View as Webpage

International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group

Coalition pour la surveillance internationale des libertés civiles

May 7, 2022 - 7 mai 2022

Webinar: "The least fair law in Canada"- Why the Extradition Act Must Be Reformed

Canada’s extradition system is broken, with the Extradition Act being described as “the least fair law in Canada.” The Meng Wanzhou case has raised questions about extradition proceedings that have significant foreign policy implications, while the grave violations of the rights of Dr. Hassan Diab, wrongfully extradited to France, lays bare how the system fails Canadian citizens.

This webinar presented an important discussion on why we must act now to fix this broken system and a new blueprint, known as the Halifax Proposals, for how to make it happen.

Speakers:

- Sharry Aiken, associate professor in the Faculty of Law at Queen’s University and co-editor-in-chief of PKI Global Justice Journal

- Rob Currie, professor of law at the Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University

- Anne Dagenais, communications and research coordinator of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group

- John Packer, director of the Human Rights Research & Education Centre, University of Ottawa

Plus: a premiere screening of a short video on the problems with the Extradition Act from the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group.

Co-hosted by Queen’s University, the Human Rights Research & Education Centre at the University of Ottawa and the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group.

TAKE ACTION

Matthew Behrens: Islamophobia preventing Jack Letts from returning home to Canada

rabble.ca 27/04/2022 - Canadian citizen Jack Letts is a victim of monstering. It’s a demonization process personifying him as irredeemably evil, undeserving of rights, and left to rot in one of the prisons and detention camps in Northeast Syria described as “Guantanamo on the Euphrates.” His suffering is buried beneath Islamophobic labels and degrading language he cannot counter. Because of monstering, Canadian and British media, politicians, and bureaucrats view Letts as unhuman and unworthy. Letts was stripped of the British half of his dual citizenship and publicly condemned by Andrew Scheer, Ralph Goodale, and Justin Trudeau. He’s been abandoned by Ottawa for five years under conditions described in a March 2022 United Nations report as meeting the “threshold for torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment under international law.”

An idealistic, compassionate teenager, his 2014 decision to help end the Syrian people’s suffering made him fodder for the Global War On Terror propaganda machine. It’s one that accuses without evidence, detains without charge and assigns inaccurate and damaging labels. It’s a machine that tortures with impunity, condemns by association, and relies on broad definitions of alleged threats to get away with massive human rights violations. In an impoverished, Islamophobic political milieu, intelligence agencies, media outlets, and the “terrorism industrial academic complex” rely on a constant diet of monster creation to remain relevant and well-funded. That self-anointed certainty of the truth, underwritten with $6 trillion by the U.S. government since 2001, led the International Commission of Jurists to conclude in 2009 that “certain governments want to reserve for themselves the power to designate a class of people who are not entitled to the same rights as other human beings.” [...]

In late January, the International Committee of the Red Cross declared: “States must repatriate their own citizens. Not just children. Children, women and men.” At the same time, Abdulkarim Omar, co-chair of the Kurdish administration’s foreign office, reiterated what the Kurds have been saying for years: “Every country should take its citizens back.” On January 31, 2022, the U.S. State Department called on its partners to “urgently repatriate their nationals and other detainees remaining in northeast Syria.” A House of Commons committee recommended repatriation in June 2021. UN special rapporteur Fionnuala D. Ní Aoláin told MPs: “There’s a really clear and compelling positive obligation on Canada to prevent serious harm to its nationals,” adding lack of political will, and not diminished capacity, prevented repatriation. She noted Kazakhstan, a less-resourced nation, brought its citizens home, declaring: “There are a lot of countries doing it and doing it well. There isn’t a deficit of examples out there.” [...]

To call on Global Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly to repatriate Jack and these four dozen men, women and children to Canada, sign and share this petition. A solidarity chain fast is being organized as well here. Read more - Lire plus

Former Guantanamo Bay detainee sues Canada for $35 million over 14-year imprisonment

CBC News 23/04/2022 - A man who spent 14 years imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay is suing the Canadian government for $35 million for its alleged role in the series of events that led up to his detainment, during which he was tortured. A statement of claim, filed on behalf of Mohamedou Ould Slahi in the Federal Court of Canada on Friday, argues Canadian authorities took actions that "caused, contributed to and prolonged [his] detention, torture, assault and sexual assault at Guantanamo Bay." Slahi, a Mauritanian national, lived in Montreal from November 1999 to January 2000, during which time he was investigated by security services. Slahi, 51, is accusing Canadian authorities of harassing him during their investigation, with the stress forcing him to return to Mauritania. The core of Slahi's claim is that Canadian authorities shared false information about his activities and otherwise contributed to events that eventually led to his arrest, after which he was transported first to Jordan and Afghanistan, and then Guantanamo Bay, where he spent 14 years imprisoned without charge. "Canada's sharing of flawed intelligence sparked a vicious echo chamber," says the statement of claim. [...]

Mustafa Farooq, head of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said Canada's alleged complicity in the events surrounding the torture of a Canadian resident stems from Islamophobic stereotypes, and that accountability is needed. "The reality is that Mr. Mohamedou was in peril in part because he happened to be praying at a mosque, where he was at the wrong place in the wrong time and happened to come under the surveillance of the Canadian state," Farooq said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

"Part of the reason that it's so horrifying is that the Canadian government and Canadian national security administrations participated in having a man who had done nothing wrong tortured, that [they] knew about it, and that [they] tried to make sure Canadians never found out about it." Read more

Un ancien prisonnier de Guantanamo intente des poursuites contre le Canada

Excerpt on Islamophobia from Slahi's claim shared by his lawyer

Samidoun statement on smear campaigns targeting Palestinian liberation and anti-Palestinian racism in Canada

Samidoun 02/05/22 - Most recently, in the past two months, four major Canadian university student bodies and/or student governments have passed new resolutions and policies in support of Palestinian rights and implementing boycott, divestment and sanctions policies against the Israeli occupation: at McGill, Concordia, University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University. This comes in addition to multiple resolutions that have been adopted over the years by Canadian labour unions, student unions and student bodies, and even the limited resolutions adopted by the federal New Democratic Party (NDP). In May 2021, during the Unity Uprising in Palestine, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in cities and small towns across Canada, as they did around the world. At the same time that the Palestinian people’s resistance on the ground in Palestine was making clear that the occupation would not be able to freely commit its ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity, people here were taking action to demand a change in Canadian policy and an end to complicity in these crimes — along with accountability and real justice for Indigenous peoples of this land.

It’s quite clear: Israeli colonization, occupation and apartheid are losing ground. Major human rights and legal institutions have spoken out, from Human Rights Watch to Amnesty International to the Harvard University Law School legal clinic to the United Nations’ ESCWA. Millions of people are taking to the streets for justice in Palestine. The Palestinian resistance is perhaps stronger than ever before, amid a growing resistance camp in the region and internationally. The response of the occupation has been to escalate their use of the “terrorist” label to the extent that international advocacy groups like Samidoun, Palestinian community organizations in Europe, and six major Palestinian NGOs like Addameer, Defense for Children International and Al-Haq, are currently being labeled as “terrorist” by the Israeli occupation regime. Israeli president Isaac Herzog has even labeled an ice cream brand not selling in illegal settlements “a new form of terrorism.”

This has been combined with efforts pushed by various official entities, including Israeli intelligence, the “Ministry of Strategic Affairs,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, etc, with the marketing of “dossiers” so thinly evidenced that even Western governments have found them lacking (yet appear to be relied upon in the National Post report). The attempt to silence advocacy for Palestine by using the “terror” label is failing. In fact, Samidoun has grown more since our designation in one year than in any single year prior. In France, where exactly these same types of smears were used to push for the French government to ban the Collectif Palestine Vaincra and other pro-Palestine associations, the French government has already lost the first legal challenge — not only is the Collectif once again actively marching for Palestine, but the government was required to pay 4500 EUR for the violation of its rights. A German court found in March of this year that it was illegal for Berlin’s interior minister to ban Khaled Barakat’s speech on U.S. foreign policy, Palestine and the Arab countries. Nevertheless, we see the National Post, working hand in hand with expressly Zionist organizations, in an attempt to push the Canadian government down a similar failed path of criminalization through an astroturfed campaign of smears and attacks.

As Samidoun, we know first and foremost that attacks on us are primarily aimed at the Palestinian prisoners, seeking to isolate them from international solidarity and support. As we write today, there are 4,500 Palestinians jailed in occupation prisons. Of those, over 500 are jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention. They have been engaged in a boycott of the military courts since the 1st of January 2022. Two are currently on hunger strike to end their arbitrary detention, Khalil Awawdeh and Raed Rayan. They are joined by hundreds of Palestinian children locked behind bars. Every one of those Palestinian prisoners deserves front-page coverage in Canadian mainstream media — not a smear campaign, but a real look at their suffering and steadfastness and the injustice against them, which is enabled by the complicity of governments like Canada’s. While the National Post can find plenty of column inches and front-page space to smear Palestinians in diaspora, Canadian journalists face silencing and have apologized for so much as mentioning the word “Palestine.”

Further, this is clearly an attack on Palestinians organizing in exile and diaspora. The Israeli colonial regime has already forced Palestinians from their homes and lands for over 74 years of Nakba, denying their inalienable right to return, and yet, is unable to throw these Palestinians in Canada, the U.S., Europe, Latin America and elsewhere in administrative detention or invade their homes in midnight raids. Its inability to do so is apparently frustrating, especially as new generations of Palestinians come forward to lead the struggle inside and outside Palestine; this type of smear campaign is a transparent attempt to silence the voice of the Palestinian people in exile and specifically the Palestinian-Canadian community. We also see these campaigns as an attempt to undermine our collective solidarity through the targeting of individuals and specific organizations and to police the movement, as well as to instrumentalize and deploy anti-Palestinian racism and incite state and individual violence against Khaled Barakat and other Palestinian activists. These attacks underline more than ever the importance of a collective defense of all of us against the perpetrators and promoters of colonialism, imperialism and racism. Read more - Lire plus

Event: Double Standard: Canada’s terrorist list, the IDF, Palestinians and the case of Khaled Barakat

Victory for Palestine: French State Council suspends dissolution of Collectif Palestine Vaincra!

Israeli forces raid Al-Aqsa mosque, over 40 Palestinians injured

Israel/Palestine: UN experts call on governments to resume funding for six Palestinian CSOs designated by Israel as ‘terrorist organisations’

OHCHR 25/04/22 - UN human rights experts today called on the international community to take immediate and effective steps to protect and sustain the six Palestinian civil society groups that were designated as ‘terrorist organisations’ by the Government of Israel in October 2021.

“Israel’s disturbing designation of these organisations as ‘terrorist organisations’ has not been accompanied by any public concrete and credible evidence,” said the human rights experts. “We note that the information presented by Israel has also failed to convince a number of governments and international organisations that have traditionally provided funding for the indispensable work of these six organisations.”

In October 2021, the UN experts denounced Israel’s designation of six Palestinian civil society organisations – Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Al-Haq, Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defense for Children International – Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees and the Union of Palestinian Women Committees – as terrorist organizations. Israel’s designation enables it to close the organisations, seize their assets, end their work and charge their leadership and staff with terrorist offences.

“Israel has had six months to substantiate its accusations and it has failed to deliver,” the experts said. “We call on the funding governments and international organisations to swiftly conclude that Israel has not established its allegations and to announce that they will continue to financially and politically support these organisations and the communities and groups they serve.” Read more - Lire plus

Israel: Release Long Detained Gaza Aid Worker

In ‘grey zone’ of national security, suspects face no charges but can’t leave Canada

Global News 20/04/22 - To Canadian national security officials, Samy Nefkha-Bahri is a supporter of “armed jihad abroad,” who had “dubious associations” and wanted to take part in “combat in Syria.” Classified government reports obtained by Global News allege he led a group that was preparing to travel “for the purpose of participating in the activities of a terrorist group.” But instead of arresting and charging the Montreal resident, federal officials grounded him: they denied him a passport “to prevent the commission of a terrorism offence.”

The case is one of a handful that show how Canada’s national security agencies have been dealing with those they suspect may be terrorist threats. Rather than charging them with terrorism, federal authorities have blocked them from leaving Canada by harnessing the no-fly list, peace bonds and the denial of passports. “It is totally unreasonable,” Nefkha-Bahri told Global News. “These tactics are extremely problematic.” Citing national security concerns, Public Safety Canada would not disclose the number of Canadians refused passports over terrorism concerns, or how many were on the no-fly list. But while such cases are highly-secretive, some have become public through appeals to courts, opening a window to what an expert called the “grey zone” of national security.

A 33-year-old data scientist, Nefkha-Bahri denied the allegations. He has appealed the government’s refusal to issue him a passport to the Federal Court. In the case, he argued that denying him a passport was a violation of his right to enter and leave Canada. The case was stayed in January while the parties attempted to reach an out-of-court deal.

Nefkha-Bahri declined to provide details of those discussions, but said he was confident he would ultimately receive a Canadian passport after going a decade without one.

Responding to questions from Global News, he said he had never supported al-Qaeda or ISIS. “Muslims are the first victims of these criminals,” he said.

Clipping the wings of terror suspects is part of Canada’s terrorism prevention strategy, and is meant to disrupt so-called extremist travellers, but it has backfired in the past. Unable to leave the country, several have instead carried out attacks in Canada, resulting in the shooting death of a Canadian soldier in Ottawa, a vehicle attack that killed another in Quebec and the wounding of a cab driver in a bombing in Strathroy, Ont. The policy doesn’t make sense to Nefkha-Bahri. “On one side, some law-abiding citizens are deprived of their rights without due process for years,” he said. “On the other side, these tactics have the result of keeping some few dangerous people who turned out to be real committed terrorists with us.” [...]

Although he is fighting for a passport, Nefkha-Bahri, who completed a master’s degree in statistics on the eve of the COVID-19 lockdown, said he was “not a big traveller.” “I live a pretty tranquil life,” he said. “But it is important to be free and feel free to move. I learned the hard way the importance of having more than one citizenship. The general conclusion is that there are no rights in Canada.” Read more - Lire plus

Webinar: Under Siege: Islamophobia and the 9/11 Generation

SMU 23/03/22 - For those who missed the pre-book launch webinar Under Siege: Islamophobia & the 9/11 Generation, with Drs. Jasmin Zine & Syedadnan Hussain, moderated and organized by Punam Khosla, the event recording can be accessed here.

While many studies address contemporary manifestations of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism, few have focused on the toll this takes on Muslim communities, especially among younger generations. Based on in-depth interviews with more than 130 young people, youth workers, and community leaders, Jasmin Zine's ethnographic study unpacks the dynamics of Islamophobia as a system of oppression and examines its impact on Canadian Muslim youth.

Covering topics such as citizenship, identity and belonging, securitization, radicalization, campus culture in an age of empire, and subaltern Muslim counterpublics and resistance, Under Siege provides a unique and comprehensive examination of the complex realities of Muslim youth in a post-9/11 world. Twenty years after the 9/11 attacks, Zine reveals how the global war on terror and heightened anti-Muslim racism have affected a generation of Canadians who were socialized into a world where their faith and identity are under siege. Watch - Visionnez

Islamophobia and Its Impact on Muslims and Muslim Youth with Jasmin Zine (video)

Review of Maha Hilal’s book “Innocent Until Proven Muslim”: Muslims and the War on Terror: Two-Plus Decades of 'Othering'

Rizwaan Sabir: No, Muslims critical of Prevent are not ‘enabling terrorism’

TRT 05/05/22 - We resist the UK’s discriminatory counterterrorism policy because it is our democratic right and responsibility. It was the spring of 2008 and I was a postgraduate student at the University of Nottingham. I was researching Al Qaeda for my dissertation and upcoming PhD and downloaded a publicly available document called ‘the Al Qaeda Training Manual’ from the US Department of Justice website. The same document could have been loaned through the library or purchased from high-street bookshops. A staff member discovered the document, the university reported it to counterterrorism police, and I was arrested, detained and interrogated in solitary confinement for six days in a Nottingham prison.

One of the officers accused me of using my studies to conceal my true motive for possessing the document: terrorism. It was clear to me that my race and religion is what was fuelling the suspicion. In fact, my academic supervisor told me that one of the detectives on the case said to him this would not be happening if the Al Qaeda training manual was held by a “blonde, Swedish, PhD Student at Oxford University”. I was eventually released without charge. But the police continued to assume I had ulterior motives. They continued their inquiries and surveillance for years after my release in the form of stops and searches at the roadside, detentions at the border, monitoring by government and police departments, and intelligence that was gathered through informants in my local community, as I document in detail in my book .

I was prompted to reflect on my traumatising experiences after reading ‘Delegitimising counter-terrorism: the activist campaign to demonise prevent’ – a recent report by the neo-conservative British think tank, Policy Exchange. The report singles out Muslim organisations and individuals critical of counterterrorism policies, especially the Prevent de-radicalisation strategy, as being engaged in a concerted and sinister campaign to undermine the national security of Britain. Former prime minister David Cameron provides the forward where, among many troubling claims, he writes: “delegitimising counter terrorism is, in essence, enabling terrorism”. This is beyond offensive. Counterterrorism, and especially Prevent, has been critiqued and challenged by a whole host of organisations and people, including the United Nations, Amnesty International, Liberty, Big Brother Watch, the Runnymede Trust, the Open Society Justice Initiative, and Medact.

Even the UK’s ‘Terror Watchdog’ David Anderson QC conveyed doubts over the workability of the policy and accepted that Prevent was being applied “in a discriminatory manner”.

The subsequent ‘Terror Watchdog’, Max Hill QC, now Director of Public Prosecutions at the Crown Prosecution Service, went even further when he urged the government to consider abolishing the “unnecessary” anti-terror laws altogether. These individuals and organisations are spared the accusation that they are somehow “enabling terrorism” for criticising and challenging the UK’s discriminatory counterterrorism policies. The report also shows no engagement with the academic work produced by a plethora of scholars over the years that critiques and questions the goals, legitimacy, and outcomes of these security, counterterrorism and de-radicalisation policies. [...]

The effects of the policies that such reports and claims legitimise are deeply damaging and express themselves in a number of harrowing ways, including traumatic psychiatric and mental health conditions that require the help of doctors and mental health professionals. However, accessing such services has become nearly impossible since the health sector, like every other public-sector institution in Britain, is under a legal duty to report people deemed to be vulnerable to being “radicalised” — that is to say, become potential future terrorists, to the authorities. It is precisely because of the way our public sector has been forced to absorb the logic of preemptive counterterrorism policing that I was unable to get the support I so desperately needed when I experienced acute psychiatric illness in 2013 and 2018, which was connected to the trauma of being arrested and surveilled.

It is why, in the height of my condition, I was overthinking and unable to share openly and candidly what I was going through; a form of silencing triggered and amplified by the existence of Prevent. When Muslims criticise counterterrorism law and policies such as Prevent, we are not "enabling terrorism”. We are resisting a cruel, unjust and counterproductive set of practices - as is our right in a democratic society - and holding the government to account for its excesses and violence. And we are not only doing it for ourselves. As history testifies, many of the techniques used to surveil and discipline the rights and lives of Muslims and racialised communities are oftentimes extended to more privileged communities too. Read more - Lire plus

Justice minister invokes cabinet secrecy around use of Emergencies Act

The Canadian Press 27/04/22 - Justice Minister David Lametti repeatedly invoked cabinet confidentiality in his appearance before a special committee tasked with investigating the government’s use of the Emergencies Act.Lametti was asked pointed questions Tuesday evening about federal consultations with provinces and others before declaring an emergency, and when the government received advice to revoke the declaration. On multiple occasions, he responded that he “would not betray cabinet confidence.” That has been a central concern for the Conservatives since Monday's launch of a separate public inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act. Both the committee and the inquiry are required under the act.

The opposition wants the Liberals to waive cabinet confidence and release all the information the government relied upon in making its decision. Lametti said his government has tabled documents with the committee that give a clear picture of the decision making. “I think Canadians will understand that cabinet confidence is a critical part of our cabinet governance system,” Lametti said. “So the waiving of cabinet confidence is extremely rare.” Committee member and NDP MP Matthew Green challenged Lametti, saying he had “an opportunity to be honest with Canadians” about the evidence and facts around the decision. He called on the minister to be more co-operative and forthcoming. “You’re certainly impeding the process through which we can get clarity,” Green said. Lametti responded that he is also bound by solicitor-client privilege as attorney general.

Government House leader Mark Holland was asked about what information the Liberals will provide to Ontario Appeal Court Justice Paul Rouleau, who’s tapped to lead the independent inquiry. The government has not said whether Rouleau will have access to secret cabinet documents. That has sparked questions and frustration from civil liberties organizations and opposition parties, who worry the inquiry will not have information about closed-door discussions and decisions by ministers. Holland said the government will provide as much information as possible so Canadians have “an absolutely crystal clear picture, right up to the point that it’s not injurious to national security.” He also suggested another special committee could be created to review documents and ensure that what's released doesn’t jeopardize national security. Read more - Lire plus

Trudeau calls public inquiry into use of Emergencies Act during convoy protests

ICYMI: CCLA: Civil Society - including ICLMG - Calls for Robust Inquiry Into Use of Emergencies Act

Wet’suwet’en report round-the-clock surveillance and harassment by RCMP and pipeline security

Ricochet 02/05/22 - It’s mid-afternoon and 67-year-old Wet’suwet’en Elder Janet Williams startles awake from a nap, rushing to put on her jacket and shoes. She’s been abruptly woken by unwanted visitors to her remote cabin home. But this isn’t the first time the RCMP has marched onto the traditional territories of her Gidimt’en Clan. It’s been happening multiple times a day for over two months, she says.

“There’s no need for you guys to be here at all,” she addresses them sharply once she gets outside. “I’m a matriarch here. This is my land. You keep coming here. None of you are welcome to be here.” She’s leaning on a long, wooden walking stick carved from a tree that fell in the surrounding forest, which is enclosed by snow-capped mountains approximately one hour outside of Houston, B.C. The sound of the rushing spring waters of a sacred river the Wet’suwet’en call Wedzin Kwa is the soundtrack to this repetitive scene that’s become a nightmare to Williams and her husband, Lawrence. “You have no legal right to be here. And none of you will answer my questions. You just keep walking around it here like you’re zombies.” She’s gritting her teeth now. Lawrence walks to her side and rubs her back for comfort.

Over half a dozen RCMP officers are combing through the site, which consists of tents, wooden structures, a kitchen and a cabin. They say they’re looking for criminal activity.

One officer unfolds a piece of worn paper and reads aloud a statement: “Since 2019 this location has been used as a base of operations for individuals committing criminal code offences and actions breaching a Supreme Court Injunction. Many of those individuals have been arrested and released by the court on conditions. We are conducting patrols to ensure criminal code offences are not being committed and that individuals with court order conditions are not breaching these conditions.” “This is Crown land,” another RCMP officer tells her. “It’s not Crown land,” Williams declares. “This is Cas Yikh territory. You guys should know this by now. You keep coming around and reading the same damn script!” Read more - Lire plus

FOI Reveals RCMP’s Pipeline Action Called Off After Info ‘Leaks’

Meet the Protesters Going to Jail to Fight Climate Change

Climate activist's fight against 'terrorism' sentence could impact the future of protests

ABC News 28/04/22 - In the fall of 2016, under the cover of darkness, Jessica Reznicek had a singular focus: to halt the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. At valve sites across America's heartland, she snuck through security fences, set fire to equipment, and used chemicals to burn holes in the pipeline itself.

To Reznicek, a veteran climate activist, the damage was justified: a nonviolent act of civil disobedience in pursuit of saving the planet. The Justice Department saw it differently. After Reznicek publicly acknowledged her crimes and entered a guilty plea, federal prosecutors subsequently persuaded a judge to apply a sentencing increase known as the "terrorism enhancement" against her, putting her behind bars for eight years.

The enhancement was applied "even though no person was ever hurt, no person was intended to be hurt, she wasn't charged with terrorism, and she didn't plead guilty to terrorism," said Bill Quigley, Reznicek's attorney and a professor emeritus at the Loyola University New Orleans Law School. "The terrorism enhancement doubled her amount of time in prison, which is troubling."

Next month, when a panel of 8th Circuit Court of Appeals judges hears Reznicek's appeal, the terrorism enhancement will take center stage. Her case has emerged as a potential watershed moment in the eco-extremism movement, galvanizing free-speech advocates and renewing calls for reform. And the outcome could reverberate down through future American protest movements. [C]ritics say the use of the enhancement against Reznicek reflects a broader push from the powerful oil industry to level harsh penalties against activists who target energy infrastructure. Read more - Lire plus

Audio: Kellogg's executive described union as "terrorists" emboldened by social media

Drone Resisters’ Charges Dismissed “In The Interests of Justice”

'All of These Guys Belong in Prison': CIA Torture Described in Vivid Detail by Psychologist

Common Dreams 04/05/2022 - One of the psychologists paid tens of millions of dollars by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to oversee the interrogation of prisoners in the so-called War on Terror provided new details on Monday about the torture of a Guantánamo Bay detainee at CIA "black site" in Thailand.

The New York Times reports James E. Mitchell told a military judge during a pretrial hearing at Guantánamo that Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri—a Saudi national facing possible execution for allegedly masterminding the deadly 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen—broke quickly under torture and became so obedient that he would crawl into a cramped confinement box before guards ordered him to do so. Initially, guards had to force al-Nashiri into the box. But according to Mitchell, the prisoner "liked being in the box" and would "get in and close it himself." Annie W. Morgan, a former Air Force defense attorney who is a member of al-Nashiri's legal team, told the Times that when she heard Mitchell's testimony, "I got the image of crate-training a dog and became nauseous." "That was the goal of the program, to create a sense of learned helplessness and to become completely dependent upon and submissive to his captors," she added, referencing a tactic taught in U.S. torture programs and documents dating back to the 1950s.

Gail Helt, a former CIA analyst who advocates Guantánamo's closure, tweeted, "Imagine the hell Mr. Nashiri experienced outside of that box that made him prefer being inside it." Al-Nashiri's attorneys—who argue that evidence in the case is tainted by torture—questioned Mitchell about what happened at the Thailand black site in November 2002, when former CIA Director Gina Haspel oversaw the secret prison. The psychologist's testimony is meant to shed light on abuse that may have been recorded on scores of videotapes documenting detainee torture that were later destroyed at the behest of then-CIA counterterrorism chief Jose Rodriguez, who claimed in his memoir that Haspel drafted the 2005 cable ordering the move.

Mitchell—who along with fellow psychologist John "Bruce" Jessen was paid $81 million by the CIA to develop and supervise an interrogation regimen for terrorism suspects—described how the diminutive al-Nashiri was so scrawny that guards stopped subjecting him to the interrupted drowning torture commonly called waterboarding for fear the prisoner might be seriously hurt. In addition to waterboarding and other approved torture techniques, a declassified 2014 U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee report revealed how interrogators threatened to sexually assault al-Nashiri's mother, and how he was terrorized with a power drill and raped with a garden hose in a practice known as rectal hydration that was administered to Guantánamo prisoners who refused to eat or drink.[...]

In March, human rights advocates condemned the U.S. Supreme Court's decision allowing the Biden administration to block Mitchell and Jessen from cooperating with Polish prosecutors investigating the torture of Saudi terror suspect Abu Zubaydah. The Bush administration officials who devised, approved, and implemented the post-9/11 torture regimen have enjoyed total impunity. Not only did Bush's successor, former President Barack Obama, break a campaign promise to investigate and prosecute abuses as required by U.S. and international law, his Justice Department actively shielded them from accountability as torture continued at Guantánamo. Read more - Lire plus

War Crimes Hearing Revisits U.S. Soldiers’ Abuse of Detainees

CIA Files Confirm Guantanamo Bay Torture Program’s MKULTRA Roots

Former C.I.A.-Run Prison Emerges as a New Front in Guantánamo’s Legal Saga

Guantánamo’s Youngest Prisoner Cleared for Release 20 Years After He Was Jailed Without Charges

Turkey is Committing War Crimes in Iraq

Codepink 05/2022 - The war in Ukraine continues to escalate to unimaginable levels of harm and destruction. The Turkish President Erdogan acts as a mediator hosting peace talks between the Russian and Ukrainian governments. Turkey's attempts to bring two warring parties to the negotiating table overshadows its unwillingness to hold peace talks with its foe, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Though Russia continues its military assault on Ukraine, there is little mention in the press of Turkey's new military operations in northern Iraq.

This information might be new to some readers, but it is something the villagers of Safra have been living with for years. In 2020, the Turkish military destroyed a hospital that brought services to the remote mountainous region of northern Iraq. It has been two years, and the building sits empty with shattered glass on the floor and shrapnel marks on the inside and outside walls. So, where do the villagers go for medical assistance? Turkey's borderless drones, helicopters, and fighter jets fly into Iraq with the excuse that it is fighting a war on the terrorist organization PKK. In actuality, it is hurting and harming the indigenous community of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Where's the accountability? International humanitarian law protects hospitals, and the Geneva Conventions specify that hospitals and mobile medical units may not be an object of attack under no circumstances. The list of atrocities that Turkey has committed in northern Iraq keeps escalating. In the resort town of Kuna Masi, Turkey launched an aerial assault, destroying a local shop, killing one man, and injuring women and children, including the shopkeeper's wife, in 2020. This once peaceful resort town where families come to play and relax in the pristine rivers of Iraqi Kurdistan is now scarred by the devastation brought on by Turkey's incinerating war on the PKK. The shopkeeper has since remodeled the store, but he has moved, leaving his riverfront home behind.

What happens to the survivors of Turkey's war in Iraq? The Kurdish Government plays a complicit role in the attacks by not recognizing the injured and dead. Even something so simple as identifying the cause of death on a death certificate is inaccurately reported. The survivors are left with lobbying the Kurdish Government and Federal Iraq for reparations. Inasmuch as the local governments are complicit, the United States also has blood on its hands. For decades, the US has been a significant arms supplier to Turkey. Even though Turkey's arms imports dropped because the US halted its delivery of F-35 fighter jets, the US remains the number one weapons supplier. For example, in 2019, several hundred Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) guided missiles were delivered to Turkey. Lockheed Martin and Boeing (McDonald Douglas) manufactured the bombs. In addition, the US gave over one hundred FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank missiles in 2017, manufactured by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. The US should immediately halt arms sales to Turkey because its attacks are unlawfully wounding and killing Iraqi citizens who are part of the Kurdish minority group.

Erdogan's global stance to bring peace to Ukraine and its NATO membership only emboldens the Turkish President to wage war in Iraq, committing the most horrendous atrocities, which amount to war crimes. The End Cross Border Bombing campaign is a coalition urging the Turkish state to stop the bombing immediately. They demand that Turkey use its diplomacy to start peace talks to resolve its conflicts with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). In addition, the coalition urges the Iraqi Government and the Kurdistan Regional Government to take concrete measures to ensure the security of their citizens. Please stand with us and defend human rights. To join the campaign, send an email to: endcrossborderbombing@gmail.com. Read more - Lire plus

Video: Turkish War Crimes – an interview with Dr. Federico Venturini

Turkey is invading the Kurdistan region of Iraq – and the world has hardly blinked

Share This Email

ACTIONS & EVENTS

NEW ACTIONS Free Jack Letts and all Canadian Detainees in NE Syria

Canada must immediately act to free four dozen Canadian men, women and children left to rot in one of a series of notorious Northeastern Syrian prisons and detention camps described as “Guantanamo on the Euphrates.” In January 2022, scores of inmates – all arbitrarily detained – were massacred when the camps were attacked by ISIS, followed by an anti-ISIS bombing campaign and vicious counter-attack.

The longest held detainee is Jack Letts, 26, who has been imprisoned for almost 5 years without charge under conditions the United Nations has described as meeting the “threshold for torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment under international law.”

NEW Send an email and call!

NEW Mother’s Day to Father’s Day Chain Fast to Free the Canadian Captives