Philip Zelikow, 9/11 Commission Director, talks about the Bush Torture Program

One Case before Philip Zelikow interview:
“We’re going to change your brain.” As was said to Binyan Mohamed by his torturers in Guantanamo - (HERE)
Clive Stafford Smith, attorney for Binyam Mohamed, who was tortured in several secret places and in Guantanamo, describes what was done and explains that it was about the manufacture of information, including false confessions and fingering others for prosecution or further torture. In an earlier interview with Binyam Mohamed's attorney, Clive Stafford Smith:

"Binyam explained that, between the savage beatings and the razor cuts to his penis, his torturers “would tell me what to say.” He added that even towards the end of his time in Morocco, they were still “training me what to say,” and one of them told him, “We’re going to change your brain.”
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Philip Zelikow : The Torture Program and the use of torture techniques of the "Nineteen Eighty-Four" novel by George Orwell :

by Zelikow: "By 1949 George Orwell could envision the shrewdly calibrated torments that induced his protagonist in “1984” to love Big Brother. Such methods worked all too well, Orwell feared. The United States experimented in the 1950s and 1960s with novel ways of extracting information. But, until 2002, it never considered the kind of systematic and truly Orwellian C.I.A. program that has now been revealed. " (article HERE)





“The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth.” - Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

THE MOVIE:

USA - NO MORE RENDITION ....to torture!

The CIA officer who was the architect of the "Rendition Program" (kidnapping of people) under Bill Clinton's government, is now out of the CIA.
As a top ex-CIA officer, this "non ordinary man" is no more in favor of the "Rendition Program" as it has been conducted . And he has new ideas for Bill Clinton's Democrat sucessor:

"At this point, I'd rather kill them when we find them, than take them anywhere"...(at 7:26 min)

Listen to his candid "deference" to assassinations worldwide - NO MORE RENDITION...just to torture !
Fault Lines - Obama's 'War on Terror' - 16 Apr 09 (Program HERE)

In 2002 FBI was OUT but CSIS was IN , "visiting" IN Guantanamo ! US Senate Report confirms Rumsfeld responsible for Torture PROGRAM

Confirmation that the USA developed a Torture Program is out by now. Recent released memos also confirm that participation in torture goes from the Military to the CIA...

Documents also show that in late 2001 the FBI refused to participate in the "Torture Program" in Guantanamo and documents show that even in 2003 CSIS went to Guantanamo where the Torture Program was in full gear. With so much information coming out in USA and with the knowledge of CSIS' (Canadian Secret Intelligence Services) "visits" to Guantanamo, one would have to think about the meaning of these CSIS' "visits " to a site running a "Torture Program" ....Isn't this complicity in torture? Is there an explanation to CSIS' visits to "Guantanamo" that doesn't make them, to say the least, bystanders to torture? Can this be brushed off as mere "good faith"? How much involvement do Canadian institutions have with the American Torture PROGRAM? Or is this just a "who cares" issue in Canada?

Recent News on THE AMERICAN TORTURE PROGRAM follow:
"Break Them Down, Leave No Marks" - US Senate Report confirms Rumsfeld responsible for Torture PROGRAM
In USA, after the release of the several "secret memos" this week, it became clear that the United States government developed a Torture Program in which the Military, CIA e etc...were participants. The Torture Program used “interrogation plans” to disorient, abuse, dehumanize, and torment individuals over time . All indications are that the program was intended to GET CONFESSIONS - whatever they were...

It was under the "methods" of this "Torture Program" that a Canadian citizen was "prepared' for the visit of Canadian officials in Guantanamo.
(As posted on April 11, 2009 - all documents available on line at The University of California Davis Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas - click HERE)

The "Program" included the Military, the CIA etc...etc...etc...One more point to think about considering the "very close relationship" Canadians proudly have with USA... To understand the extension of the program:

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Philip Zelikow, 9/11 Commission Director speaks out: THE TORTURE PROGRAM, ITS FAILURE AND LEGAL JUSTIFICATIONS FOR TORTURE

Philip Zelikow , "9/11 Commission Director", speaks out about the TORTURE PROGRAM:

Zelikow, who had access to the supposed intelligence obtained from the “high-value detainees” through torture even before the recent released memos, has written an article in which he dissects the torture program’s failings.

He goes further:
"But the argument that they gave us vital information, which readers can see deployed in the memos just as they were deployed to reassure an uneasy president, is based on a fallacy."

He also points out that the most important point should not be "waterboarding" but the fact that it was a torture program.

"the program developed “interrogation plans” to disorient, abuse, dehumanize, and torment individuals over time".

Among the torture 'techniques" : "attention grasp", "walling," facial slaps, "facial hold," cramped confinement, sleep deprivation, "wall standing", insects placed in a confinement box, waterboarding, and stress positions.
(more on the USA Senate Armed Services Committee Report released on April 21, 2009 HERE)

Zelikow's article points out the role of lawyers in the Torture Program:

"There is an elementary distinction, too often lost, between the moral (and policy) question -- "What should we do?" -- and the legal question: "What can we do?" We live in a policy world too inclined to turn lawyers into surrogate priests granting a form of absolution. "The lawyers say it's OK." Well, not really. They say it might be legal. They don't know about OK."

Zelikow's article HERE
"The OLC "torture memos": thoughts from a dissenter - By Philip Zelikow - 04/21/2009

The recent released reports and documents also reveal the participation of psychiatrists and psychologist in developing the torture program. More on this at:

"Tortured Logic: How Medical Professionals Rationalized the Bush Administration's Torture Program."
a responce to the release of the Senate Armed Forces Committee report on detainee abuse, by Nataniel Raymond, Director of PHR. (HERE)



Zelikow is currently the White Burkett Miller Professor of History at the University of Virginia and was counselor at the Department of State, a deputy to Secretary Rice, from 2005-2007.

RCMP : "WHO YOU GONNA BELIEVE, ME OR YOUR EYES?" - The RCMP's Propaganda Machine - Drafting the Lies and the "key messages to the media"

_________________________________________________________________________________
View CBC - "Insiders Perspective" April 20, 2009 - (HERE) __________________________________________________________________________________

One has to wonder the price ALL Police Forces , all over the country, have to pay for siding with the RCMP's lies and cover-ups ...
While tons of police officers in other forces are, on a daily basis, working , really working, to bring criminals to Court, the RCMP doesn't need this - it can only roll its propaganda machine and Bingo!, the "Canadian Police Idol" gets the honours!
From complicity in torture, to harassment of Canadians (HERE) , to killing a confused man in front of the public and on and on, it looks like that nothing is bad enough to the RCMP , as long as it can , with impunity, cover it up. This is a Police Force that would make any dictator happy: lies, crimes, cover-ups, no accountability, power, intimidations...Still missing the "death squads" component? maybe...

But soon, for sure, the RCMP will come up with some "sensational news" about some TERRIFIC crime it solved!
Its propaganda machine must be rolling right now, so that Canada and the world, (mainly those who visit Disneyland) , forget or do not believe in their own eyes or in any evidence that contradicts the RCMP.
At the end of the day, this Police Force slogan looks like to be " "Who you gonna believe, ME OR YOUR EYES?"
For our eyes to see and for our ears to listen:


DRAFTING THE LIES - "key messages to the media"



NOT "JUST" TASER BUT A PATTERN OF VIOLENCE - RCMP Pepper Spray BABY ..Is the case just the taser?



AND some of the CASES...only a few...

68 Year Old Stroke Victim Tasered After Double Parking


RCMP using Taser on disabled man - But in this case, the man died some weeks later...in an accident...



THE LAST MINUTES OF Robert Dziekanski - the RCMP caught on video: " "WHO YOU GONNA BELIEVE, ME OR YOUR EYES?"
Paul Pritchard,the school teacher who shot the video, had to threaten Court Action to get his camera back, after the RCMP saw him shooting what happened and seized his camera.

WATCH the Video: "Fault Lines" - April 16, 2009 - Canadian Torture Cases included

TORTURE and AMERICA'S Wars - CIA torture operatives, officers of a vigilante Nation since segregation, used to torture, kidnappings, secret executions ...?
USA Torture Program - a reminder of the Ku Klux Klan tactics and "techniques"?

(photo by Anthony Karen-
"Aryan Outfitters - Meet the Ku Klux Klan's seamstress of hate couture"
full piece at Mother Jones, March 27, 2008 - HERE


CIA RENDITION , Torture , kidnappings, assassinations...and more - updates and interviews at "Fault Lines" - with Avi Lewis - April 16, 2009 - HERE


Watch the video:

Part I



Part II






Interviews with people on all sides of the so-called "war on terror" - from human rights lawyers to former Bush administration officials; from a former US detainee who was rendered to torture to the CIA analyst who helped author his fate- Michael Scheuer.

Scheuer remarkably has no constraints when he shows the bully/vigilante mentality of American Secret Services:
"I'd rather kill them when we find them, than to take them anywhere!"
by Michael Scheuer - former CIA staffer

Also, an interview with Richard Armitage, former deputy secretary of state under George Bush, Obama's predecessor, who said he hoped he would have resigned had he known that detainees were being waterboarded.

The Bush Six to Be Indicted - Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo, David Addington, Jay Bybee, William J. Haynes II and Douglas J. Feith

Harpers Magazine - April 14, 2009 (HERE)

By Scott Horton
Scott Horton is a law professor and writer on legal and national-security affairs for Harper's magazine and The American Lawyer, among other publications.

Spanish prosecutors will seek criminal charges against Alberto Gonzales and five high-ranking Bush administration officials for sanctioning torture at Guantánamo.

Spanish prosecutors decide to seek indictments against Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo, David Addington, Jay Bybee, William J. Haynes II and Douglas J. Feith on charges that they conspired to introduce a regime of torture that resulted in the torture of five Spaniards held at Gitmo.

The Bush Six labored at length to create a legal black hole in which they could implement their policies safe from the scrutiny of American courts and the American media. Perhaps they achieved much of their objective, but the law of unintended consequences has kicked in. If U.S. courts and prosecutors will not address the matter because of a lack of jurisdiction, foreign courts appear only too happy to step in.

READ THE DETAILS HERE.

IT IS ON TAPE but Jim Judd, the head of CSIS, says Geoffrey O'Brian was wrong...The video again-HERE(if can't see on NEWSWEEK click CSIS logo)

video also HERE

The head of CSIS, Jim Judd, says that veteran CSIS advisor Geoffrey O’Brian was wrong when he told the commons committee on public safety on Tuesday that CSIS will use information obtained under torture. (O'Brian's statements - video HERE )

But the images of the video are HERE , for all of us to see. In ONE of CSIS "visits" to Guantanamo, March 30, 2004, Jim Gould, CSIS officer, was one of the interrogators at Guantanamo, and doesn't look like that he was there to get ""information which can prevent something like the Air India bombing, the Twin Towers" etc...

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Newsweek Magazine published the video on July 15, 2008:

http://video.newsweek.com/#?t=1868992093&l=18465772001

YouTube:

link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJSO4WfCgQU


This was a "visit" to a 16 years old Canadian who had been in US custody since July 2002. (PDF documents are HERE )

Doesn't look possible that something was to be "prevented"...Also, this was not the first "visit", and Jim Gould was not the only "visitor" :

"11. Compared to last year, Umar has physically matured..."

"As you are aware an officer of this division, together with three other officers, visited Camp Delta on the US Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,in order to meet with Umar Ahmad Khadr."

(extracted from reports available at the The University of California Davis Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas - HERE)

Documents also show that in "preparation" for the Canadian Officials "visit", the Canadian citizen was put in the "frequent flyer program: for the three weeks before Mr. Gould's visit, Umar has not been permitted more than three hours in anyone location. At three hours intervals he is moved to another cell block, thus denying him uninterrupted'sleep and a continued change of neighbours. He will soon be placed in isolation for up to three weeks and then he will be interviewed again"(extracetd from the report HERE)

Again, this is one of the cases, one of the "visits" ...The only one that had public disclosure in a video.

All documents available on line at The University of California Davis Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas - click HERE)

Doesn't look like that Geoffrey O'Brian is wrong, except for the "eminent threat", or, as per Mr.O'Brian's explanation on why CSIS believes that information obtained under torture can be useful : "information which can prevent something like the Air India bombing, the Twin Towers"

Omar Khadr, was 15 years old when his ordeal started in July 2002 after being transferred to the US prison at Bagram airbase, where was subjected to chronic abuse. He was severely wounded by then. One of his interrogators at Bagram prison was Sgt. Joshua Claus, who was later charged of various crimes, including assault and “maltreatment of a detainee” in connection with the murder of the two men, and was sentenced to five months in jail in 2006.

And to refresh the memory, there was that case of Jack Hooper, former CSIS deputy director, who contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in 2003 to tell them that it was not in Canada's interests to demand that the United States return Maher Arar, rather than deporting him to Syria.

In 2007, as part of the investigation into government foreknowledge of the torture, it was revealed that Hooper had sent an earlier memo on October 10, 2002 that included the reference "I think the United States would like to get Arar to Jordan where they can have their way with him".

Looks like that CSIS has been immune from accountability for a long time..Remembering THE HILL TIMES - October 2, 2006 - CSIS didn't want Arar returned to Canada - HERE

And more at "Canadian role in Syria torture" - BBC News, October 24, 2008 - HERE

Confidential Report Released - RED CROSS - Regional Delegation for the United States and Canada - DESCRIBES ETHICAL VIOLATIONS BY MEDICAL PERSONNEL

COMPLICITY IN TORTURE:
DAN COLEMAN, former FBI agent considered the bureau's pre-eminent authority on Osama bin Laden, on Torture:

"It's illegal. It's immoral. It's unethical. And it doesn't work." (full interview HERE)

Expert's opinion on torture looks like the opposite of CSIS Representative Geoffrey O'Brian's opinion, who testified that torture is still useful in some cases..

And on Monday, April 6, the New York Review of Books publicly released a full version of the "strictly confidential" February 2007 report on torture, prepared by the International Committee of the Red Cross - Regional Delegation for the United States and Canada.

The report was leaked in part by journalist Mark Danner, who wrote a review of the report in April 9 edition of the NYRB. HERE

The full report can be read HERE.

The publication of the ICRC full report on CIA abuse of prisoners has rightfully sparked a new media scandal.

Following the report's release, on Thursday, April 9, CIA Director, Leon Panetta, sent a memo to Congress stating that the CIA no longer operates secret detention facilities or employs any of the "enhanced interrogation techniques" (torture) authorized by the Bush Justice Department.

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In addition to the Report information, experts and others familiar with the torture extracted "intelligence", have opinions that are the opposite of that of CSIS' Official(s) .

Follows statement by

Representative Artur Davis (D-AL), House Judiciary Subcommittee Hearing on the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel,
February 14, 2008, responding to Assistant Attorney General Steven Bradbury’s description of the CIA’s interrogation program (torture) - clique HERE for the text

“We can’t measure the accuracy of this program by saying we’ve gone out and brought hard
and fast cases based on it. You cannot tell me whether any of these individuals or all of these
individuals have lied. You conceded to me that someone facing extreme anxiety and pressure
could yield false information. I add all that up and I come to one simple conclusion:
We can’t tell if this program is working…[W]e want to get the real terrorists and we don’t
know if you are succeeding in doing that or if you’re unearthing a bunch of lies.”

And more by DAN COLEMAN - former FBI agent considered the bureau's pre-eminent authority on Osama bin Laden

"Much of the threat information provided by Abu Zubaida was crap."

"COLEMAN: It's illegal. It's immoral. It's unethical. And it doesn't work."
––
More on the Report: HERE
(ICRC) describing as torture certain interrogation techniques used by the CIA and concluding that its medical officials had committed a "gross breach of medical ethics."

The report found that medical personnel supervised and assisted in beatings, food deprivation, extreme temperature exposure, waterboarding, threats of HIV infection or withholding medical treatment, and other practices in violation of international medical ethics, primarily to support the CIA interrogation process.

THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG - CSIS and RCMP and Intelligence Services that did not know that Syria TORTURES !

FACTS:

Canadians have been detained and tortured abroad with the "indirect"participation of CSIS and RCMP.

In one of the cases, Ahmad El Maati, a Canadian Citizen was tortured with electric shocks and more, being detained and tortured in Syria after CSIS shared information with foreign agencies that inaccurately characterized him as being an “Islamic extremist” linked to “an aide of Osama Bin Laden.”

The Iacobucci Inquiry found that CSIS (and the RCMP) received a “confession” extracted under torture from Ahmad El Maati in November 2001, then crafted a new set of questions to send back to El Maati’s Syrian interrogators in an attempt to “corroborate” the confession.

This confession under toture was used by the RCMP to justify search warrants and telephone taps in Canada and the information obtained through the searches was used to write more questions for interrogators (torturers) to ask not just El Maati, but also another Canadian Citizen - Abdullah Almalki.


TRUTH THAT MAKES SENSE:

CSIS lawyer Geoffrey O’Brian, said the spy agency still uses information that may have been obtained by torture in national security investigations "if lives are at stake".

He offered the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security lengthy and substantive answers and even quoted a British House of Lords 2005 decision to explain the agency's approach.

His testimony can be watched HERE.

His testimony is compatible with the facts.

Mr. O’Brian, who has been with CSIS since the eighties is a veteran CSIS adviser and a lawyer. He helped draft the CSIS Act. Chances are high that he knows what he is talking about. And the facts seem to corroborate his statements.

But Jim Judd, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, told a Commons Public Safety Committee, on Thursday, April 2, 2009, that a CSIS official misspoke on the subject.

Our hearts go to Mr. O'Brian, who apparently is the one who was candid with Canadian Representatives and who appears to know what he is talking about!

The truth, in a Democracy and in life , is always better than a cover up or a lie .

More:

1) Jim Judd's HERE.

2) Torture of Canadian Citizens with the "indirect" participation fo Canadain officials - Iacobucci and O'Connor Report - HERE and HERE

3) The truth and nothing but the truth - the story of Canadian national security investigations gone terribly wrong, , told through the experiences of four of its targets: Ahmad El Maati, Abdullah Almalki, Maher Arar and Muayyed Nureddin - Dark Days - HERE

4) CSIS in Guantanamo - Americans Nototrious Torture Prison:

The Report - the Canadian Officials participation in interrogation in the notorious Torture prison of Guantanamo:
The report is on line at:

The University of California Davis Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas (CSHRA) - Guantanamo Testimonies - HERE

An extract of the report:

"PAGE 9 of the Report : Preparing the 12 year-old Canadian for the Canadian "visit" :

"6. In an effort to make him more amenable and willing to talk,(blacked out)_ has placed Umar
on the -frequent flyer program: for the three weeks before Mr(blacked out) ~s visit, Umar has not been permitted more than three hours in anyone location. At three hours intervals
he is moved to another cell block, thus denying him uninterrupted'sleep and a continued change of neighbours. He will soon be placed in isolation for up to three weeks and then he will be interviewed again".

5) The Politics of Torture - The Pinochet Case HERE