lies, cover ups and secret prisons

investigative journalism by the mainstream, corporate controlled press is dead. but, do not despair- there are a few brave journalists with the good old fashioned desire to dig out the truth. unfortunately, they are the victims of smear campaigns and attempts at discrediting. larisa alexandrovna is one of those journalists. she digs and she reports- and this is what she gets in return:

“In response, Miller and his intelligence chief made 24/7 TV appearances slandering me.

Well, today, the NYT reports (but as usual does not credit) that KSM was tortured in Poland, but they don’t have the integrity to identify the facility by name:

“WASHINGTON — In a makeshift prison in the north of Poland, Al Qaeda’s engineer of mass murder faced off against his Central Intelligence Agency interrogator. It was 18 months after the 9/11 attacks, and the invasion of Iraq was giving Muslim extremists new motives for havoc. If anyone knew about the next plot, it was Khalid Shaikh Mohammed“

The facility, this “makeshift prison in the north of Poland” is Stare Kiejkuty. The small airport right near it was used to bring in the detainees.”

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DHS reopens investigation into rendition of Arar

This is so good, I am reprinting the whole thing from Jurist:

The Department of Homeland Security’s internal investigations department has reopened an investigation into the extraordinary rendition of Canadian engineer Maher Arar, DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner told a congressional subcommittee Thursday. Skinner said that new information contradicts an earlier conclusion clearing US agencies of wrongdoing in the extradition. Arar was detained in the US in 2002 on suspicion of being affiliated with al-Qaeda after flying to New York from Tunisia on his way home to Canada. He was later deported to Syria, where he says he was tortured. Internal investigators initially concluded that the decision to send him to Syria was proper. The Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility is also investigating DOJ officials’ role in Arar’s rendition. AP has more. CBC has additional coverage.

In October 2007, US lawmakers apologized to Arar during a joint hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice testified (video link) in front of the same committee that Arar’s rendition was not “handled as it should have been,” but stopped short of apologizing. Rice added that the US government has told the Canadian government that it will “try to do better in the future.” That was the first time that the US government has admitted any mistakes in its handling of Arar’s case. In January 2007, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized to Arar on behalf of the Canadian government and announced a settlement with him of $10.5 million (CAD) compensation for pain and suffering.

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Can you say rendition? I knew you could..

A big cyber hug to Betmo for the 411 on this. From The Guardian:

Information about the operation of prison ships has emerged through a number of sources, including statements from the US military, the Council of Europe and related parliamentary bodies, and the testimonies of prisoners.

The analysis, due to be published this year by the human rights organisation Reprieve, also claims there have been more than 200 new cases of rendition since 2006, when President George Bush declared that the practice had stopped.

Since Georgie lied about torture, it isn’t a stretch to believe he lied about this as well is it?

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Rendition and torture, it’s the American way?

The European newspaper, the TimesOnline had an interesting article this past Sunday. What bothers me that I can’t find anything similar in the US media. I googled the main phrase ‘flight logs, cia’ and only got the European write-ups, with the exception of a two-year old CommonDreams article reprinted from a French news media outlet. Pathetic wouldn’t you say?

Back to the Times article, which is the second write-up they have done on the CIA’s rendition of individuals. The second paragraph caught my attention:

Despite widespread criticism of alleged human rights abuses and torture at the US base in Cuba, a Sunday Times investigation has shown that at least five European countries gave the United States permission to fly nearly 700 terrorist suspects across their territory. (emphasis mine)

Seven Hundred suspects is quite the load of terrorists isn’t it? Considering the fact that over 400 prisoners have been released over the last few years from Gitmo, more than half the total number incarcerated since the opening days of the war on terror, it gives one pause to think about how many of the secretly kidnapped suspects never made it to Gitmo and what actually happened to them…but I digress.

Read more

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