Uncle Sam Has His Own Gulag

Behaving like the Soviet secret police won't make America safer, Eric Margolis says.

By ERIC MARGOLIS

12/05/05"Canoe.Ca" -- The Lubyanka Prison's heavy oak main door swung open. I went in, the first western journalist to enter the KGB's notorious Moscow headquarters -- a place so dreaded Russians dared not utter its name. When they referred to it at all, they called it "Detsky Mir," after a nearby toy store.

After interviewing two senior KGB generals, I explored the fascinating museum of Soviet intelligence and was briefed on special poisons and assassination weapons that left no traces. I sat transfixed at the desk used by all the directors of Stalin's secret police, on which the orders were signed to murder 30 million people.

Descending dimly lit stairs, I saw some of the KGB's execution and torture cellars, and special "cold rooms" where naked prisoners were beaten, then doused with ice water and slowly frozen.

Other favoured Lubyanka tortures: Psychological terror, psychotropic drugs, prolonged sleep deprivation, dazzling lights, intense noise, days in pitch blackness, isolation, humiliation, constant threats, savage beatings, attacks by guard dogs, near drowning.

Nightmares from the past -- but the past has returned.

According to a report leaked to the New York Times, the Swiss-based International Red Cross has accused the Bush administration for a second time of employing systematic, medically supervised torture against suspects being held at Guantanamo Bay, and at U.S.-run prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The second Red Cross report was delivered to the White House last summer while it was trying to dismiss the Abu Ghraib prison torture horrors as the crimes of a few rogue jailers. According to the report's allegations, many tortures perfected by the Cheka (Soviet secret police) -- notably beating, freezing, sensory disorientation, and sleep deprivation -- are now routinely being used by U.S. interrogators.

The Chekisti, however, did not usually inflict sexual humiliation. That technique, and hooding, were developed by Israeli psychologists to break resistance of Palestinian prisoners. Photos of sexual humiliation were used by Israeli security, and then by U.S. interrogators at Abu Ghraib, to blackmail Muslim prisoners into becoming informers. All of these practices flagrantly violate the Geneva Conventions, international, and American law.

The Pentagon and CIA gulags in Cuba, Iraq and Afghanistan have become a sort of Enron-style, off-the-books operation, immune from American law or Congressional oversight.

Suspects reportedly disappear into a black hole, recalling Latin America's torture camps and "disappearings" of the 1970s and '80s, or the Arab world's sinister secret police prisons.

The U.S. has been sending high-level anti-American suspects to Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and, reportedly, Pakistan, where it's alleged they are brutally tortured with violent electric shocks, savage beatings, drowning, acid baths, and blowtorching -- the same tortures, ironically, ascribed to Saddam Hussein.

Protests over this by members of Congress, respected human rights groups, and the public have been ignored.

President George W. Bush just named Alberto Gonzales to be attorney general, his nation's highest law officer. As White House counsel, Gonzales wrote briefs justifying torture and advised the White House on ways to evade or ignore the Geneva Conventions.

Grossly violating the Geneva Conventions undermines international law and endangers U.S. troops abroad. Anyone who has served in the U.S. armed forces, as I have, should be outraged that this painfully won tenet of international law and civilized behaviour is being trashed by members of the Bush administration.

Un-American behaviour

If, as Bush asserts, terrorism suspects, Taliban, and Muslim mujahedeen fighters not in uniform deserve no protection under the laws of war and may be jailed and tortured at presidential whim, then what law protects from abuse or torture all the un-uniformed U.S. Special Forces, CIA field teams, and those 40,000 or more U.S. and British mercenaries in Iraq and Afghanistan euphemistically called "civilian contractors"?

Behaving like the 1930s Soviet secret police will not make America safer. Such illegal, immoral and totally un-American behaviour corrupts democracy and makes them no better than the criminals they detest.

The 20th century has shown repeatedly that when security forces use torture abroad, they soon begin using it at home, first on suspected terrorists, then dissidents, then on ordinary suspects.

It's time for Congress and the courts to wake up and end this shameful and dangerous episode in America's history.

Copyright © 2001, Sun Media Corporation

Butas na Batas ng Gubat

ni: Tata Raul G. Funilas
UP-Diliman
Disyembre 2, 2004

Dumayo ang bagyo ng siklo’t
Tinahak ang landas ng Pilipinas,
Mabugso ang nabuyong alimpuyong
Nagwasiwas at naglaglag ng mga patak;
Hinahalo ng umaalipatong ipu-ipo
Ang wasak na gubat na umiiyak.

Bumaha ang luhang saganang sagana,
Hindi naawat ng mga nautas na ugat
Niyong kahoy na pinulpol ng ungol
Ng mga tampalasang halimaw na humalihaw
At gumanot sa panot na panot nang bundok.
Niyong mga nagkamal ng makakapal na yaman

Nalunod at inianod ang punggok na himutok,
Nawasak ang pangarap sa butas na batas ng gubat.

© 2004 Bulatlat ■ Alipato Publications

SC Reversal on Mining Act is Treason: KPNE

PRESS RELEASE/December 1, 2004
Reference: Clemente Bautista, 09185539682

The Supreme Court reversal on Mining Act is Treason, PGMA's hand seen in court's decision.

The Kalikasan People's Network for the Environment (KPNE) charged as "treason" the act of Supreme Court justices who voted to reverse the court's earlier decision on the constitutionality of the Philippine Mining Act. It also hit the SC for being blind to the fact that nowhere in R.A. 7942 as well as in existing mining agreements of the government with foreign mining firms is it guaranteed that the government retains control of mining operations as mandated by the Constitution.

"The SC acted in blind haste, most probably succumbing to the treasonous agenda of the Arroyo government to sell-out our mineral resources to rapacious foreign transnational mining firms in a desperate move to revive a moribund industry whose collapse is directly the result of an anti-Filipino mining policy of a pro-mining TNC government," Clemente Bautista, KPNE National Coordinator, said.

"This only goes to show that we cannot rely on this government to even uphold the remaining nationalist provisions of our Constitution. This government is totally bereft of a moral authority to govern for and in behalf of the Filipino people," he added.

Bautista said that the SC decision appears to be in line with the latest moves of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in lowering the initial capital requirements for Foreign Technical and Assistance Agreements from $50 million to $4 million.

Gerardo Gobrin of the Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan sa Pilipinas (KAMP) stressed that not only will the SC decision result into a flood of mining TNC operations in the country but in human rights violations against indigenous peoples and peasant settlers, where most mining applications are located, as well.

The KPNE also warned of more devastating natural disasters like flashfloods and landslides once the government's thrust to revitalize a liberalized mining industry as a result of the SC decision takes full swing. Bautista, however, warned the government, saying the people will not take this sitting down. "As the government and the elite in the mining industry and mining TNCs celebrate, they might as well brace for a stronger resistance from an enlightened citizenry who have had enough of the duplicitous and treasonous agenda of the government."

5th Chapter Assembly Held: New Set of Officers Elected

The All U.P. Workers Union, Manila Chapter succesfully held its 5th Chapter Assembly on November 26, 2004 at 8:00 - 1:00 PM at the UP Manila Social Hall, 8/F PGH Central Block Bldg. This year's theme was aptly titled: "Papaigting na pakikibaka para sa sahod, benepisyo at karapatan sa harap ng papatinding krisis." It was attended by 107 members, the most attended so far in the history of the chapter.

Keynote speaker for this year's triennial assembly was Dr. Gene Nisperos, Secretary General of the Health Alliance for Democracy. Dr. Nisperos presented a lively analysis of the national political and health situation. His crisp delivery and witty anecdotes were received well by the audience.

The Keynote speech was followed by the three (3) year Accomplishment Report by Mr. Jossel Ebesate, Chapter President who concurrently is also the National P.R.O. of the union. It was followed by the 3 year Treasurer's Report from Mr. Edgardo Enagan.

Mr. Clodualdo "Buboy" Cabrera, National President also came with a coterie of National and U.P. Diliman chapter officers, and delivered a brief message.

The election of a new set of officers (CY 2005 - 2007) was held through viva voce presided over by the Search and Election Committee headed by Mr. Eliseo Estropigan. Those elected for a 3 year term of office (with their respective position in the hospital/university) are as follows:

President - Jossel Ebesate, Nurse IV, DNRD, PGH
Vice President - Jesusa Besido, Administrative Officer IV, UPCM
Secretary - Rosamond Mary Olivar, Nurse II, LCB 1 4/F, PGH
Treasurer - Edgardo Enagan, Utility Worker IV, CVS, PGH
Auditor - Belinda Jubilo-Santos, Social Welfare Officer IV, MSSD, PGH
Public Relations Officer - Benjamin Santos, Utility Worker IV, Ward 12, PGH
Board of Director Members: Erlinda Bilog, Clerk IV, UPCN,
Freddie Waje, Student's Record Evaluator, CPH and;
Ma. Corazon Brito, Clerk IV, University Library.

The assembly also adopted that all newly elected and outgoing officers and the current unit representative committee chairs as the official delegates of the chapter to the 5th General assembly which will be held on December 3, 2004 (whole day) at Bulwagang Tandang Sora, College of Social Work and Community Development, U.P. Diliman. The chapter was entitled to 46 delegates based on June 2004 membership of 1,225.

The chapter assembly was capped by a simple but delectable lunch catered by the PGH Dietary Department.