We will not rest until he's free and all the prisoners are free and those responsible for this crime of indefinite detention and torture are brought to justice.

For Mohammed el Gharani that would start with "an apology" from tormentors. Multimedia artist Laurie Anderson describes her upcoming installation and performance piece to The New Yorker:

For the past six months, I've been collaborating with a former Guantánamo detainee, preparing a work of art that we are making together. From October 2nd through the 4th, we will be streaming the image of Mohammed into the Park Avenue Armory. He will be sitting in a chair in a studio in West Africa, and his live image will be broadcast to New York City and wrapped onto a large three-dimensional cast of his body. His figure -- more than three times life size, inspired by the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. -- will sit in the cavernous drill hall.

Habeas Corpus examines lost identity, memory, and resiliency of the human body and spirit.

In 1988 President Reagan signed the Convention Against Torture requiring the U.S. to prosecute those committing torture. Currently, only one CIA officer connected to the interrogation program was prosecuted and it was for being a whistle-blower. So, exposing torture is criminal, but not torture?

Try to imagine what has happened to America when Harvard and Berkeley law professors create legal justifications for torture and extra-judicial murder, and when US presidents engage in these heinous crimes.  Clearly America is exceptional in its immorality, lack of human compassion, and disrespect for law and its founding document...

see Rise of the Inhumanes by Paul Craig Roberts