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blaseblasphemener
Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Location: There's a voice, keeps on calling me, down the road, that's where I'll always be
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 Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:57 pm Post subject: God Bless America, Land that tortures people without charge |
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Inside the CIA's notorious "black sites"
A Yemeni man never charged by the U.S. details 19 months of brutality and psychological torture -- the first in-depth, first-person account from inside the secret U.S. prisons. A Salon exclusive.
By Mark Benjamin / Salon
The CIA held Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah in several different cells when he was incarcerated in its network of secret prisons known as "black sites." But the small cells were all pretty similar, maybe 7 feet wide and 10 feet long. He was sometimes naked, and sometimes handcuffed for weeks at a time. In one cell his ankle was chained to a bolt in the floor. There was a small toilet. In another cell there was just a bucket. Video cameras recorded his every move. The lights always stayed on -- there was no day or night. A speaker blasted him with continuous white noise, or rap music, 24 hours a day.
The guards wore black masks and black clothes. They would not utter a word as they extracted Bashmilah from his cell for interrogation -- one of his few interactions with other human beings during his entire 19 months of imprisonment. Nobody told him where he was, or if he would ever be freed.
It was enough to drive anyone crazy. Bashmilah finally tried to slash his wrists with a small piece of metal, smearing the words "I am innocent" in blood on the walls of his cell. But the CIA patched him up.
So Bashmilah stopped eating. But after his weight dropped to 90 pounds, he was dragged into an interrogation room, where they rammed a tube down his nose and into his stomach. Liquid was pumped in. The CIA would not let him die.
On several occasions, when Bashmilah's state of mind deteriorated dangerously, the CIA also did something else: They placed him in the care of mental health professionals. Bashmilah believes these were trained psychologists or psychiatrists. "What they were trying to do was to give me a sort of uplifting and to assure me," Bashmilah said in a telephone interview, through an interpreter, speaking from his home country of Yemen. "One of the things they told me to do was to allow myself to cry, and to breathe." |
Somewhere, Ben Franklin just rolled over in his grave, and renounced his citizenship. |
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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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| Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:00 pm Post subject: |
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Maybe you should tone down the title. This is an interesting topic but the way you have presented it means that certain types are going to make it into a personal thing.
How about "Inside the CIA's notorious "black sites" "? |
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blaseblasphemener
Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Location: There's a voice, keeps on calling me, down the road, that's where I'll always be
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| Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:10 pm Post subject: |
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| thepeel wrote: |
Maybe you should tone down the title. This is an interesting topic but the way you have presented it means that certain types are going to make it into a personal thing.
How about "Inside the CIA's notorious "black sites" "? |
Naaaah.
The U.S. is one seriously fucked up place right now.
Amazing what one act of terrorism will allow governments and their agencies to get away with.
Shades of Nazi Germany....
(cue the American apologists) |
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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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| Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:12 pm Post subject: |
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| well, then this topic will be a flame-fest. |
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loose_ends
Joined: 23 Jul 2007
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| Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:33 pm Post subject: Re: God Bless America, Land that tortures people without cha |
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| blaseblasphemener wrote: |
| Quote: |
Inside the CIA's notorious "black sites"
A Yemeni man never charged by the U.S. details 19 months of brutality and psychological torture -- the first in-depth, first-person account from inside the secret U.S. prisons. A Salon exclusive.
By Mark Benjamin / Salon
The CIA held Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah in several different cells when he was incarcerated in its network of secret prisons known as "black sites." But the small cells were all pretty similar, maybe 7 feet wide and 10 feet long. He was sometimes naked, and sometimes handcuffed for weeks at a time. In one cell his ankle was chained to a bolt in the floor. There was a small toilet. In another cell there was just a bucket. Video cameras recorded his every move. The lights always stayed on -- there was no day or night. A speaker blasted him with continuous white noise, or rap music, 24 hours a day.
The guards wore black masks and black clothes. They would not utter a word as they extracted Bashmilah from his cell for interrogation -- one of his few interactions with other human beings during his entire 19 months of imprisonment. Nobody told him where he was, or if he would ever be freed.
It was enough to drive anyone crazy. Bashmilah finally tried to slash his wrists with a small piece of metal, smearing the words "I am innocent" in blood on the walls of his cell. But the CIA patched him up.
So Bashmilah stopped eating. But after his weight dropped to 90 pounds, he was dragged into an interrogation room, where they rammed a tube down his nose and into his stomach. Liquid was pumped in. The CIA would not let him die.
On several occasions, when Bashmilah's state of mind deteriorated dangerously, the CIA also did something else: They placed him in the care of mental health professionals. Bashmilah believes these were trained psychologists or psychiatrists. "What they were trying to do was to give me a sort of uplifting and to assure me," Bashmilah said in a telephone interview, through an interpreter, speaking from his home country of Yemen. "One of the things they told me to do was to allow myself to cry, and to breathe." |
Somewhere, Ben Franklin just rolled over in his grave, and renounced his citizenship. |
can you post the link to this article.
thanks  |
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yawarakaijin
Joined: 08 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:44 pm Post subject: |
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If it hasn't upset people enough to do anything by now I doubt it ever will. I personally don't give two shits about the hows and whys of government workings. What I do care about is the fact that people who talk about Americans being evil, torturous barbarians are now actually being taken seriously due to this administration's inept policies and blatant violations of human rights. Debate the hows and whys if you wish but you can't dispute there is a shift taking place.
Someday America is going to get hit even harder than 9/11 and when that happens you won't have Iranian's, Iraqi's , and dare shall I say, even other western nations, showing the solidarity they did with America after it's first devastating attack.
What saddens me more than anything is how this current adminstration squandered the sympathy of the whole world, which could have led to real change, in favour of creating even more instability, death and intolerance. And whether Americans want to belive it or not, there will come a time when the people of the world will no longer differentiate between Americans and the American government. Truly sad. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:50 pm Post subject: |
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| yawarakaijin wrote: |
| If it hasn't upset people enough to do anything by now I doubt it ever will. |
People in America are very upset.
Based on this false premise, most of the rest of what you wrote is...just not true. |
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yawarakaijin
Joined: 08 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:55 pm Post subject: |
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| Kuros wrote: |
| yawarakaijin wrote: |
| If it hasn't upset people enough to do anything by now I doubt it ever will. |
People in America are very upset.
Based on this false premise, most of the rest of what you wrote is...just not true. |
Let's talk about perceptions. Do you think the average Iraqi, Afghan or Iranian sees the American public as being outraged? What do you think their perception of American people will be like after Hillary gets elected and ,with 90% certainty, decides to stay the course? |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:04 am Post subject: |
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| yawarakaijin wrote: |
| Kuros wrote: |
| yawarakaijin wrote: |
| If it hasn't upset people enough to do anything by now I doubt it ever will. |
People in America are very upset.
Based on this false premise, most of the rest of what you wrote is...just not true. |
Let's talk about perceptions. Do you think the average Iraqi, Afghan or Iranian sees the American public as being outraged? What do you think their perception of American people will be like after Hillary gets elected and ,with 90% certainty, decides to stay the course? |
Okay. You're making the assumption that there won't be a radical change in 2009. I simply cannot agree with that.
As to your first question: the average Iraqi, Afghan, or Iranian has even less of an accurate idea of whats going on in America than I do about what is going on in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Iran. |
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yawarakaijin
Joined: 08 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:12 am Post subject: |
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Don't get me wrong. I hope there is a radical change but I just don't see the hallmarks of one approaching. I don't see vietnam like protests. I don't see the mainstream media taking the administration to task. In fact, everyday I see signs of the opposite occuring.
Iraq may finally stabalize simply due to the fact that it appears the entire country has been or is on its way to having become seperated on ethnic and religious lines. That will merely give the next administration pretext to stay and continue the course. If America does leave, the seperate entities will merely bide there time until they are ready for a more prolonged, directed, and intense civil war.
If Al Qaeda is smart they will hit America again near election time, you know what the result of that would be.
Things in Iran don't seem to be going all that well.
I just don't see many things to be optomistic about. |
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loose_ends
Joined: 23 Jul 2007
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| Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:34 am Post subject: |
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| Don't get me wrong. I hope there is a radical change but I just don't see the hallmarks of one approaching. I don't see vietnam like protests. I don't see the mainstream media taking the administration to task. In fact, everyday I see signs of the opposite occuring. |
um, there are a lot of people protesting at the moment, it just isn't the size vietnam protests were.
perhaps a 'yet' could be placed at the end of that sentence.
| Quote: |
| I don't see the mainstream media taking the administration to task. In fact, everyday I see signs of the opposite occuring. |
i think the Ron Paul campaign is one kind of 'sign'. and i think having certain mainstream outlets suggest a link between RP and homegrown terror is a 'sign' that he is a threat to the status quo.
things are brewing i'd say. |
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blaseblasphemener
Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Location: There's a voice, keeps on calling me, down the road, that's where I'll always be
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| Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:40 am Post subject: |
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Here's the link:
www.michaelmoore.com
(it's from salon.com) |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:51 am Post subject: |
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I simply cannot agree with that.
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I agree with that statement: I cannot agree with that. No matter which Dem is elected, dramatic change will occur starting soon after Jan. 21, 2009. I think similar change will occur should McCain somehow get in. The other Republicans, I don't know.
Will the change be total abandonment? Probably not. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:55 am Post subject: |
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| Maybe you should tone down the title. |
You are asking a leopard (OK, in this case a kitty cat) to change his spots. You don't get subtlety...I was going to say 'from a sledge hammer', but then I decided my sentence had gone far enough to be accurate as it is. |
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blaseblasphemener
Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Location: There's a voice, keeps on calling me, down the road, that's where I'll always be
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| Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 6:30 am Post subject: |
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Question:
If what was done to this guy was done to an American in some Syrian or Iranian prison, can you imagine the holy hell that would be unleashed?
Americans think they can do whatever the hell they want.
Sad. |
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