“Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” - documentary film launched in London, UK

TRAILER AVAILABLE HERE

directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington , and inspired by Andy’s book, The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison, it was launched on October 21, 2009 in London, UK.(photos from the launch of "Outside the Law: Stories from Guantanamo)

The film tells the story of Guantánamo (and includes 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 Guantánamo’s former Muslim chaplain James Yee, Shakeel Begg, a London-based Imam, and the British human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce.

Focusing on the stories of three particular prisoners — Shaker Aamer (who is still held), Binyam Mohamed (who was released in February 2009) and Omar Deghayes — “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” provides a powerful rebuke to those who believe that Guantánamo holds “the worst of the worst” and that the Bush administration was justified in responding to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 by holding men neither as prisoners of war, protected by the Geneva Conventions, nor as criminal suspects with habeas corpus rights, but as “illegal enemy combatants” with no rights whatsoever.

For further information, interviews, or to inquire about broadcasting, distributing or showing “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo,” please contact Andy Worthington(andy@andyworthington.co.uk) or Polly Nash(p.nash@lcc.arts.ac.uk).

“Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” is a Spectacle Production (74 minutes, 2009).

Andy Worthington is a journalist, and the author of three books, including The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (Pluto Press). Visit his website here.

Polly Nash is a lecturer at the London College Of Communication (LCC), part of the University of the Arts, London, and has worked in film and TV for 20 years. Core funding for the film was provided by LCC.

Review at The Osterley Times :

"The film was intense and powerful, mostly because it did not attempt in any way to emotionalise the story it was laying out before us. [Andy] Worthington, Clive Stafford Smith and others simply told the story of how the US abandoned habeas corpus and found itself in a kind of war with its own legal system, whilst [Moazzam] Begg and [Omar] Deghayes told the tale of what it was like to be on the receiving end of this historic aberration of justice."

Comments:
"The film was brilliantly powerful — both understated and shocking. All night I have had the images in my head and thoughts of these men who, even when released, can’t contact their families. I hate to admit I had no idea about extraordinary rendition — you have lifted the lid on a world that far too many people, like myself, find too easy to avoid."

"I have just returned from a rather extraordinary evening. I attended the film premiere of Andy Worthington and Polly Nash’s film “Outside the Law” — a feature length documentary about Guantánamo. I urge you all to see it. Please do and then when you have seen it pass it on to your friends and family. I have not seen anything at all that compares to understanding the magnitude of what has been happening in Guantánamo and Bagram. After seeing this film and then staying for the Q&A, which featured the film makers, as well as former detainees Omar Deghayes and Moazzam Begg, I was moved, inspired and angered beyond any other event I have been to. People left the venue with changed opinions, far better informed and shocked. Once again please do try and get to a screening."

For more information : Andy Worthington Website at: http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/

Canadian Intelligence:"if prosecution is not viable, there are other techniques"- Listen to a dramatic reading of "DARK DAYS"-by Kerry Pither

Dark Days: The Story of Four Canadians Tortured
in the Name of Fighting Terror - by Kerry Pither

A DRAMATIC READING: Listen HERE

Dark Days tells the story that goes from how CSIS and RCMP harassed Canadian citizens, squeezing them out of Canada and later sending questions to their tormentors in foreign jails like the infamous Far' Falastin in Syria.

It is 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.

After discovering they were of interest to Canadian investigators these Canadian Muslim men were detained overseas and subjected to brutal torture. They were all interrogated using questions from Canadian agencies — all were accused of links to terrorism but no evidence has been produced to back these accusations. All were eventually released without charge and returned to Canada. All want to clear their names and rebuild their lives, and to do so, they need to know who did this to them, and more importantly, why.

Listen to a dramatic reading of an excerpt of the book HERE

Or visit the authors site at:
http://kerrypither.com/about/

Public Safety Committee hearings THIS Tuesday - March 24 - 9 to 11 - OPEN TO THE PUBLIC - KERRY PITHER testifies

Open to the Public

Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security Hearing

March 24, 2009 - from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. -room 269 of the West Block on Parliament Hill

Kerry Pither will be testifying before the Committee

For more information , click HERE:

http://kerrypither.com/2009/03/public-safety-committee-hearings-this-tuesday/

EVENT POSTPONED TO APRIL -"Deportation to Torture: Past, Present and Future" - Press Conference at the Parliament of Canada

"Deportation to Torture: Past, Present and Future" - Press Conference at the Parliament of Canada - A NEW DATE WILL BE POSTED - - not on March 31, 12:00- 1:00 pm
Press Conference: "Deportation to Torture: Past, Present and Future"
Parliament of Canada.

Speakers:
MP Wayne Marston -NDP Human Rights Critic
Dr. Monia Mazigh -wife of Maher Arar
Yavar Hameed –Lawyer for Abousfian Abdelrazik
Sophie Harkat -wife of Mohamed Harkat
Alex Neve- Amnesty International Secretary General

Room 752, 131 Queen Street Building, Parliament of Canada
RSVP in advance by March 27: Contact Maria Al-Masani 613-614-1916

International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC] Report 0n the American Torture Program - How far goes the Canadian Complicity in American Torture?

CSIS/RCMP have been "working" with the CIA as already reported in both the Iacobucci Inquiry, and the Arar Inquiry.

CSIS participation in interrogation in Guantanamo is well documented and even video taped.

The CIA use of torture is again brought to light by reporter and attorney Mark Danner who has obtained a copy of the International Committee of the red Cross’ report on the torture by the CIA (American Central Inteligence Agency)

According to this secret report by the International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC], the United States tortured people.

The April 9, 2009, issue of The New York Review offers first view of American torture:

US Torture: Voices from the Black Sites-by Mark Danner (clik here)

The report details in specific and explicit terms the various methods and “enhanced techniques” the CIA used to interrogate prisoners in a secret “global internment system” set up at the direction of President George W. Bush.

kidnapping, murder, "enhanced techniques" etc...And more...

Danner gives us the Table of Contents of the report, which clearly evokes the nature of the CIA program:

Contents
Introduction
1. Main Elements of the CIA Detention Program
1.1 Arrest and Transfer
1.2 Continuous Solitary Confinement and Incommunicado Detention
1.3 Other Methods of Ill-treatment
1.3.1 Suffocation by water
1.3.2 Prolonged Stress Standing
1.3.3 Beatings by use of a collar
1.3.4 Beating and kicking
1.3.5 Confinement in a box
1.3.6 Prolonged nudity
1.3.7 Sleep deprivation and use of loud music
1.3.8 Exposure to cold temperature/cold water
1.3.9 Prolonged use of handcuffs and shackles
1.3.10 Threats
1.3.11 Forced shaving
1.3.12 Deprivation/restricted provision of solid food
1.4 Further elements of the detention regime….

Here is one excerpt of what the detainees relate to the Red Cross:

After the beating I was then placed in the small box. They placed a cloth or cover over the box to cut out all light and restrict my air supply. As it was not high enough even to sit upright, I had to crouch down. It was very difficult because of my wounds. The stress on my legs held in this position meant my wounds both in the leg and stomach became very painful. I think this occurred about 3 months after my last operation. It was always cold in the room, but when the cover was placed over the box it made it hot and sweaty inside. The wound on my leg began to open and started to bleed. I don’t know how long I remained in the small box, I think I may have slept or maybe fainted.

I was then dragged from the small box, unable to walk properly and put on what looked like a hospital bed, and strapped down very tightly with belts. A black cloth was then placed over my face and the interrogators used a mineral water bottle to pour water on the cloth so that I could not breathe. After a few minutes the cloth was removed and the bed was rotated into an upright position. The pressure of the straps on my wounds was very painful. I vomited. The bed was then again lowered to horizontal position and the same torture carried out again with the black cloth over my face and water poured on from a bottle. On this occasion my head was in a more backward, downwards position and the water was poured on for a longer time. I struggled against the straps, trying to breathe, but it was hopeless. I thought I was going to die. I lost control of my urine. Since then I still lose control of my urine when under stress.

I was then placed again in the tall box. While I was inside the box loud music was played again and somebody kept banging repeatedly on the box from the outside. I tried to sit down on the floor, but because of the small space the bucket with urine tipped over and spilt over me…. I was then taken out and again a towel was wrapped around my neck and I was smashed into the wall with the plywood covering and repeatedly slapped in the face by the same two interrogators as before.

I was then made to sit on the floor with a black hood over my head until the next session of torture began. The room was always kept very cold.

This went on for approximately one week. During this time the whole procedure was repeated five times. On each occasion, apart from one, I was suffocated once or twice and was put in the vertical position on the bed in between. On one occasion the suffocation was repeated three times. I vomited each time I was put in the vertical position between the suffocation.

During that week I was not given any solid food. I was only given Ensure to drink. My head and beard were shaved everyday.

I collapsed and lost consciousness on several occasions. Eventually the torture was stopped by the intervention of the doctor.

I was told during this period that I was one of the first to receive these interrogation techniques, so no rules applied. It felt like they were experimenting and trying out techniques to be used later on other people."

Danneralso gives its conclusion which makes it unequivocall that, in the ICRC’s view, the United States government committed major crimes through its “enhanced interrogation” program:

"The allegations of ill-treatment of the detainees indicate that, in many cases, the ill-treatment to which they were subjected while held in the CIA program, either singly or in combination, constituted torture. In addition, many other elements of the ill-treatment, either singly or in combination, constituted cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment."

The article can be read HERE and comments on the issue by Stephen Soldz, psychoanalyst and clinical psychologist, can be read HERE.

JUSTICE NOT TORTURE - The Case of ABOUSFIAN ABDELRAZIK - "PEOPLE'S COMMISSION ON "Security" Measures" - Project " FLY HOME"

CSIS -Canadian Secret Intelligence Service Complicity in Torture: "PRESENTE !"
The Case of ABOUSFIAN ABDELRAZIK

Canadian Secret Service (CSIS) statement regarding his torture :"We judge it unlikely that, should Abdelrazik's detention in Sudan become public knowledge, there would be the same sort of outcry that surrounded Maher Arar's arrest and deportation from the USA. "

Update on this torture case - for detailed information click on the link below:

Ticket bought for Abdelrazik, flight leaves on 3 April, 2009 !

Over one hundred people across the country have joined together to buy a plane ticket home for Abousfian Abdelrazik, even though the Canadian government has made it a federal offence to directly or indirectly finance or collect money to support Mr. Abdelrazik.

The plane ticket strips away another excuse the government has used to prevent Abousfian Abdelrazik from returning home. In December, the government stated in a letter to Mr. Abdelrazik's lawyer that he must present a fully-paid-for plane ticket before Passport Canada would agree to issue an emergency passport. Mr. Abdelrazik's passport expired while he was in prison in Sudan.

The flight leaves Khartoum on 3 April. An emergency passport can take less than 24-hours to issue. The government has three weeks.

• Document sent from the government of Sudan to Canadian Embassy letting them know that they have nothing against Mr. Abdelrazik

  "Thus, what have been arisen around the suspect was merely doubts on his general shape, beard, prayer's mark on his forhead [...] Based upon our investigations, we did not find any evidence that allow condemning him or punishing him."

PLEASE SEND AN EMAIL TO the Joint Commission on Human Rights - UK

Complicity In Torture - UK - Hearing on March 10, 2009 - PLEASE SEND AN EMAIL TO :

jchr@parliament.uk

Asking that Craig Murray, British Ambassador in Uzbekistan from 2002 to 2004, be allowed to give evidence of UK Complicity in Torture.

Craig Murray was 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 Foreign OFicce objecting to this policy of complicity in torture. The policy ended up being approved by Jack Straw and Craig , then the Embassador, was fired.

On Tuesday, March 10, 2009, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights in UK will discuss whether or not to hear Craig's evidence on the UK government's policy of using intelligence from torture.

Please email the UK's Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights to be heard next Tuesday - March 10, 2009.

Please copy your email to craigjmurray@tiscali.co.uk.

In the email , urge that Craig Murray be allowed to give evidence on the subject of the UK government's policy on intelligence cooperation with torture abroad. Just a one-liner would be fine.

More on the issue at:

YOUR HELP IS NEEDED - http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/03/your_help_neede.html

And at:

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

You can use the text:

"I urge that Craig Murray be allowed to give evidence on the subject of the UK government's policy on intelligence cooperation with torture abroad".

Free Workshops on National Security issues and Stopping Canadian Complicity in Torture

Join Amnesty International Carleton for an exciting day of free workshops on national security issues and stopping Canadian complicity in torture.

When: Saturday, March 14, 2009
Time: 10:00 AM - 4:00PM
Where: Carleton University, Loeb Building (Loeb Lounge)
Cost: FREE with lunch provided

In the past few years, cases of Canadian citizens who were tortured abroad have surfaced in the media and elsewhere. The O’Conner and Iacobucci commissions have confirmed that the Canadian government was complicit in the torture of at least four Canadians.

There is a wealth of information out there on Canadian complicity in torture, but all this information can be overwhelming and it is not always clear how we can use this information most effectively to pressure our governments to stop being complicit in torture.

Join us for a workshop to learn about this important and disturbing issue and how YOU can help make a change. The day will include two FREE workshops with experts on media literacy and lobbying techniques that regular people can use to pressure the Canadian government and prevent the torture of Canadian citizens.

Hilary Homes from Amnesty International Ottawa and Yavar Hameed (lawyer for Abousfian Abdelrazik and Carleton University instructor) will be some of the special guests for the workshops with others to be announced soon! A delicious FREE lunch will also be provided!

If you are interested in participating in the workshop, please reserve your spot as soon as possible by sending us your name and phone number to this e-mail address: amnestystoptorture@gmail.c

om. Contact us at this email for more information!

We hope to see you soon!

Amnesty Carleton

Bush's Torture Program - A network similar to Pinochet's Operation Condor in South America?

In the 60's, 70's and 80's, the United States sponsored and supported military dictatorships in Latin and South America.

With the support of the CIA a program of torture, kidnapping and disapearance of those who oposed the dictatorial regimes took place.

This operation was designated "Operation Condor" and established the coordinated participation of several countries in the torture/kidnapping(extraordinary rendition)/disappearance.

As the truth about the complicity of other countries in The American Torture Program emerges, the similarities become more and more indicative of a "Global Program" on torture and Human Rights abuses.

As CSIS - Canadian Secret Intelligence Service, MI-5 - the British Secret Services were also accomplices in torture:

The British Secret Service complicity in torture:

Creating and feeding ISLAMOPHOBIA - how Islamophobes manipulate media

FAIRNESS AND ACCURACY IN REPORTING documents the "ISLAMOPHOBIA INDUSTRY"

Smearcasting documents the public writings and appearances of Islamophobic activists and pundits who intentionally and regularly spread fear, bigotry and misinformation in the media.

A fresh ook at Islamophobia and its perpetrators in today’s media

See snapshots, or case studies, describing how Islamophobes manipulate media.

http://www.smearcasting.com/


(from the FAIR BLOG at http://www.fair.org/index.php)

Complicity in torture and accountability" - Philippe Sands, Professor of International Law, University College London

Philippe Sands is Professor of Law and Director of the Center on International Courts and Tribunals in the Faculty and a key member of staff in the Center for Law and the Environment at University College London. His teaching areas include public international law, the settlement of international disputes (including arbitration), and environmental and natural resources law.

In this video, he speaks about Torture, Accountability and the Bush administration policies regarding international law.

Sands analyzes the evolution of international law from the Atlantic Charter to the present. Drawing on research in his two books, "Lawless World," and "Torture Team: Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Values," Sands discusses the neo-conservative ideology and practice toward international law.

Torturing Democracy

The American WAY: "BUYING ARABS" to torture ...






The conclusion can be seen at:
http://www.torturingdemocracy.org/

Just go to the above web site, hit "Watch the Program" - Part Three"

Torture, Race and Canada-US Relations

Visit the site:
CETCDA - Coalition for the Equal Treatment of Canadians Detained Abroad
"We dream of a Canada that upholds the human rights of at least its own citizens."
Event: Torture, Race and Canada-US Relations - Parliament Hill- Room 214 Wellington Building

12:00-1:00 pm, on Thursday Feb. 12th, 2009

Khadr is just a beginning of many Canadians detained and tortured abroad.

A historic lecture & press conference is held in light of the United Nations findings last week of Canada's inequity against Canadian Muslims, as Arar and Khadr are merely a part of a much broader systemic pattern of deadly discrimination.

There will be representatives of three completely different cases, & the Secretary General of Amnesty International.

CBC's The Current stated, "of Abdullah Almalki -- evidence of Canadian complicity is even more damning than in the case of Maher Arar."