Two important posts by Valtin at Invictus:

Friday, March 6, 2009

Let Craig Murray Tell Parliament What He Knows of UK Torture Involvement

http://valtinsblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/let-craig-murray-tell-parliament-what.html

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Birth of a Whitewash: Who Testified at Leahy Commission Torture Hearings?

http://valtinsblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/birth-of-whitewash-who-testified-at.html

ondelette said:

The battlefield arguments are not an excuse for moving people beyond the law, and until those who offer them are capable of coherently demonstrating the existence of said battlefield and the evidence that a prisoner is an enemy combatant, their detention isn't really legal, but rather an attempt to play the various international laws and the U.S. Constitution against each other to create a law-free zone. [Saturday, March 7, 2009 10:02 PM PST]

Detainees are not the only people our Government wants to move beyond the law. It seems to me this is the exact circle game tactic bystander is referring to in regard to Yoo and the torture memos. bystander said:

I'm going to point to this other comment of Mary's at Emptywheel/FDL. It seems to me (and IANAL), that there is a central issue to be resolved. Until it is, the arguments circle, and circle, and circle.

Mary at Emptywheel/FDL said:

So either the torturers are being truthy, and they were not relying on actual protection from what Yoo is claiming were just broad statements of legal principles and not actual authorizations to any one person to take any specific actions against any other person, or Yoo is being truthy in claiming that his opinions weren’t the final torture authorization step in actual and specific torture that took place.

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/03/07/they-picked-a-bad-week-to-stop-sniffing-glue/#comment-140251

Hope Metcalf, one of Pedilla’s lawyers identifies the circle game in this statement:

Defendant Yoo must not take refuge in the legal no man’s land that he helped to create.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/07/us/07yoo.html

Would this be called irony?

More about "Britain's bizarre reaction":

A lot of you know who who Craig Murray is. At the moment he has an appeal on his site - he's asking people to email the UK's Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights to ask that he be heard next Tuesday, on the subject of the UK government's policy on intelligence cooperation with torture abroad. The executive is putting pressure on the committee to exclude him.

Who is Craig Murray?

UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan. The government there was (still is) torturing people and giving intelligence thus obtained to the CIA, which sent it to MI6 and the Foreign Office. Craig sent a series of telegrams to the FO objecting to this policy. The policy ended up being approved by Jack Straw and Craig was fired.

http://valtinsblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/let-craig-murray-tell-parliament-what.html

More about Leahy's commission:

The hearing today by the Senate Judiciary Committee -- "Getting to the Truth Through a Nonpartisan Commission of Inquiry" -- chaired by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), was called to explore options for investigating past torture and counter-terrorism policy. The committee called six witnesses, some for, some against such an investigation. But a close look at the backgrounds and affiliations of even most of the pro-investigation witnesses should give us deep pause, and ask what kind of commission are we being set up for?

http://valtinsblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/birth-of-whitewash-who-testified-at.html

Monday, March 9, 2009

Torturers Told Binyam: "“We’re going to change your brain"

http://valtinsblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/torturers-told-binyam-were-going-to.html

http://valtinsblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/torturers-told-binyam-were-going-to.html

The worst part of Mohamed's captivity, by his own account, is the five months he spent at the "dark prison" the CIA ran at an undisclosed location near Kabul, Afghanistan. […]

'There were loudspeakers in the cell, pumping out what felt like about 160 watts, a deafening volume, non-stop, 24 hours a day....

'While that was happening, a lot of the time, for hour after hour, they had me shackled....

'The longest was when they chained me for eight days on end, in a position that meant I couldn't stand straight nor sit.

'I couldn't sleep. I had no idea whether it was day or night.'

Andy Worthington's article makes abundantly clear that the torture of prisoners like Binyam Mohamed was not about, or at least not solely about, the collection of information. It was about the manufacture of information, including false confessions and fingering others for prosecution or further torture.

I compiled some entries from the Torturous Timeline that illustrates how Terror Warriors have followed this path to manipulate the brains and psyches of detainees and interrogators alike.

Here’s the link to that comment:

http://letters.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/06/anonymity/permalink/565b47d3cd8d65966210037a952b9e8c.html

[I posted this comment on the previous thread, but think it fits here as well.]

Torturers told Binyam “We’re going to change your brain” http://valtinsblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/torturers-told-binyam-were-going-to.html

The worst part of Mohamed's captivity, by his own account, is the five months he spent at the "dark prison" the CIA ran at an undisclosed location near Kabul, Afghanistan. […]

'There were loudspeakers in the cell, pumping out what felt like about 160 watts, a deafening volume, non-stop, 24 hours a day....

'While that was happening, a lot of the time, for hour after hour, they had me shackled....

'The longest was when they chained me for eight days on end, in a position that meant I couldn't stand straight nor sit.

'I couldn't sleep. I had no idea whether it was day or night.

Andy Worthington's article makes abundantly clear that the torture of prisoners like Binyam Mohamed was not about, or at least not solely about, the collection of information. It was about the manufacture of information, including false confessions and fingering others for prosecution or further torture.

I compiled some entries from the Torturous Timeline that illustrates how Terror Warriors have followed this path to manipulate the brains and psyches of detainees and interrogators alike.

Link to that comment at sig.