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Surviving a CIA 'Black Site'
The kidnap and torture program of the Bush administration, with its secret CIA "black site" prisons and "torture taxi" flights on private jets, saw a little light of day this week. I spoke to Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah in his first broadcast interview. Bashmilah was a victim of the CIA's so-called extraordinary rendition program, in which people are grabbed from their homes, out of airports, off the streets, and are whisked away, far from the prying eyes of the U.S. Congress, the press, far from the reach of the courts, to countries where cruelty and torture are routine.
Bashmilah is being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and by the New York University School of Law International Human Rights Clinic in a lawsuit with four other victims of CIA rendition. They are suing not the U.S. government, not the CIA, but a company called Jeppesen Dataplan Inc., a subsidiary of Boeing Corp. A former Jeppesen employee, Sean Belcher, entered an affidavit in support of Bashmilah, reporting that Jeppesen executive Bob Overby bragged, "We do all of the extraordinary rendition flights," further explaining to staff that he was speaking of "the torture flights," and that they paid very well.
Through a translator, over the phone from his home in Yemen, Bashmilah described how his ordeal began on Oct. 21, 2003, when he was arrested in Amman, Jordan: "It was approximately six days, but what I endured there is worth years. They wanted me to confess to having some connections to some individuals of al-Qaida. They tried several times to get me to confess, and every time I said no, I would get either a kick, a slap or a curse. Then they said that if I did not confess, they will bring my wife and rape her in front of me. And out of fear for what would happen to my family, I screamed and I fainted. After I came to, I told them that 'please, don't do anything to my family. I would cooperate with you in any way you want.'"
After signing a false confession, he was told he was going to be released. In the process of being led through the Jordanian intelligence facility, he lifted his blindfold. "I saw another man who had a Western look. He was white and somewhat overweight and had dark glasses on. I realized then that they were probably handing me over to some other agency, because during the interrogations I had with the Jordanians, one of the threats was that if I did not confess, they will hand me over to American intelligence." He was prepared for transit, stripped "completely naked. They started taking pictures from all directions. And they also started to beat me on my sides and also my feet. And then they put me in a position similar to the position of prostration in Muslim prayer, which is similar to the fetal position. And in that position, one of them inserted his finger in my anus very violently. I was in terrible pain, and I started to scream. When they started taking pictures, I could see that they were people who were masked. They were dressed in black from head to toe, and they were also wearing surgical gloves."
He says he was put in a diaper, had his eyes and ears covered, a bag was put over his head, and he had additional earphones put on his head to block noise. He was then flown to Kabul, Afghanistan, where he was held in solitary confinement for close to six months. He believed he was being held by Americans. "Some of the interrogators would come to me and interrogate me in the interrogation room, and they would tell me, 'You should calm down and be comforted, because we'll send all this information to Washington.' And they would say that in Washington, they will determine whether my answers are truthful or not." Although kept isolated from other prisoners, he managed to overhear some of them speculating that they were being held at Bagram Air Base. He went on to say that he was kept awake with blaring music and was held in shackles that were removed only for periodic interrogations.
While Bashmilah was being interrogated and tortured, he was also visited by "psychiatrists." "[T]he therapy mainly consisted of trying to look at my thoughts and trying to interpret them for me, and in addition to some tranquilizers."
Bashmilah attempted suicide three times, staged a hunger strike that was painfully ended with a feeding tube forced down his nose, and was denied access to a lawyer, to any human-rights group, to the International Committee of the Red Cross. In effect, he was disappeared.
On May 5, 2005, he was transferred to a prison in Yemen, where he eventually gained access to his family. Amnesty International got involved. He was released in March 2006 without being charged with anything.
Mohamed Bashmilah said there were cameras in his cells and interrogation rooms. Perhaps tapes were made of his ordeal. Let's hope that the CIA doesn't destroy these, too.
19 Comments so far
Show Allkw: Correction - The Nazi state is already here. The concentration camps are already built (800 of them) across the US by Haliburton. And of course Blackwater has already been put in place, is growing, and has already been used against Americans in LA during Katrina.
It's a little late in the game folks. Impeachment is the only thing that can derail this fascist train.
Torture is the most inhumane thing that a person or a country can do.
It defiles everyone, and takes away our dignity and trust.
In all these reports there is this sexual sadism. It seems that by and large US agency employees are real sadists of the worst kind. Does the job attract these perverts or does the job make perverts out of these people? In any case, it is a clear sign of a total ethical and moral decline.
If the US had George W, for another few years, you would probably have total government control and concentration camps. The Nazis to man these camps are already there, more than you would need.
As long as the CIA is allowed to remain in power and keeping FUCKING America to death with more terrorists ala bin Laden, hoping that the CIA behaves itself is fucking foolhardy. Chalmers Johnson and even former-CIA Ray Mcgovern are all ready to call for its ABOLITION and so should the Left. Elect leaders that will fight to ABOLISH the CIA and make the case. America will continue to remain LESS safer with it otherwise.
The Shadow Government
Secret Rule
It is becoming increasingly apparent to American citizens that government is no longer being conducted in accordance with the U.S. Constitution, or, within states, according to state constitutions. While people have recognized for more than 150 years that the rich and powerful often corrupt individual officials, or exert undue influence to get legislation passed that favors their interests, most Americans still cling to the naive belief that such corruption is exceptional, and that most of the institutions of society, the courts, the press, and law enforcement agencies, still largely comply with the Constitution and the law in important matters. They expect that these corrupting forces are disunited and in competition with one another, so that they tend to balance one another.
Mounting evidence makes it clear that the situation is far worse than most people think, that during the last several decades the U.S. Constitution has been effectively overthrown, and that it is now observed only as a façade to deceive and placate the masses. What has replaced it is what many call the Shadow Government. It still, for the most part, operates in secret, because its control is not secure. The exposure of this regime and its operations must now become a primary duty of citizens who still believe in the Rule of Law and in the freedoms which this country is supposed to represent.
http://www.constitution.org/shad4816.htm
It doesn't matter what threat is posed by terrorists, if these are the ends that we resort to we are no better than the "enemy". How have we let our moral integrety sink so low? I'm not naive, I know the CIA has engaged in nefarious tactics and covert assasinations, etc. over the years, but that ethic seems to now permeate all branches of the government and spreads across the country like a blight. If it weren't for the voices I hear on this site, both contributors and commenters, I would truly despair.
That sounds exactly like what the chimp and dicky should expect next January.
you guys should increase the dosage
This asministration seems to be even worse than Hitler. Hitler's Nazi Germany observed the Geneva Convention and did not torture captured soldiers (as far as I know). How sad. How very sad.
the whole gulag needs lots more exposure. whenever they talk about gitmo, i try to remind them this is the only part of the gulag we can see, so let's keep it open till the whole system is shut down. i've been talking here about 14, 15, 16 innocent people in secret prisons. then yesterday i decided i needed to know more, and found a washington post story that showed a military prison in Ieaq that has 13,800 prisoners! that's just one prison. i'll be back when i get more. I always call these people "innocent" on the basis of that archaic principle formerly observed by- who could guess?- the u.s.a.- that all prisoners are innocent until proven guilty. and none of these people have even been charged, never mind found guilty.
We've been reading these kinds of allegations about USA and the West's covert operations on people for decades. Recently, under the Bush Cheney regime, these allegations have accelerated. So it would seem that Bush and Cheney are only a small part of all this. A lot of individuals and corporate groups have a hand in this, and thus, have a vested interest in its continuance, and in its cover-up. (Altho, cover-up doesnt seem to be needed much since the hi jacked planes attacks)
It's sort of as if USA foreign policy is to take the pick up trucks and chains abroad and focus racism around the globe. Dealing with the characters at the top opf the pyramid would be just the start of any clean up.
(The controllers of all this seem to be big oil, but others are, like vultures, joining in ot get the most out of the trend for themselves.)
And a clean up is less likely all the time, because that pyramid is where the power is, and dissenters who figure that their 2nd amendment small arms are going to make a whit of difference are fantasizing. As are those who think voting will change the course. (I just caught a film called HACKING DEMOCRACY on how voting works) Kicinich or Paul, or even Gravel wil not get close to power. if they threaten to do so, they will be done away with. We all know that.
It's almost as if climate change is the only thing that is going to affect this fascistic drift.
The only terrorists are those we train and who do our bidding whether directly on a US military/police/secret-services payroll or on one that is funded by US secret services resources such as drug moneys (Taliban/Al Qaeda being a good example of this).
So, the terrorism argument is mute. Next, torture has actually enjoyed a long history in the US. It was used in human experiments on children during the MK-Ultra years and is being used today by the FBI and other US agencies engaged in what has been called home-based torture, that employing the various laser technologies now widely available to all homeland security personnel that are used to torture dissidents in their homes in some of the worst examples of 'stalking' ever seen.
Torture is a part of the US military and police state program. And yes, those who aspire to that sort of power are insane and are the majority of the agents working for these agencies. And, people are not employed by these agencies unless certain sociopathic tendencies can be clearly evidenced in the battery of psychological tests given to them prior to their recruitment and over the course of their employ.
ezeflyer,
Your link to the shadow government was good reading. I think you'll enjoy this analysis of how banks "manipulate" the alleged "free market".
http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/deepcaster/2007/1215.html
"In all these reports there is this sexual sadism."
Project Monarch?
At this point, I would have to say that President George W. Bush has played the game of "Can You Top This?" with Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin--
And he has won.
Mark from the Midwest
Rendition and torture go together--Our sending detainees to another country to be tortured does not get the US off the hook as torturers. We decided on it.
Wow. Thanks Gail.
My Solution:
Since this short-sighted, greedy, intrusive, violent world is so ugly to me, i choose to save up for a few acres of arable land in an isolated peaceful country, and live a sustainable, climate-change-reducing, healthy, boring life as a permaculture farmer.
If you find people and lifestyles you can like (or love!) you can try to make your life worthwhile despite the entrenched ugliness.
Also, don't invent anything- it'll just be used to destroy things or dominate people.
ok i'm back with no more news but try this link anyway
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2006/09/sb-six-questions-kate-brown-1158926209