CIA use of psychological torture - a short History - Prof. Alfred McCoy

Alfred McCoy, Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin, explores the history and use by the CIA of psychological torture in terms of how this particular form of torture was discovered, perfected and made legal.

He is the author of the book "A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, From the Cold War to the War on Terror ( 2006)

Dr Aubrey Levin , aka "Dr.Shock" in South Africa, was a military psychiatrist during the apartheid regime. He was admitted to Canada in 1995

Dr Aubrey Levin, a former South African psychiatrist, who was accused of numerous human rights abuses in South Africa, immigrated to Canada in 1995 and became a leading Canadian psychiatrist at the University of Calgary’s medical school.

He was recently criminally charged in Calgary, accused of sex assault by one of his patients.
(Calgary Sun, March 31, 2010 - http://www.calgarysun.com/news/alberta/2010/03/24/13345966.html)

Canada admitted other South African medical practitioners accused of human rights abuses. Among then two who worked with Wouter Basson, known as Dr Death for his oversight of chemical and biological warfare experiments.

The South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission heard that Levin was guilty of “gross human rights abuses” including chemical castration of gay men.

Dr Levin was known as "Dr. Shock" in South Africa, for his use of electricity to “cure” gay military conscripts.

In Canada for 15 years and teaching at University of Calgary's medical school, he has been arrested for making sexual advances against a male patient and is being investigated on charges of abusing 30 others.

The Alberta justice department is reviewing scores of criminal convictions in which Levin was a prosecution witness.

THE FULL ARTICLE AT:
The Guardian U.K. - Sunday 28 March 2010 - Chris McGreal in Washington

'Doctor Shock' charged with sexually abusing male patient

Canadian police investigate dozens of allegations against psychiatrist nicknamed for use of electricity to 'cure' gay soldiers"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/28/aubrey-levin-charged-sexually-abusing-patient

[retrieved March 31, 2010]

Controversies related to Aubrey Levin's participation in human rights atrocities:

 

http://www.mrc.ac.za/healthsystems/aversion.pdf

U.S. Military and some of the most bizarre torture techniques of the "Torture Program": UK Channel 4 documentary

CRAZY RULERS OF THE WORLD - - Channel 4 - BBC/UK

The Channel 4 BBC documentary is based on the investigative research compiled in the book:The Men Who Stare at Goats, by Jon Ronson, a British journalist, documentary filmmaker and author of four non-fictional books.

Ronson decide to investigate "the most whacked-out corners of George W. Bush's War on Terror," as he puts it.As he investigates, he soon learns that the U.S. First Earth Battalion's bizarre ideas inspired some of the torture techniques being used in the American "Torture Program".In his book The Man who stares at goats, Ronson examines connections between military secret programs and torture techniques being used for interrogation by the United States military. It traces the evolution of these covert activities over the past three decades, and points out to the fact that they are alive today within U.S. Homeland Security and U.S. occupied Iraq.
The book accompanies the three-part TV series broadcast on Channel 4 in Britain, Crazy Rulers of the World. The three parts were titled "The Men Who Stare at Goats", "Funny Torture" and "Psychic Footsoldiers" respectively. The idea of the project was to explore "the apparent madness at the heart of U.S. military intelligence." The series discusses and includes members of Psychological Operations, First Earth Battalion and also includes Project MKULTRA and Frank Olson's death after being drugged by the CIA.
The full video is not available to embed but 5 min trailer for each part follows: ( no intention of promoting any advertising but this was the best I could find.)

TRAILER can also be watched on line at:

http://youtu.be/LS-jutv-rh0

Part I of 3- The Man who stares at Goats


Part II of 3 - Funny TortureOne technique involves subjecting prisoners to 24 hours of Barney the Purple Dinosaur's song, "I Love You,". Another makes use of the Predator, a toy-like object designed by a military martial arts expert to inflict a large amount of pain in many different ways
Part III of 3 - Psychic Footsoldiers

In the book, Jon Ronson also examines the smuggling of a hundred goats into the Special Forces command center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and the connection between the U.S. military and the mass-suicide of members of the Heaven's Gate cult in San Diego.
As the events recounted grow more bizarre and the accounts by the individuals Ronson interviews more disturbing, it becomes important to remind oneself of Ronson's opening words: "This is a true story."
A movie with the same title and based on the book, was released in Autumn 2009 by Winchester Films, BBC Films and Mandate Pictures . The "humorous" tone given, Ronson explains, may be a way of dealing with the absurdity of these experiments by the US Military.

Since then, more and more individuals who were in American custody, have given detailed accounts that indicate they were used in human experiments by the American military.


More on Jon Ronson: www.jonronson.com


THE MOVIE based on the book:


MORE ABOUT the First Earth Battalion and its bizarre experiments at:
""The real-life "Men who stared at goats" were even weirder" - Boing Boing , November 2009
HERE - http://boingboing.net/2009/11/09/the-real-life-men-wh.html

A Short History of Psychological Terror - University of California Television

First Aired: 3/26/2007 (HERE)
Alfred W. McCoy is a historian and Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin. He is the author of the book "A Question of Torture: CIA interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror".
University of California TV- http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.aspx?showID=12279
"From the nature of Australian organized crime to CIA of psychological torture"...




In the book "A Question of Torture: CIA interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror", Alfred McCoy documents how, since 1950, the CIA and various nations have augmented traditional physical torture with psychological abuse techniques.

McCoy follows the years of research, including the experiments in Canada, which compromised universities and the Army. The book includes accounts by victims and stories of doctors who conducted horrific experiments in human beings. It includes detailed and documented information on the experiments in Canada.

Wikileaks, the anonymous whistle-blowing internet site, hits a nerve of those afraid of the light?

WikiLeaks reports that it has been the subject of hostile acts by security organizations, ranging from the assassination of two related human rights lawyers in Nairobi in March 2010 to an unsuccessful mass attack by Chinese computers on their servers in Stockholm, after WikiLeaks published photos of murders in Tibet.

FULL EDITORIAL HERE : (http://wikileaks.org/#spying )

About WikiLeaks and how it preserves identities and information

CHECK

http://wikileaks.org/About.html

U.S. District Judge James Robertson orders release of Guantanamo prisioner interrogated by both CSIS and RCMP

On March 22, 2010, U.S. District Judge James Robertson,
US District Court for the District of Columbia,
ordered the release of Guantanamo Bay prisoner
Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a Mauritanian
who has been in US custody since November 2001.

Last year, the Federal Court of Canada dismissed an application by Slahi requesting access to records of interrogations conducted by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) both in Canada and at Guantanamo Bay.

(See details on the case and Slahi's hand written letter to his lawyer dated Nov 9, 2006 at:
The University of California Davis Center for the Study of Human Rights in the AmericasCSHRA) - http://humanrights.ucdavis.edu/projects/the-guantanamo-testimonials-project/testimonies/prisoner-testimonies/slahi_letter.pdf )

He had been accused of planning the 9/11 terrorist attacks and of being a key al Qaeda leader. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty against him.

On September 2009, Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Couch, the American government prosecutor set on convicting Mohamedou Ould Slahi, stepped down from the case after getting access to details of Slahi's treatment at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay.
"Duty vs. Conscience at Gitmo" - PBS NOW - 09/04/2009

Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Couch said:

("I felt like what had been done to Slahi just reprehensible. For that reason alone, I refused to have any further participation in this case."


Slahi had sought the release of Canadian records of interrogations conducted by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) both in Canada and at Guantanamo Bay, to corroborate his allegations of torture at Guantanamo Bay as part of his ongoing habeas corpus petition.

The judge's decision is currently classified, although the court suggested that the files will become available at a future date.

Sources:
Miami Herald - March 22, 2010
"Detainee abused at Guantanamo orderd freed"- by Carol Rosemberg
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/22/1542227/detainee-abused-at-guantanamo.html

CSIS and RCMP interrogation in Canada and at Guantanamo at:
JURIST Legal News & Research - Tuesday, March 23, 2010
"Federal judge orders release of Guantanamo detainee accused in 9/11 attacks" - Andrea Bottorff (retrieved March 23, 2010)
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2010/03/federal-judge-orders-release-of.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+pitt%2FvLdl+%28JURIST+-+Paper+Chase+[full]%29

AND

JURIST Legal News & Research - February 17, 2009
"Canada court rejects Guantanamo detainees' bid to access intelligence records"
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2009/02/canada-court-rejects-guantanamo.php

SHARED INFORMATION - Israel - The Shadow Factory

Charlie: The Drunk and the Revolving doors

From "The Cure" - 1917

UK expels Israel diplomat in forged passports row

UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband: "Israel was responsible for misuse of British passports"
The foreign secretary confirmed that Britain had demanded the withdrawal of an Israeli diplomat following the "intolerable" use of 12 forged British passports by a hit squad that killed the founder of Hamas's military wing in Dubai.


AT:
The Guardian UK
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2010/mar/23/britain-expels-israeli-diplomat

British Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/7506064/David-Miliband-Israeli-cloning-of-British-passports-was-intolerable.html

British military intelligence ran a secret torture unit in Iraq

The Baha Mousa inquiry - UK - Update March 16, 2010

Baha Mousa was a 26-year-old Iraq civilian who worked as hotel receptionist. He was arrested along with six other men and taken to a British base where he was killed by British soldiers who repeatedly beat him on the neck, chest and genital areas.
(HERE - BBC News - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3931023.stm - retrieved March 23, 2010)

The Baha Mousa Inquiry in UK, has brought to light the information that Attorney General "blocked" system to stop prisoner abuse and that British military intelligence ran a secret torture unit in Iraq, with prisoners deprived of sleep and kept hooded for long periods in intense heat, according to fresh evidence."
ARTICLES HERE:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/16/iraqi-prisoner-abuse

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/818475-renegade-torture-unit-in-iraq-run-by-british-intelligence-officers

What the Buck Show - Oct 17, 2007- "Eat My Jew Bagel, Ann Coulter"

Watch Your Back, Canada ! SHE IS HERE!

"this country is lucky we allow them to exist on the same continent”
Ann Coulter, 2003 ('this country" is Canada)

Watch Ann Coulter as she talks about CANADA adn its support for the American invasion of Iraq. (the one based on lies)



Today, the Globe and Mail reports that she was invited to give speeches in Canada. She starts at University of Western Ontario on Monday and wraps up her Canadian tour at the University of Calgary on Thursday.

More about the visitor: HERE

"Coulter: Canada is "lucky we allow them to exist on the same continent"; Carlson: "Without the U.S., Canada is essentially Honduras"-
December 01, 2004 - retrieved March 22, 2010

Getting Used to it ?

"Romero" is a documentary film (1989) depicting the life of Catholic Archbishop Óscar Romero, directed by John Duigan, starring Raul Julia.

On March 24, 1980, Romero was shot by an M-16 assault rifle while celebrating Mass at a small chapel located in a hospital called "La Divina Providencia", in El Salvador.

In 1993, an official U.N. report, identified the man who ordered the killing as former School of the Americas graduate Roberto D'Aubuisson, a member of the United States backed death squads that systematically carried out politically-motivated assassinations and other human rights abuses in El Salvador.

March 24, 2010 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the killing of Catholic Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero.
Comments in 2005, with extract of the 1989 film "ROMERO", directed by John Duigan, starring Raul Julia.

"ROMERO" , directed by John Duigan:
Part XI /11

Part I/11

Part II/11

Part III /11

Part IV /11

Part V /11

Part VI /11

Part VII /11

Part VIII/11

Part IX /11

Part X /11


Other Priests assassinated by USA backed death squads in El Salvador during Óscar Romero's time as archbishop (1977–1980):
-Rutilio Grande, S.J.: assassinated March 12, 1977
-Alfonso Navarro: assassinated May 11, 1977
-Ernesto Barrera: assassinated November 28, 1978
-Octavio Ortiz: assassinated January 20, 1979
-Rafael Palacios: assassinated June 20, 1979
-Napoleón Macías: assassinated August 4, 1979
-Ignacio Martín-Baró, S.J.: assassinated November 16, 1989
-Joaquín López y López, S.J.: assassinated November 16, 1989
-Juan Ramón Moreno, S.J.: assassinated November 16, 1989
-Segundo Montes, S.J.: assassinated November 16, 1989
-Ignacio Ellacuría, S.J.: assassinated November 16, 1989
-Amando López, S.J.: assassinated November 16, 1989

OUTSIDE DE LAW:STORIES FROM GUANTANAMO - Director: Andy Worthington - trailer

Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo "is a new documentary film telling the story of Guantánamo (and including sections on extraordinary rendition and secret prisons) with a particular focus on how the Bush administration turned its back on domestic and international laws, how prisoners were rounded up in Afghanistan and Pakistan without adequate screening (and often for bounty payments), and why some of these men may have been in Afghanistan or Pakistan for reasons unconnected with militancy or terrorism (as missionaries or humanitarian aid workers, for example)."

The film is based around interviews with former prisoners (Moazzam Begg and, in his first major interview, Omar Deghayes, who was released in December 2007), lawyers for the prisoners (Clive Stafford Smith in the UK and Tom Wilner in the US), and journalist and author Andy Worthington, and also includes appearances from Guantánamos former Muslim chaplain James Yee, a London-based Imam, and the British human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce.

Maltese's laughter: "big bunny" is wanted "dead or alive" by the Mounted Police

Bugs Bunny is wanted "dead or alive" by the Mounted Police - story by Michael Maltese, led by Elmer Fudd. Animation by Manuel Perez, supervising producer I. Freeleng. Produced in 1942

Dueling Banjos

Movie: Deliverance - thriller - 1972 / Scene before the trip into the unknown

A letter from Cindy Corrie, mother of Rachel Corrie

The letter HERE

Rachel Corrie -1979 - 2003

On this, the seventh anniversary of Rachel Corrie's death in Rafah, Palestine, the Corrie family and the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace & Justice call for a renewed commitment to create a better, more peaceful, and just world.

Rachel Corrie Speech - 5th grade

Rachel's Father speaks about her Death:

Rabbi Brant Rosen - Ta'anit Tzedek New Initiative: Jewish Fast for Gaza"

The Jewish Fast for Gaza is an ad hoc group of rabbis, Jews, and people of conscience who have committed to undertake a monthly daytime fast in support of the following goals:

1. To call for a lifting of the blockade that prevents the entry of civilian goods and services into Gaza;
2. To provide humanitarian and developmental aid to the people of Gaza;
3. To call upon Israel, the US, and the international community to engage in negotiations without pre-conditions with all relevant Palestinian parties - including Hamas - in order to end the blockade;
4. To encourage the American government to vigorously engage both Israelis and Palestinians toward a just and peaceful settlement of the conflict.

TO SUPPORT THE MOVEMENT VISIT:

http://www.fastforgaza.net/#signup

States within States

March 14, 2010 News -

A Comprehensive Report

CAKE OR DEATH ?

USA- Retired Air Force officer has a network of assassins?

American retired Air Force officer Michael D. Furlong is now full-time Defense Department official at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/world/asia/15contractors.html

 The New York Times reported on March 14, 2010 that Michael Furlong is now under criminal investigation been accused of running an off-the-books spy operation with the help of private contractors.

The contractors come from private security companies that employed among others, former CIA and Special Forces operatives and also a figure of the Iran-Contra scandal.

The network of private contractors was set up to help track and kill people Furlong's people saw as suspect militants.

Mr. Furlong is said to have extensive experience in “psychological operations”.

In conversations with him and his colleagues, he referred to his stable of contractors as “my Jason Bournes,” in a reference to the fictional American amnesiac assassin Jason Bourne, played by Matt Damon in the movies The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007).

Among contractors the retired Air Force official appears to have used are:
- International Media Ventures, a private “strategic communication” firm run by several former Special Operations officers. Until recently, one of the members of International Media’s board of directors was Gen. Dell L. Dailey, former head of Joint Special Operations Command, which oversees the military’s covert units.
- American International Security Corporation, a Boston-based company run by Mike Taylor, a former Green Beret that also had employed Duane Clarridge, former top C.I.A. official linked to the Iran-Contra scandal.

Clarridge denies that he had worked with Furlong in such operations.

The New York Times article, March 14, 2010 - by Dexter Filkins and Mark Mazzetti
"Contractors Tied to Effort to Track and Kill Militants"
HEREhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/world/asia/15contractors.html

"Getting used to it?"

When "a mistake" becomes the word for the criminal, the immoral, the wrong...

The comfort of Impunity

Bill Moyers - 1987 documentary - (the real "American way")

This piece aired on PBS in 1987. Bill Moyers is a well known respected journalist who also worked for Lyndon B. Johnson. He interviews many different people involved with the CIA and other government agencies. His documentary gives an overview of what the CIA has actually been doing since the 50's, from Iran, Guatemala, Cuba, Viet Nam, Chile and all over the world. He features former CIA agents, Rear Admiral Gene La Rocque (Ret. U.S.N.), Theodore Bissell (active in the CIA at the time), Sen. Frank Church and many others. The full video "The Secret Government" is 90 minutes. This is a 20 min edited segment but a good piece about USA "OPERATION SUCCESS" and more ...


Full video at:

The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis
by Bill Moyers -duration: 1:26:29
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3505348655137118430#

CIA - COVER-UP EXPERTS - It was a "mistake"....

ABC News - Feb 4, 2010

RACIAL PROFILE

Keen on lying ?“The Americans were very keen that people like us did not discover what they were doing.” - says the former Director General of MI5

Ex-UK Intel Chief: US Misled Allies on Treatment of Prisoners
Elizabeth Manningham-Buller, former Director General of MI5, the British internal national security agency stated that the United States mislead allies on the torture of foreign prisoners.

In the House of Lords, on Tuesday, March 9, 2010, Manningham-Buller said the Bush administration deliberately hid details of its treatment of prisoners.

The former Director General of MI5 said: “The Americans were very keen that people like us did not discover what they were doing.”

Full article:

Financial Times UK - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cacdbf58-2bd4-11df-8033-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
"London protested at torture, says ex-MI5 chief" - by John Lloyd
Published: March 9 2010 23:49

JEAN MICHEL JARRE - Equinoxe 5

Jean-Michel André Jarre was born in Lyon, France, on 24 August 1948, the son of composer Maurice Jarre, and French Resistance member and concentration camp survivor France Jarre .
He is a composer regarded as a pioneer in the electronic, synthpop, ambient and New Age genres.
With the album OXYGÈNE, he gained his reputation as an environment-conscious citizen of the planet and an active militant for its safe-guard.
In 1993 he accepted the offer to become a Goodwill Ambassador of Tolerance and Youth for UNESCO.
In 1995, in front of the Eiffel Tower he celebrated the 50th anniversary of the United Nations performing at the "Concert for Tolerance", on Bastille Day.
(http://jarreuk.info/14-july-1995-france-paris-eiffel-tower-concert-pour-la-tolerance)

Official You Tube Page : http://www.youtube.com/jeanmicheljarre?gl=GB&hl=en-GB




On April 5, 1986, Jarre performed in Houston, Texas, USA, for an audience of 1,300,000 approx.(Rendez-Vous )

March 8th, 2010 - Centennial of International Women's Day

Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women is an international convention adopted in 1979 by the United Nations General Assembly.
It is described as an international bill of rights for women and it came into force on 3 September 1981.

"Article I

For the purposes of the present Convention, the term "discrimination against women" shall mean any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field."
The UN headquarters-New York,USA

Seven countries have not ratified the international treaty:
- United States of America
- Iran
- Sudan
- Somalia
- Nauru
- Palau and
- Tonga


UNITED NATIONS DOCUMENTS : (HERE)
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/cedaw.htm

March 8th, 2010 - Centennial of International Women's Day / 1 July 2009 - Marwa Ali El-Sherbini murdered inside a courtroom in Dresden, Germany

Marwa Ali El-Sherbini (7 October 1977 – 1 July 2009) was an Egyptin German resident, who was killed during a hearing at a court of law in Dresden, Germany , on July 1, 2009.

She was stabbed by the man against whom she had testified in a criminal case about wearing a headscarf. The murder was committed inside the Courtroom in front of her three-year-old son and husband. She was three months pregnant.

As El-Sherbini and her family were about to leave, Alex Wiens, the man against whom she had testified, attacked her with an 18 cm (7 in) long blade. She received multiple stab wounds to the upper body and arm (at least 16). While trying to protect his wife, El-Sherbini's husband Elwi Ali-Okaz was stabbed at least 16 times to the head, neck, upper body and arm. The attack happened at 10:23 (time-stamped by the judge having raised a security alarm). A police officer, called to the scene to intervene, mistook Elwi Ali-Okaz for the attacker and shot him in the lower leg. Her three-year-old son was also injured while being ushered to safety. Marwa El-Sherbini died at the scene, at 11:07, succumbing to her injuries. Alex Wiens was arrested on the scene.

UK - Lord Neuberger, the Master of the Rolls, releases paragraphs severely critical of the trustworthiness of the UK Security Services

In a ruling on Feb 26, 2010, UK judges restored the paragraph that is considered " a major step towards holding government officials accountable for complicity in torture."

Author Andy Worthington, talks about the case on "Crooks and Liars" and "Talking Torture":



The full text is at:
"Judges Restore Damning Passage on MI5 to the Binyam Mohamed Torture Ruling"
http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/02/26/judges-restore-damning-passage-on-mi5-to-the-binyam-mohamed-torture-ruling/

The paragraph had been excluded even after a February 10, 2010 decision of the UK Court of Appeal had brought to an end an 18-month campaign by UK foreign secretary David Miliband to prevent the publication of a short summary, prepared by two High Court judges, explaining how US agents had subjected the British resident Binyam Mohamed to what was described as “at the very least cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,” and had provided this information to their British counterparts."


UK High Court Judges: Lord Justice Thomas and Mr. Justice Lloyd Jones :
“the relationship between the United Kingdom Government and the United States authorities went far beyond that of a bystander or witness to the alleged wrongdoing.”

Full Text at:
http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2009/05/17/uk-government-lies-exposed-spy-visited-binyam-mohamed-in-morocco/


Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press)

Can Rape, Torture and even murder be considered as official functions of a State and so attract immunity for its officials?

Short clips from the TV documentary movie Pinochet in Suburbia (Pinochet's Last Stand - in DVD) of Peter Capaldi portraying chairman of Amnesty International Andy McEntee.

PINOCHET - On September 11, 1973, with the support of the United States, Chilean general Augusto Jose Ramon Pinochet Ugarte , overthrew the democratically elected Chilean president, Salvador Allende.
The presidential palace was bombed and Allende killed in the attack.
Pinochet put into place a regime which knew no bounds - Rape, torture, false imprisonment and dozens of other human rights offenses were leveled at him.
It is estimated 27,000 people were ripped from their homes, never to be heard from again.
He was deposed of power in 1990, though remained a senator for life.

In 1998, he visited the United Kingdom with his wife for medical treatment. Once in the country, a combination of civil rights groups and a Spanish arrest warrant combined to create a political firestorm. Would General Pinochet be extradited to Spain to stand trial for over 300 human rights violations?

" The Crimes Of Pinochet " - Documentary - Chile Coup d'Etat by Pinochet backed by the United States and the slaughter of approximately 3,000 unarmed civilians mostly academics, artists, professionals, University students.

Víctor Lidio Jara Martínez (September 28, 1932 – September 15, 1973) was a Chilean teacher, poet, singer-song writer and political activist. Shortly after the September 11, 1973 Chilean coup, he was arrested, tortured and ultimately shot to death by machine gun fire. His body was later thrown out into the street of a shanty town in Santiago, Chile's capital. The contrast between the themes of his songs, on love, peace and social justice and the brutal way in which he was murdered transformed Jara into a symbol of struggle for human rights and justice across Latin America.
On May 28, 2009,36 anos após Jara's torture and murder, a 54-year-old former Army conscript, Jose Adolfo Paredes Marquez, was formally charged with his murder.

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Adolfo_Paredes_M%C3%A1rquez

Monty Python - "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition" (and the Red Dressed Torturers)

"CONFESS"

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR - CNN

March 8th, 2010 - Centennial of International Women's Day

Christiane Amanpour(CNN) interviews Marc Thiessen, a former George Bush speechwriter recently hired by the Washington Post as columnist. (HERE)
Marc Thiessen is also a passionate advocate of torture .

Viewer Advisory:
This interview contains language that sanctions, promotes or glamorizes violence.

AMERICAN "NO MARKS" TORTURE

The American Torture Program includes the use of music as a "leave no marks" method of torture. (http://www.reprieve.org.uk/chloemusictortureblog)

"The CIA realized, through psychological experiments in the 1950s and 60s that you could break down a person’s identity and trigger psychosis through sensory deprivation and overload. "

As the "American Torture Program" spread (or spreads?) around the world, plenty of people have become victims of the atrocities the United States has been perpetrating in the world and many have been tortured to the point of death or of losing their minds in the Dark Prison and elsewhere, but that is by no means the only place where U.S. forces, including the CIA and U.S. military personnel, have employed torture music. Thailand, Poland, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Morocco, Iraq: the list is endless.

The worse is still to come as impunity becomes the "American standard" when it comes to Torture.

As those who authorized the "American Torture Program" are neither investigated nor hold accountable or even worse, are "cleared", the reality becomes more and more evident : "psychological" techniques, will be increasingly attractive to those who believe themselves entitled to torture whoever, whenever, wherever.

La Valse à sale temps - J'ai besoin de la lune - Manu Chao

J'ai besoin de la lune pour lui parler la nuit. J'ai besoin du soleil pour me chauffer la vie.

Finding Dawn

March 8th, 2010 - Centennial of International Women's Day

Finding Dawn is a 2006 documentary film by Métis filmmaker Christine Welsh. The film begins with the story of Dawn Crey: one of 60 women, a third of them Aboriginal, who have disappeared from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside over a 20 year period. Crey's remains were among those found on property of British Columbia serial killer Robert Pickton.




See also: Highway of Tears - Project of Doors for Hope - http://www.highwayoftears.ca

Me Llaman Calle - Manu Chao (They Call Me "Street" in English)

March 8th, 2010 - Centennial of International Women's Day

Manu Chao is a French folk singer. He sings in French, Spanish, Galician, Portuguese, Arabic, English and Wolof, often mixing several languages in the same song.(http://www.manuchao.net/)

HATE GROUPS AT RECORD LEVELS IN USA - March 2010 Report

A new report says the United States is seeing a right-wing extremist groups growth of 244% in 2009. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (HERE), based in Alabama, USA, extremist racist groups grew to 512 in 2009. Right-wing militias tripled over the same period to 127.

(More HERE) - http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/splc-report-number-of-patriot-groups-militias-surges-by-244-in-past-year






A "SMALL THING" ? As BIG THINGS COME FROM LITTLE THINGS ...- "Foolish Frog" - Peggy Seeger - Feb 6, 2010 post), a look at a very public "small thing"(in 2006).

Michael Richards exploded in anger as he performed at a famous Los Angeles comedy club on November 2006, hurling racial epithets that left the crowd gasping.

Along with Julia Louis-Dreyfus (as Elaine Benes), Jerry Seinfeld (Jerry Seinfeld), and Jason Alexander (as George Constanza), Michael Richards plays Cosmo Kramer, one of the main characters in the American TV sitcom "Seinfeld".

More at: http://www.tmz.com/2006/11/20/kramers-racist-tirade-caught-on-tape/#ixzz0hE43dli3

"SHUT UP! 50 YEARS AGO WE'D HAVE YOU UPSIDE DOWN WITH A F* FORK UP YOUR ASS" : by actor MICHAEL RICHARDS , aka "Kramer" in sitcom "Seinfeld") - December 2006

"You should go to Africa"...

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf , is Liberia's head of state.
She is the first modern, and currently the only elected female head of state in Africa.
A peace movement called Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace led to her election.
The story is told in a 2008 documentary film called Pray the Devil Back to Hell.

PRAY THE DEVIL BACK TO HELL - Documentary:
http://www.praythedevilbacktohell.com/v3/

Synopsis
Pray the Devil Back to Hell chronicles the remarkable story of the courageous Liberian women, Christian and Muslin, who came together to end a bloody civil war and bring peace to their shattered country.

TRAILER:

GUERNICA - Testing ground for the military tactic of blanket-bombing of a civilian population to demoralize the enemy (1937)

Guernica is a painting by Pablo Picasso. This painting can be seen in the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid, Spain.

"Guernica" shows the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians.

Guernica became a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war.

Some elements of the painting:
- a wide-eyed bull stands over a woman grieving over a dead child in her arms
- Daggers that suggest screaming replace the tongues of the bull, grieving woman, and horse.
- a horse falling in agony as it had just been run through by a spear or javelin
- A human skull overlays the horse's body.
- A bull appears to gore the horse from underneath
- On the far right, a figure with arms raised in terror is entrapped by fire from above and below.


On 26 April 1937, for over three hours, twenty-five or more of Nazi Germany's best-equipped bombers, accompanied by at least twenty more Messerschmitt and Fiat Fighters, dumped one hundred thousand pounds of high-explosive and incendiary bombs on the village of Guernica, in Spain, slowly and systematically pounding it to rubble. Those trying to escape were cut down by the strafing machine guns of fighter planes.

The warplanes of the German Condor Legion, commanded by Hitler's Air Colonel Wolfram von Richthofen, were using the war as an opportunity to test out new weapons and tactics.

Guernica had no strategic value as a military target, although Air Colonel Wolfram von Richthofen, claimed publicly that the target was a bridge over the Mundaca River on the edge of town, chosen in order to cut off the fleeing Republican troops. But although the Condor Legion was made up of the best airmen and planes of Hitler's developing war machine, not a single hit was scored on the presumed target, nor on the railway station, nor on the small-arms factory nearby.

Some time later, a secret report to Berlin was uncovered in which Von Richthofen stated, "...the concentrated attack on Guernica was the greatest success,"

The report made it clear that the all-out air attack had been ordered on behalf of Spain's military general, dictator and head of state Francisco Franco, to break the spirited Nationalist forces.

Guernica had served as the testing ground for a new Nazi military tactic - blanket-bombing a civilian population to demoralize the enemy. It was wanton, man-made holocaust.

On May 12, 1999, the New York Times reported that, after sixty-one years, in a declaration adopted on April 24, 1999, the German Parliament formally apologized to the citizens of Guernica for the role the Condor Legion played in bombing the town. The German government also agreed to change the names of some German military barracks named after members of the Condor Legion. By contrast, no formal apology to the city has ever been offered by the Spanish government for whatever role it may have played in the bombing.

San Diego, University of California :Racist and misogynist events on the rise in San Diego - 2010

San Diego - University of California and the dehumanizing and demoralizing of the "people who get dark in the sun" (whatever it means...):

From noose being hung in the library to Facebook invitation that urged women to dress as “ghetto chicks” who, quote, “usually have gold teeth, start fights and drama, and wear cheap clothes.” It said the menu would include chicken and watermelon...



More on San Diego, California:
(John Choon Yoo (born June 10, 1967 in Seoul, South Korea), known for his leading role in providing legal guidance on "enhanced interrogation techniques" to the George W. Bush administration ( see "Torture Memos") , has been a professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley's School of Law , since 1993.)

San Diego is also home to wireless telephone chip maker QualComm Inc.
Verizon Wireless uses Qualcomm's MediaFLO technology to broadcast live TV to certain phones. Verizon Communications was involved the controversy of NSA spying program.(http://www.eff.org/cases/verizon-mci)