Photos published for the first time; atrocious methods of torture in Guantanamo

Photos published for the first time; atrocious methods of torture in Guantanamo

    2:23 PM   No comments

Although many years have passed since the establishment of the Guantanamo prison, amid the international and human rights criticisms that surrounded this prison located in Guantanamo Bay in the far southeast of Cuba, the mystery still surrounds many of the methods of torture that were practiced behind its closed cells.

However, a detainee there, called "Abu Zubaydah", presented for the first time dozens of drawings that he wrote with her hand about the methods of torture he was subjected to in this American detention camp, as part of what was known as the CIA torture program after September 11.

And those drawings, which numbered 40 live now, constituted the most comprehensive and detailed account of the brutal methods he was subjected to at the hands of the CIA, between 2002 and 2006, according to what was reported by the British newspaper, The Guardian.

 

It also prompted the United Nations to demand his release, stressing that these methods are inconsistent with all international laws.

 
Rape and drowning

The pictures that Abu Zubayda wrote and later sent to one of his lawyers, Professor Mark Denbeaux, showed horrific acts of violence, sexual and racial insults, and prolonged psychological terror to which the detainees were subjected.

 

The aforementioned lawyer, along with his students at the Center for Policy and Research at Seton Hall Law School, collected Zubayda's photos and testimonies in a comprehensive report on torture in this notorious prison and other secret intelligence detention centers.

 

Denbeaux said: "Abu Zubayda is the first victim of the American torture program, after it was approved by the US Department of Justice based on facts that the CIA knew were wrong," as he put it.

 

It is noteworthy that Abu Zubayda, 52, was arrested in Pakistan in March 2002, then he was transferred between several secret intelligence locations, whether in Poland or Lithuania, and others, until he landed in Guantanamo in 2006, where he has been detained since then without Prosecution or proof of his involvement in any crime.

coffin

His meticulously drawn images showed masked agents physically threatening him with rape.

 It also showed other violent methods of torture and force-feeding, as well as holding the detainee in a coffin-like place and dousing it with water, or placing headphones on his ears and raising the volume to the maximum extent that a human mind can bear.

 It showed how the man in his fifties was tied with iron chains naked in front of his interrogators, some of whom were female, in order to humiliate him.

 He was also subjected to simulated drowning 83 times.

 About that experience, he wrote to his lawyer, "I was terrified of drowning all day."

 According to the 2014 Senate report summary, at least 119 individuals have fallen victim to this horrific program at Guantanamo.

 

Over 100 children illegally employed by US slaughterhouse cleaning firm

Over 100 children illegally employed by US slaughterhouse cleaning firm

    9:07 AM   No comments

More than 100 children have been discovered to be illegally employed by a slaughterhouse cleaning firm across the country, federal authorities said.

The Department of Labor announced that a federal investigation found Wisconsin-based Packers Sanitation Services Inc (PSSI) employed at least 102 children, ranging from 13 to 17 years old, to work overnight shifts at 13 meat processing facilities in eight states.

The investigation discovered that children were working with hazardous chemicals and cleaning meat processing equipment including back saws, brisket saws and head splitters. At least three minors suffered injuries while working for PSSI, one of the country’s largest food safety sanitation service providers.

The states in which the children were employed include Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Tennessee and Texas. The processor which had the largest number of employed minors is JBS Foods, with 27 children employed, followed by Cargill Inc, which had 26 employed children.

Other processors include Tyson Food, George’s Inc, Buckhead Meat of Minnesota, Gibbon Packing Co, Greater Omaha Packing Co Inc, Maple Leaf Farms and Turkey Valley Farms.

According to court documents, a 14-year-old child who worked at a Nebraska facility from 11pm to 5am five to six days a week from December 2021 to April 2022, cleaned machines “used to cut meat”.

Read original article: Over 100 children illegally employed by US slaughterhouse cleaning firm

The "double standard" of the British media... This is how London's lies were promoted before the invasion of Iraq

The "double standard" of the British media... This is how London's lies were promoted before the invasion of Iraq

    7:40 AM   No comments

 The British "Declassified" website talked about the role of the British media in promoting the lies of the British government before the invasion of Iraq.

The site said that the British media repeated the government's lies and fabrications without scrutiny, and became part of the government's propaganda machine, before the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

He pointed out that the former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, provided the British public with false information twenty years ago about the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's possession of weapons of mass destruction, in order to prove the case of the illegal invasion of Iraq.

He added that Blair was not tried yet, but was honored and given the "Rabat" medal, which is the highest honor in the British Kingdom, pointing out that the journalists who repeated his lies were not tried either, but rather climbed the ladder of the profession to its highest levels.

On the other hand, those who dared to expose the lies of the war, such as the Australian journalist Julian Assange, are now in prison.

According to the site, there were serious investigations into false reports about Iraq in the United States, while this was not the case in Britain, where the press and broadcast media became an advanced part of the government propaganda machine.

Likewise, senior British journalists reported uncritical lies about the British government, often adding new fabrications of their own, according to the site.

He added that the Guardian newspaper, for example, "swallowed" the Blair government's bogus claim that Saddam Hussein's agents were looking for uranium in Africa to buy a nuclear bomb.

Under the headline: "Iraq file: African gangs offer a path to uranium - the nuclear suspicion lies with the Congo and South Africa," the newspaper claimed that it had seen secret documents proving contacts between African militias and Baghdad.

The Observer was "more intelligent and creative on the pro-war case," looking for more interesting angles to prove actual or alleged Saddam Hussein's malevolence, such as a 1,560-word interview with a woman claiming to be a former lover of Saddam Hussein, whom she claimed was With Osama bin Laden as a guest in one of Saddam's palaces, and that Saddam was financing Osama.

In turn, the "Sunday Telegraph" newspaper pumped a huge amount of government propaganda, as it published sensational reports that fueled public anxiety on the eve of the war, according to the site.

On January 19, 2003, the newspaper claimed that UN weapons inspectors "discovered evidence that Saddam Hussein is trying to develop an arsenal of nuclear weapons." Indeed, when the weapons inspectors issued their verdict a few days later, they concluded no such thing.

Meanwhile, critics of the war were marginalized or vilified. The site pointed out that Scott Ritter, the United Nations weapons inspector, has repeatedly questioned the allegations of Britain and the United States about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, stressing that the importance of his words were downplayed, while the narratives of the attack were reinforced.