Curt Wechsler, The World Can't Wait: June 2016 Archives

June 26th Was International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

June 27, 2016 4:08 PM | | TrackBacks (0)
chicago-reparations-1.jpgNot that you'd have found acknowledgment in the news. If anything, people living in the U.S. are displaying less empathy for the abused than ever. Including for compatriots in domestic prisons.

"Much of the United States' practice of torture finds its origin in punishment methods used against slaves and Indigenous peoples," writes London Guantánamo Campaign activist Aisha Maniar. "The use of torture in and by the U.S. is not a post-9/11 phenomenon." 

The Jon Burge saga, for example, goes back decades. 

The only real change has been globalization of U.S. torture practices.

'Unlimited' Military Powers

June 20, 2016 6:19 PM | | TrackBacks (0)
The U.S. Senate is poised to give President Obama and the next president unprecedented war powers that amount to declaring martial law upon the entire world. Majority leader Mitch McConnell surprised almost everyone last week by saying he has a war resolution ready to be voted on at any time.

The resolution is a new authorization for use of military force (AUMF) for declaring war on ISIS. It would give the president even more power than the AUMF granted to Bush after 9/11, which is still in place today...

Ba Odah v. Obama

June 20, 2016 10:43 AM | | TrackBacks (0)
Make no mistake: indefinite detention is torture. Just ask Tariq Ba Odah.

odah-thumb-300x300-2015.jpg
"There is no shortage of blame to go around for Guantánamo's continued operation," wrote Omar Farah, NYU Press. "In Tariq's view, the courts, lawmakers, and the president are all part of the same system that keeps him locked up and far from his family. I am hard-pressed to disagree. But, surely, as the person with ultimate power over Tariq's fate, President Obama bears unique responsibility for the fact that, as of this writing,* Tariq remains in isolation at Guantánamo, having passed the eighth anniversary of his hunger strike, bracing himself for his next feeding session."

*Tariq Ba Odah was transferred to Saudi Arabia on April 16, with no small thanks to the people who have stood by him.  

Federal Judge, Law Professor, and Defense Contractor Responsible for War Crimes

June 15, 2016 10:18 PM | | TrackBacks (0)
More than 800 pages of "new" CIA documents were released Tuesday, which the ACLU says highlight the "inhumanity of the torture conceived and carried out" by the CIA under the George W Bush administration. "It bears emphasis that these records document grave crimes for which no senior official has been held accountable," said deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer. 

Find bios for Bybee, Yoo, Haynes and more at warcriminalswatch.org.

We Need an American Nuremberg

June 9, 2016 12:40 PM | | TrackBacks (0)
519Ph5EIZZL.jpg"From the look of the presidential campaign, war crimes are back on the American agenda," writes Mainstreaming Torture author Rebecca Gordon. "We really shouldn't be surprised, because American officials got away with it last time -- and in the case of the drone wars continue to get away with it today. Still, there's nothing like the heady combination of a 'populist' Republican race for the presidency and a national hysteria over terrorism to make Americans want to reach for those 'enhanced interrogation techniques'. That, as critics have long argued, is what usually happens if war crimes aren't prosecuted." 

Gordon demands a full accounting for actors in America's war of terror, including one of the top candidates for prosecution, John Yoo.

The U.S. BOUGHT the Prisoners it Continues to Hold at Guantánamo

June 3, 2016 9:31 PM | | TrackBacks (0)
"The belief that the men imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay are the 'worst of the worst dangerous terrorists' is still commonly held, due in large part to the mainstream corporate media and politicians," writes London-based human rights activist Aisha Maniar. "But as early as 2006, Seton Hall University School of Law identified, using U.S. Department of Defense data, that only 5 percent of prisoners were captured by the U.S. military. Of the current 80 remaining detainees, only three were captured by U.S. forces, including Pakistani prisoner Saifullah Paracha, who was kidnapped in Thailand... 

"The vast majority of prisoners 'were arrested by either Pakistan or the Northern Alliance and turned over to United States custody' in return for a bounty," which former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf called "prize money."

Contumacious Conduct

June 3, 2016 3:25 PM | | TrackBacks (0)
Hopefully, by the time he gets on the stand in federal court in late November, Trump will simply be a former Republican presidential candidate on trial for his predatory business practices. Instead of being inaugurated in Washington, D.C., he'll be cross-examined in San Diego. Having lost in the court of public opinion, he'll have to defend himself in a court of law...

« Curt Wechsler, The World Can't Wait: May 2016 | Main Index | Archives | Curt Wechsler, The World Can't Wait: July 2016 »

UC Berkeley Billboard

press conference, protest, photos, video, reports

Donations via PayPal
are not tax deductible.



Events & Calendars

War Criminals Watch Events

Important Reading

Physicians for Human Rights
Broken Laws, Broken Lives

NLG White Paper
ON THE LAW OF TORTURE...

The President's Executioner

Detention and torture in Guantanamo



Search

About this Archive

This page is a archive of recent entries in June 2016.

Curt Wechsler, The World Can't Wait: May 2016 is the previous archive.

Curt Wechsler, The World Can't Wait: July 2016 is the next archive.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.



Login

  AUTHOR'S LOGIN

Contact

  info@firejohnyoo.net