Sunday, March 15, 2009

Abuse, Torture and Wars of Aggression Good Old Christian Values Or Bush Welcomed as a Hero by Canada

UPDATE: 12: 11 PM ,March 15

Bush & Condoleeza Rice welcomed by Canadians as Heroes
Canadians Unaware of Bush Crimes or Not Interested
Blood on Our Hands
Canada also has blood on its hands so now we too defend the indefensible
Abuse and torture I am told is the Christian Way
It is also the American Way and the Western way



Former President George W. Bush is scheduled to speak in Calgary to a group of Canadian Neoconservatives and others who see Bush as a true Hero who turned war into a profit making venture and proved the Rule of Law doesn't apply to the Rich and powerful and the well connected.

The Canadian government according to Canadian law and International Law should refuse Bush entry into our country as there is a preponderance of evidence that Bush has committed War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity.

And now we learn that Condoleeza Rice is expected to give a speech in Calgary on May 13. She acted as one of Bush's enablers and was a co-conspirator in the Bush Regimes various criminal activities. Condoleeza Rice defended Bush's right to detain prisoners with little or no evidence and then to torture them to get confessions for crimes they didn't commit. Condoleeza Rice lied to Congress and the American people so that the Bush Regime could invade the sovereign country of Iraq based upon phony cooked-up Intel. The invasion of Iraq led to the deaths of 600,000 to 1.2 million Iraqis . This so called pre-emptive war was unnecessary and was therefore a War of Aggression and was therefore a crime since Iraq was not an imminent threat to the United States or any other country. Iraq had been crippled by a decade of harsh inhumane sanctions and so had little means to defend itself.

By allowing George Bush or Condoleeza Rice to enter our country and to give speeches is tantamount to saying that whatever they did wasn't that bad. So the message is that in times of crisis and national insecurity the rule of law does not apply and therefore that the United States or any other country has the right to kidnap people, to detain them indefinitely , to abuse and torture them ; to start a war of aggression on a sovereign nation is OK, to lie to one's own people and to the UN and the world is also ok . That the issues of human rights and legal rights including the Geneva Conventions are old-fashioned and as Rice herself put it " quaint ". But the Geneva Conventions and other International Laws were not just meant as laws during times of peace and stability they were also to be applied in times of conflict and war when it would be more tempting to ignore the Rule of Law.

The thing of it is that a large group of Canadians believe that torture and abuse of prisoners is OK and to attack nations is also OK. But will they say the same thing if Iran for instance were to attack Israel because the Iranians believe that Israel is intent on using its nuclear weapons on them. According to the new rules on pre-emptive war Iran would be justified if it attacked Israel if they had reason to believe Israel was going to attack them . by extension if Iran believed Israel was going to attack one of Iran's allies then Iran would be justified in attacking Israel on those grounds. Of course this is not how the world works since the US is one of the good guys and Iran has been demonized and has been labeled one of the bad guys.

If the US tomorrow decides to invade Mexico or Canada then we are not to complain because US interests whether these interests are economic or security or to get better access to our oil or water etc. is all that really matters and trumps Canada's or Mexico's national interest.

But we have already stated that it is ok for the US government to detain Canadian citizens based upon phony intel or flimsy evidence or mere hearsay or just a hunch on the part of some CIA agent or the president of the United States so we have already in these cases and in future cases given up our sovereignty. So where is the outrage , the clamor and din of Canadians who believe Bush and Co. committed outrageous crimes for which they should be held accountable.

Bush will be speaking in Calgary Canada on March 17. Condoleeza Rice to speak on May 13. So will the rest of this Criminal Gang of Thugs and liars be coming to Canada to teach Canadian Conservatives how to take control and do whatever one wants to do. Laws and rules they tell us are for wimps and losers . Soon one after the other they will be received with a hero's welcome in Canada just because we are so bloody polite . Coming to a university near you well actually just in Calagary we hope. So who's next Rumsfeld , Cheney, Karl Rove , Alberto Gonzales, Scooter Libby or John Yoo. Stay tune .

Here's a thought if Saddam were still alive would Canada welcome him to give speeches and share his experiences and his political and military acumen.

Condoleezza Rice follows Bush to Calgary Calgary Herald March 11, 2009

Two months after her old boss visits Calgary, former U. S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be here for a speaking engagement.

The University of Calgary school of public policy has invited Rice for a $500-a-plate fundraiser on May 13. It's her first Canadian appearance since leaving her post in January as former president George W. Bush's top envoy.

Reporters will be allowed to report on Rice's lecture, unlike Bush's closed-to-the-media appearance next Tuesday at the Telus Convention Centre.

"She's going to be speaking on issues that affect North America and how public policy schools like ours are going to have an impact," said Jack Mintz, director of the university's fledgling policy school.

After leaving Washington at the end of Bush's reign, Rice has returned to Stanford University, where she had served as provost and a political science professor.

Now, she is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford.

"She's a good Example Of What A School Of Public Policy Can Achieve," Mintz said.



Note the last statement of Jack Mintz which should be a damning statement but instead is reported as if there were nothing wrong or odd about what he said. He calls Condoleeza Rice a good example of what how to lie and deceive and how to twist language to make any actions before or after the fact acceptable. She is a good example of the morally corrupt who appears to believe only in the righteousness of their cause and therefore whatever they do to advance that cause is justified. No matter how one attempts to cloak oneself in their nation's flag or in their religion there are certain acts which one is not permitted to commit.

As the CBC documentary " A Few Bad Apples " points out the abuse at Abu Ghraib or other facilities in Iraq was not a matter of " a few bad apples " but was rather policy.George Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld or Condoleeza Rice were only bothered by the fact that the whole thing went public because some of the people involved decided to take pictures and to share these with fiends and family and others in the US military and government. So Bush and Co. were not upset over what was done to prisoners since they had given the green light to use harsh and abusive techniques on detainees. Most of these detainees as it turns out were not guilty of the crimes of which they were accused. As others have made clear the US military and CIA etc. in Iraq would round up hundreds at a time in a neighborhood or town because there was intel that there were insurgents in that particular area. Using this tactic a large percentage- some put it at about 80%- of those rounded up were innocent.

Inside Abu Ghraib Pt.1 (Iraq prison camp, CBC)
"A FEW BAD APPLES" Aired November 16,on CBC-TV
Learn More at:
http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/bad...



Ghosts of Abu Ghraib-
A sneak peak at the HBO documentary, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib.




Privatization of Torture-Torture For Profit - The American Way
CACI made $$ torturing at Abu Ghraib then covered it up
September 28, 2006
http://iraqforsale.org/ Extended bonus scene from Robert Greenwald's documentary, "Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers"



War Is Good For Business- Blackwater

Blackwater, America's Private Army



Robert Fisk in his latest commentary on War on Terror talks specifically about some of the cases involving Canadian citizens who were tortured by Americans or by other nations. By using other countries to torture by Proxy somehow many Candaians believe that our hands are clean but this is not the case. It is still morally wrong to torture and abuse people and one can not escape the guilt by handing prisoners over to another nation knowing they will use torture. The other issue is that the confessions which are unreliable which are given by torture victims are then used to arrest , detain and torture other people. We know from the Witch Hunts and the Grand Inquisition that this is what happens. People confess because they want the torture to stop and even death is preferable to the continuing torture. So they confess and name names. Those named are abused and tortured and this continues the cycle. Even though we know this to be the case Western Nations and their peoples are still allowing abuse and torture to take place. Part of the problem is that we become accessories to these crimes and so we will grab at any explanation or excuse that is offered to us.

Robert Fisk’s World: The West should feel shame over its collusion with torturers I want to know why those complicit in Almalki’s ordeal are not tried in court The Independent March 14, 2009

...No, I don't think Canada as a nation is to blame for all this. But the West is. For it is our public servants in government and our secret service thugs who have been in league with all these perverted men around the world. Indeed, even when Almalki was freed from his Syrian prison, Canadian embassy officials in Damascus would not allow him to stay in their building and ordered him out when the embassy closed at 4pm. One of them reportedly later told Almalki that Canada regularly gave passports to the families of leading Syrian officials. Can this be true?

I do know that the Syrians quite recently complained mightily to the Americans as well as the Canadians. First, the West sent its prisoners to be tortured in Damascus – and then complained that Syria abused human rights! Quite so. Bashar Al-Assad has put a stop to quite a lot of torture in Syria and now that President Obama is sending his cohorts to woo the Syrians, they presumably won't be called on to do America's (or Canada's) dirty work any more.

But I want to know why those complicit in Almalki's torture – the letter writers, the composers of questions – cannot be tried in court. They are, at the least, accomplices to human rights abuses. So are the Brits who went to question tortured men in Guantanamo. Even more so are the American perverts who indulged in their own torture in Afghanistan and Iraq – and yes, I have noted that our dear President Obama is allowing the illegal detention of prisoners at Bagram in Afghanistan to continue. But what else would you expect from a man whose secretary of state, Lady Hillary, far from going to the Palestinians whose homes were going to be destroyed by the Israelis in Jerusalem and denouncing this outrage, said merely that the home demolitions were "unhelpful".


On prisoner abuse see:

Coalition forces 'failing to stop Iraq prisoner abuse' News.scotsman.com 06 March 2006

AMNESTY International has accused UK and US troops of failing to stop the abuse of prisoners in Iraq.

The organisation claimed thousands of detainees held by the multinational forces are still being denied basic rights.

The group said the lessons of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal appeared to have been ignored and reports of torture continued to "pour out of Iraq".

It said its findings were based on interviews with former inmates.

US and British officials insist that prisoners are treated in accordance with international standards.

The report says the multinational forces and Iraqi authorities must take urgent steps to stop human rights abuses if there is to be any hope of halting Iraq's slide towards increasing violence and sectarianism.

Amnesty says in its 48-page report that thousands of Iraqis are being held without charge or trial.


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And also see Global Policy Forum website which has a number of articles and reports and studies dealing with torture and abuse of prisoners by the US and British and other governments.

Torture and Prison Abuse in Iraq -Global Policy Forum

In April 2004, the New Yorker magazine revealed the "systematic and illegal abuse of detainees," including torture and degrading treatment, by US interrogators and guards at Abu Ghraib prison, outside Baghdad. Since then, many reports have established US mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners, and published hundreds of gruesome photographs taken by prison guards. These reports (some produced by the Pentagon) have exposed the widespread abuse and torture of detainees and a number of deaths under detention and interrogation, as well as the hiding of prisoners from International Committee of the Red Cross inspectors.

World public opinion has condemned the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers as a war crime and a gross violation of the Geneva Conventions. Washington has attributed the events to “bad apples” and failed to accept responsibility or to hold seriously accountable mid- and high-level military officers and civilian officials, even though these people had established policies and issued orders that led directly to the abuses. Military courts have only tried and charged low-ranking individuals.

Abuses have taken place in detention sites under direct US authority, but also in detention centers administered by British forces and by the government of Iraq.


and:

The "Surge" of Iraqi Prisoners (May 7, 2008)
Amid all the talk about the US military "surge" in Iraq, little has been said about the accompanying "surge" of Iraqi prisoners, whose numbers rose to nearly 51,000 at the end of 2007. Global Policy Forum’s Ciara Gilmartin states that “US forces hold nearly all detainees indefinitely without charge, an arrest warrant or the opportunity to defend themselves.” Human rights monitors, including the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), are denied access to detention centers in Iraq by US officials. This lack of oversight not only increases the likelihood of detainee abuse, but also violates international human rights law. (Foreign Policy in Focus)

GPF Report on Iraq: Detention and Prisons (June 2007)
The US Coalition and its Iraqi government partners have held a large number of Iraqi citizens in “security detention” without charge or trial, in direct violation of international law. No Iraqi is safe from arbitrary arrest and the number of prisoners has risen greatly since 2003. More than thirty thousand detainees lack fundamental rights and they are kept in deplorable physical conditions, many for long periods. US commanders have turned over thousands of detainees to Iraqi authorities whose prisons seriously violate human rights standards.

GPF Report on Iraq: Prisoner Abuse and Torture (June 2007)
United States forces have criminally abused and tortured large numbers of Iraqi prisoners. Hundreds of Iraqis have suffered from this inhuman treatment and some have died as a direct result. Torture has taken place in many sites across Iraq , including central prisons like Abu Ghraib, secret interrogation centers and dozens of local facilities. Torture increasingly takes place in Iraqi prisons, apparently with US awareness and complicity.

US Says Iraqis May Still Be Held Without Charge (January 9, 2009)
Despite a bilateral pact, in which the US and Iraq agreed to either free Iraqi detainees or transfer them to Iraqi custody, US forces are still holding detainees without charge. The Multinational Force mandate, which allows the US to legally remain in Iraq and detain prisoners, expired on December 31, 2008. Iraqi officials say the US should either charge the detainees or release them immediately. However, the US military argues that some detainees might be of “high intelligence value,” which is why it might take until 2010 for the cases to be decided. (Commondreams)


and so it goes,
GORD.

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