The Supreme Court has just ruled that four Guantanamo prisoners cannot sue the government for torture. The Center for Constitutional Rights notes:

It is an awful day for the rule of law and common decency when the Supreme Court lets stand such an inhuman decision. The final word on whether these men had a right not to be tortured or a right to practice their religion free from abuse is that they did not. Future prospective torturers can now draw comfort from this decision. The lower court found that torture is all in a days’ work for the Secretary of Defense and senior generals. That violates the President’s stated policy, our treaty obligations and universal legal norms. Yet the Obama administration, in its rush to protect executive power, lost its moral compass and persuaded the Supreme Court to avoid a central moral challenge. Today our standing in the world has suffered a further great loss.

As Raw Story notes, this means that torture could return.

In fact, torture is a violation of both international and American law. Specifically, the Geneva Convention makes it illegal to inflict mental or physical torture or inhuman treatment.

Torture Is Still – In Fact – Illegal

As I pointed out in 2005:

The War Crimes Act of 1996, a federal statute set forth at 18 U.S.C. § 2441, makes it a federal crime for any U.S. national, whether military or civilian, to violate the Geneva Convention by engaging in murder, torture, or inhuman treatment.

The statute applies not only to those who carry out the acts, but also to those who ORDER IT, know about it, or fail to take steps to stop it. The statute applies to everyone, no matter how high and mighty.

***

Indeed, even the lawyers and other people who aided in the effort may be war criminals; see also this article , this one, and this press release.

The Military Commissions Act of 2006 limited the applicability of the War Crimes Act, but still made the following unlawful: torture, cruel or inhumane treatment, murder, mutilation or maiming, intentionally causing serious bodily harm, rape, sexual assault or abuse.

Is Torture a Necessary Evil?

Let’s not let a little bit of law get in the way. Many would say that torture is a necessary evil to defend our national security.

But as I have previously demonstrated:

• Torture doesn’t work in providing information which will keep us safe

• Torture actually reduces our national security

• Most of those tortured were innocent

• Torture has also been used throughout history as a form of intimidation, to terrorize people into obedience, not for gathering information

Moreover, the type of torture used by the U.S. in the last 10 years is of a special type. Senator Levin revealed that the U.S. used torture techniques aimed at extracting false confessions.

McClatchy fills in some of the details:

Former senior U.S. intelligence official familiar with the interrogation issue said that Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld demanded that the interrogators find evidence of al Qaida-Iraq collaboration…

For most of 2002 and into 2003, Cheney and Rumsfeld, especially, were also demanding proof of the links between al Qaida and Iraq that (former Iraqi exile leader Ahmed) Chalabi and others had told them were there.”

It was during this period that CIA interrogators waterboarded two alleged top al Qaida detainees repeatedly — Abu Zubaydah at least 83 times in August 2002 and Khalid Sheik Muhammed 183 times in March 2003 — according to a newly released Justice Department document…

When people kept coming up empty, they were told by Cheney’s and Rumsfeld’s people to push harder,” he continued.”Cheney’s and Rumsfeld’s people were told repeatedly, by CIA . . . and by others, that there wasn’t any reliable intelligence that pointed to operational ties between bin Laden and Saddam . . .

A former U.S. Army psychiatrist, Maj. Charles Burney, told Army investigators in 2006 that interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility were under “pressure” to produce evidence of ties between al Qaida and Iraq.

“While we were there a large part of the time we were focused on trying to establish a link between al Qaida and Iraq and we were not successful in establishing a link between al Qaida and Iraq,” Burney told staff of the Army Inspector General. “The more frustrated people got in not being able to establish that link . . . there was more and more pressure to resort to measures that might produce more immediate results.”

“I think it’s obvious that the administration was scrambling then to try to find a connection, a link (between al Qaida and Iraq),” [Senator] Levin said in a conference call with reporters. “They made out links where they didn’t exist.”

Levin recalled Cheney’s assertions that a senior Iraqi intelligence officer had met Mohammad Atta, the leader of the 9/11 hijackers, in the Czech Republic capital of Prague just months before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The FBI and CIA found that no such meeting occurred.

In other words, top Bush administration officials not only knowingly lied about a non-existent connection between Al Qaida and Iraq, but they pushed and insisted that interrogators use special torture methods aimed at extracting false confessions to attempt to create such a false linkage. See also this and this.

Paul Krugman summarized eloquently summarized the truth about the type of torture used:

Let’s say this slowly: the Bush administration wanted to use 9/11 as a pretext to invade Iraq, even though Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. So it tortured people to make them confess to the nonexistent link.

There’s a word for this: it’s evil.

Illegal … check. Unnecessary … check.

Why hasn’t America banned torture?

Source: Washington’s Blog

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The Obama Justice Department’s Secret Blogging Team… Is it Illegal?

New unit to interrogate terror detainees

Alleged 9/11 mastermind: `I make up stories’

Source: New World Order Report

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Census Worker Found Died With The Word “FED” Across His Chest Killed Himself According To Investigators

The JFK Assassination: New York Times Acknowledges CIA Deceptions

DHS Video Portrays Average Americans As Terrorists

This month Eric Prince has resigned from the scandal ridden Xe inc. formerly know as Blackwater, revealing a decade long relationship as a deep cover CIA operative specifically tasked with building and mobilizing an elite army of private assassins for the CIA.

For the past six years, Prince “appears to have led an astonishing double life,” writes Adam Ciralsky. “Publicly, he has served as Blackwater’s CEO and chairman. Privately, and secretly, he has been doing the CIA’s bidding, helping to craft, fund, and execute operations ranging from inserting personnel into ‘denied areas’—places US intelligence has trouble penetrating—to assembling hit teams targeting Al-Qaeda members and their allies.”

Blackwater is and has been from the on set a private army or extension of the CIA. An army that has been implicated in killing civilians, bombing mosques [VIDEO], torture, smuggling weapons, dressing up as aid workers, CIA Raids, and even running child prostitution rings [VIDEO]only to be unsuccessful at paying off Iraqi officials in an attempt to cover up their crimes.

As barbarically unnecessary and costly Blackwater is, the media has tried to dismiss a lot of these reports as just another one of Dick Cheney’s Frankenstein monster hold overs from the Bush administration that is slowly being dismantled. Unfortunately Obama has also been utilizing the ever eager Blackwater special operatives for the Pakistani drone program that has been an absolute PR disaster due to the civilian casualties that stain headlines on a weekly basis.

With these startling revelations, it is little wonder the U.S. government can’t seem to stop using, or separate itself from an obviously mismanaged and brutal element of their supposed war on terror. This death squad role and relationship can be traced back to Israel and the training they gave these special forces in the lead up to the major ground assults in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In fact it was reported in 2003 Israel had been training special forces units as assassination squads, and why not considering Bush adviser and future 9/11 cover-up artist Philip Zelikow stated right around that same time period that we invaded Iraq with the sole purpose of protecting Israel.

The Pakistani drone program Jeremy Scahill writes in the nation is really a top-secret Joint Strategic Operation Command (JSOC) program.

The previously unreported program, the military intelligence source said, is distinct from the CIA assassination program that the agency’s director, Leon Panetta, announced he had canceled in June 2009. “This is a parallel operation to the CIA,” said the source. “They are two separate beasts.” The program puts Blackwater at the epicenter of a US military operation within the borders of a nation against which the United States has not declared war–knowledge that could further strain the already tense relations between the United States and Pakistan. In 2006, the United States and Pakistan struck a deal that authorized JSOC to enter Pakistan to hunt Osama bin Laden with the understanding that Pakistan would deny it had given permission. Officially, the United States is not supposed to have any active military operations in the country.

They are a compartmentalized group of elite operatives which have been tasked with finding and  killing Al-Qaeda militants is what we are being told, but what we really see here is a covert, military backed force, circumventing the oversight and constitutional authority of our elected officials in congress, and is shaping up to be one of the biggest scandals of the decade.

Allowing the CIA, the masters of overthrowing Governments and staging coups to have it’s own private army, stationed in training facilities on American soil has got to be the greatest threat to liberty America has seen in recent years.

Just Al-Qeada Really?

Numerous reports state Al-Qaeda has been reduced to a handful of scattered pockets and even an acknowledgment by the Obama administration that Osama Bin Laden has been known to be dead since Dec. 13, 2001. In fact it has been reported that theJSOC is running the show in both Afghanistan and Pakistan by two high ranking Navy officers Vice Admirals William McRaven and Robert Harward

“Two senior military officers from the shadowy world of Special Operations are playing a large and previously unreported role in shaping the Obama administration’s Afghanistan and Pakistan strategy, a move that underscores that the internal debate has moved past a rigid choice between expansive missions to provide security for Afghan civilians and narrowly tailored missions to find and kill terrorists.”

The Big Picture

So besides protecting the Opium and Oil fields, what is the strategic objective of funding a Blackwater staffed JSOC organized, covert operations against middle eastern targets of the United States? Especially when Al-Qaeda is nothing more than an admitted specter.

The answer is given to us through the suspiciously precognitive writing of former Sen. Gary Hart who writes in a Huffington post article this past Nov. 11, 2009

“Among the early lessons of Afghanistan and Iraq, however, is that 21st century conflict demands Special Forces and small unit capabilities even more than traditional big divisions, large carrier task groups, and long range strategic bombers.  Historic nation-state wars, though always plausible, are declining.  Irregular, unconventional warfare involving dispersed terrorist cells, stateless nations, insurgencies, and tribes, clans, and gangs are increasing dramatically.”

He then asks,

“…are our present and planned force structures configured for new military threats; are weapons procurement programs continuation of traditional acquisitions or focused on future requirements; is the intelligence community properly coordinated and focused on emerging realities; for non-military concerns–such as failed states, radical fundamentalism, pandemics, climate degradation, energy dependence, and resource competition–are new international coalitions needed; are existing alliances adequate to anticipate and respond to these crises or are new ones required; most of all, does our government require new legislative authority to achieve national security under dramatically changing conditions?”

We see here that Hart who also wrote a book on the subject called Under the Eagles Wings: A National Security Strategy of the United States for 2009 has easily just expanded the use and role of these rogue assassination units from foreign operations against terrorists, to operations against what he terms  as “non-military threats” or “stateless nations” inside the United States and abroad.

He goes further in his book stating,

“We will be required to conduct multinational training exercises between our special forces and those of other nations. We must operate jointly and collectively against Jihadi and other terrorist groups that endanger the security of all. We will find it necessary to integrate communications systems and databases among law enforcement and public safety agencies of liberal democratic nations. Pg. 17″

Isn’t this exactly what we are seeing with the reported CIA/Blackwater operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan? They’re not over their just fighting Al-Qaeda, but using the war on terror as a front operation to train multinational privatized commandos and integrating the fighting forces of the developed nations? We have Delta Force, Rangers, CIA, Green Beret, S.E.A.L’s, IDF,Mossad, Mi5, SAS, Marines etc. etc., all being utilized and training as rapid deployment forces and occupation forces to better serve as a cohesive militarily force in a increasingly globalized world.

In the Homeland

It would be one thing if it was only Al-Qaeda and militants on foreign shores they were after, but in a incredibly revealing article from the New York Times we see that they were operational in the United States during the 2005 Bush inauguration in direct violation of Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 as stated in the article.

“These commandos, operating under a secret counter-terrorism program code-named Power Geyser, were mentioned publicly for the first time this week on a Web site for a new book, “Code Names: Deciphering U.S. Military Plans, Programs and Operation in the 9/11 World,” (Steerforth Press). The book was written by William M. Arkin, a former intelligence analyst for the Army.

…

The precise number of these Special Operations forces in Washington this week is highly classified, but military officials say the number is very small. The special-missions units belong to the Joint Special Operations Command, a secretive command based at Fort Bragg, N.C., whose elements include the Army unit Delta Force.”

If you count Blackwaters apperance in Katrina, they are used to training and operating on American soil and conducting training exercises that run into unfortunate deaths like what happened on a Colorado Mountain topin August

The Blackwater story is the actualized realization of Gary Hart’s book, and it all happened in 2009 just like the title suggested.

So if Al-Qaeda is Gone, Who is the New Enemy?

The answer to that question is simply you, by expanding the definition of terrorist over the last decade DHS has increasingly been issuing report after report that middle America is potentially terrorists. According to the MIAC report, property rights activist, tax evaders, gun owners, home schoolers, Christians, and people angry about the economy are all potential terrorists.

MIAC Report

Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism

Things to Come

You can be sure that things will not stay the same, an economic collapse that could degrade into a full blown civil war is currently being planned for by the Obama administration as reported by the EU Times, and expanded upon by Chuck Baldwin in his latest column.

The simple fact is while America has been sleeping, the groundwork to totally and finally break the American people into accepting global government as a solution to war, climate change, food, pandemics, and natural disasters is in place.

Think about how many drills you have heard about in the past months of American soldiers training with foreign forces, and with the overly hyped swine flu being declared a level six pandemic recently we have the perfect cover to train and deploy multinational peace keeping forces all over America and the World, as shown in the NLE 2009 massive training drills conducted over the summer.

If you speak out against this rogue government after the collapse and clamp down, you will go to one of the hundreds of FEMA re-education and work camps that have gone up around the country.

Those who choose to fight against it in an armed resistance, whether a nation state or an individual will be targeted by multinational private mercenary squads who have cut their teeth in the lawless deserts of Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan and will have the full backing of both the military and intelligence apparatus of these United States when it comes to tracking down and killing those it deems enemies of the state.

They want a Global Government and the United States middle class won’t stand for it unless major panic ensues. The security state is ready to take the velvet gloves off in everything from…

NSA Wiretapping and domestic surveillance, $5 Billion for Pentagon Funded Propaganda Campaigns, Militarized Police Forces , and mobilizing a youth corp against veterans and patriots, it is a nightmare to contemplate but very, very real.

Now if you want a real ugly glance at just how bad things have gotten with the use of mercs, look into Hardin, Montana and how a  foreigner and  felon with 17 aliases bought out the city, took over the jail and staffed it with foreign mercenaries.

Choices

With the planned collapse of our Economy by the Fed, the war on the Mexican border that is quickly spilling over into American cities nationwide, and the increasing militarized security grid that has invaded every aspect of American life we are faced with a choice as red blooded Americans as we come to the end of 2009. We either stand up and fight for the values of our constitutional republic by outing every criminal in government and reclaiming or nations capital and military, or we allow them to be integrated into the New World Order system that will violently suppress all opposition via Blackwater type hit teams.

Your call America will you heed the warning signs all around you or will you drown out your conscience with football, and Friday night movies? As a final thought we have the newly announced Air force’s Global Strike Brigade being assembled for rapid deployment of nuclear munitions anywhere in the world the architects of this global society are ruthless killers and deadly serious and will utilize any means necessary to assure success. Those of us who are awake are desperately praying the public can wake up in time, because this reality is being forced on us like it or not.

Source: Truth Alliance

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Sign at homeless camp: ‘Welcome to Obamaville’

‘I’ve had 100 calls today and not a single 1 of them was negative’

Residents of Colorado Springs, Colo., have a mystery on their hands: Who came up with the idea to erect a sign reading “Welcome to Obamaville” on the site of a homeless tent camp in the city?

The sign, which was visible from the Cimarron Street ramp to Interstate 25, clearly conveyed a political jab at rising unemployment under President Barack Obama, for it read in full, “Welcome to Obamaville – Colorado’s fastest growing community.”

Colorado television station KRDO first reported on the sign earlier this week, but without any identifying logos or clues to the sign’s origin, the station launched a public appeal for information on the sign’s author.

KRDO got its first clue when Spencer Swann of Colorado Canyon Signs confessed to constructing the sign, though he denied it was his idea and still refuses to divulge for whom he built it. He did, however, explain that there was more to the sign’s intent than criticizing the sitting president:

“You mention his name, you get some attention – I think that was the whole idea behind it,” Swann told KRDO. “I didn’t dream it up, but I thought it was a good idea. I thought that it would help some of these guys down here.”

Public reaction on the KRDO website has been mixed over the sign’s message:

“Lay the blame where you will, I think it is a hoot and a great historical throwback to Hooverville,” wrote a reader named daman in an online comment. “These are the worst times I’ve seen in my 40-plus years, and I am glad my kids get to see it early. Maybe they’ll learn to grow and be compassionate, yet personally fiscal conservatives.”

A poster named Nick, however, was critical: “That is pretty low to use a right-wing political agenda and attack the homeless during the worst recession in a generation and especially during the holidays.”

Swann, however, says he’s received nothing but support:

“I’ve had 100 calls today,” Swann told the station, “and not a single one of them was negative.”

Nonetheless, Swann has since replaced the “Obamaville” sign with another, which reads, “Please help. We need firewood, propane and canned food.”

In response to some criticism that the money used to build the signs should have been used to help the homeless instead, Swann told KRDO that though the original “Obamaville” sign cost around $150, he didn’t charge the unknown creator for either sign. Furthermore, he said, the instigator of the “Obamaville” sign is already involved with helping the homeless:

“He gives them money, he gives them food, he gives them support,” said Swann.

As for his own motivations for building the sign, and doing so without charge, Swann told KRDO, “I thought it was just something to draw attention and help those folks.”

Source: WND

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