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Sunday 10 May 2009 - 05:18
American Hypocrisy Rears Its Ugly Head...Yet Again.
Story Code : 4590
By: Joseph Glatzer
"This is a shocking miscarriage of justice," said Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, "The Iranian government has held a secret trial, will not make public any evidence, and sentenced an American citizen to eight years in prison for a crime she didn't commit. I call on the Iranian government to show compassion." Where is this compassion when it comes to so called, “enemy combatants” held by the US? According to the ACLU, there have been 774 total inmates in Guantanamo Bay, with 245 currently being held. There have been a total of 2 “trials” completed under the Military Commissions (where evidence obtained by torture is admissible). The age of the youngest known detainee is 13, the oldest is 98. 86% of these inmates are turned in by an Afghan or Pakistani citizen for a cash reward. Take the case of Binyam Mohamed. He was a British citizen, who the CIA, in cooperation with Pakistani and British intelligence, was kidnapped (or rendered) at a Pakistani airport. He was then sent to secret prisons in Pakistan and Morocco. While in Morocco he was tortured by among other things, having his penis repeatedly sliced with a scalpel. He spent some time in the US’s notorious torture chamber in Afghanistan, Bagram Air Base, before being shipped to Guantanamo Bay, where he spent 5 years of his life being tortured, before being released in February, having been cleared of all charges.
How about another little taste of the high legal standards and moral superiority of the United States? It’s nice to see just how righteous and compassionate we are compared to those backward Islamic hellholes that don’t respect human rights, like Iran. As follows is an excerpt from a US Army autopsy, obtained by the ACLU using a Freedom of Information Act request, “The decedent was shackled to the top of a doorframe with a gag in his mouth at the time he lost consciousness and became pulseless. The severe blunt force injuries, the hanging position, and the obstruction of the oral cavity with a gag contributed to this individual’s death. The manner of death is homicide.” There is no known name for this Iraqi murdered in US custody in Iraq, he is only known by a number, “3235”. "Roxana said in court that her earlier confessions were not true and she told me she had been tricked into believing that she would be released if she cooperated,” said Saberi's father, Reza. Remember Binyam Mohamed and his scalpel-sliced penis? Well, he was tortured because he refused to confess to crimes he didn’t commit.
The US does have a history of espionage in Iran and many other places around the world. In fact, in 1953 working from the US Embassy (which was actually a CIA Station aka, homebase for espionage), the US conspired and carried out a plan to overthrow the democratically elected Prime Minister Mossadegh. They then installed, the Shah, a brutal dictator who tortured and stole from his own people, with the CIA propping up his dictatorship from that spy base for 25 years. If you were Iran, wouldn’t you be a bit suspicious of Americans too? After all, the coup plot involved CIA agents disguised as reporters. According to respected investigative reporter for the New Yorker Magazine, Seymour Hersh, covert CIA operations, by the US, have taken place in Iran since at least 2007, which are designed to undermine and sabotage the Iranian government. With your knowledge of the US’s stellar human rights record, what do you think the US would do if Iran was actively seeking to undermine our government through espionage within our borders, and we happened to capture an Iranian reporter who didn’t have current press credentials? Faster than John McCain could sing, “Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran” or Hillary Clinton could threaten to “obliterate Iran,” she would be tortured, hung upside down from the ceiling with a ball gag in her mouth, and be left to die, as so many prisoners were, with a vague “blunt force injuries and asphyxia” as the cause of death. There would be no international outcry, and no need for further investigation, case closed.
When we hold people indefinitely, when we torture, when we don't respect human rights or international law; why should we be surprised when others follow our lead? This woman got to speak with her family within a month. Do you know how many US held prisoners are denied access to their families completely, whose families don't even know what the hell happened to their loved one who just disappeared one day? When we don’t follow the law, we have no room to claim the moral high ground when others don’t either. At least she got a sentence. Most foreigners the US detains are kept locked up in a legal black hole with no end in sight.
If she is innocent, she is being used a propaganda tool and is caught in the middle of a diplomatic faceoff. She should be afforded all the human rights the United States denies foreign prisoners, and she deserves the fair trial that Guantanamo detainees never get.
"This is a shocking miscarriage of justice," said Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, "The Iranian government has held a secret trial, will not make public any evidence, and sentenced an American citizen to eight years in prison for a crime she didn't commit. I call on the Iranian government to show compassion." Where is this compassion when it comes to so called, “enemy combatants” held by the US? According to the ACLU, there have been 774 total inmates in Guantanamo Bay, with 245 currently being held. There have been a total of 2 “trials” completed under the Military Commissions (where evidence obtained by torture is admissible). The age of the youngest known detainee is 13, the oldest is 98. 86% of these inmates are turned in by an Afghan or Pakistani citizen for a cash reward. Take the case of Binyam Mohamed. He was a British citizen, who the CIA, in cooperation with Pakistani and British intelligence, was kidnapped (or rendered) at a Pakistani airport. He was then sent to secret prisons in Pakistan and Morocco. While in Morocco he was tortured by among other things, having his penis repeatedly sliced with a scalpel. He spent some time in the US’s notorious torture chamber in Afghanistan, Bagram Air Base, before being shipped to Guantanamo Bay, where he spent 5 years of his life being tortured, before being released in February, having been cleared of all charges.
How about another little taste of the high legal standards and moral superiority of the United States? It’s nice to see just how righteous and compassionate we are compared to those backward Islamic hellholes that don’t respect human rights, like Iran. As follows is an excerpt from a US Army autopsy, obtained by the ACLU using a Freedom of Information Act request, “The decedent was shackled to the top of a doorframe with a gag in his mouth at the time he lost consciousness and became pulseless. The severe blunt force injuries, the hanging position, and the obstruction of the oral cavity with a gag contributed to this individual’s death. The manner of death is homicide.” There is no known name for this Iraqi murdered in US custody in Iraq, he is only known by a number, “3235”. "Roxana said in court that her earlier confessions were not true and she told me she had been tricked into believing that she would be released if she cooperated,” said Saberi's father, Reza. Remember Binyam Mohamed and his scalpel-sliced penis? Well, he was tortured because he refused to confess to crimes he didn’t commit.
The US does have a history of espionage in Iran and many other places around the world. In fact, in 1953 working from the US Embassy (which was actually a CIA Station aka, homebase for espionage), the US conspired and carried out a plan to overthrow the democratically elected Prime Minister Mossadegh. They then installed, the Shah, a brutal dictator who tortured and stole from his own people, with the CIA propping up his dictatorship from that spy base for 25 years. If you were Iran, wouldn’t you be a bit suspicious of Americans too? After all, the coup plot involved CIA agents disguised as reporters. According to respected investigative reporter for the New Yorker Magazine, Seymour Hersh, covert CIA operations, by the US, have taken place in Iran since at least 2007, which are designed to undermine and sabotage the Iranian government. With your knowledge of the US’s stellar human rights record, what do you think the US would do if Iran was actively seeking to undermine our government through espionage within our borders, and we happened to capture an Iranian reporter who didn’t have current press credentials? Faster than John McCain could sing, “Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran” or Hillary Clinton could threaten to “obliterate Iran,” she would be tortured, hung upside down from the ceiling with a ball gag in her mouth, and be left to die, as so many prisoners were, with a vague “blunt force injuries and asphyxia” as the cause of death. There would be no international outcry, and no need for further investigation, case closed.
When we hold people indefinitely, when we torture, when we don't respect human rights or international law; why should we be surprised when others follow our lead? This woman got to speak with her family within a month. Do you know how many US held prisoners are denied access to their families completely, whose families don't even know what the hell happened to their loved one who just disappeared one day? When we don’t follow the law, we have no room to claim the moral high ground when others don’t either. At least she got a sentence. Most foreigners the US detains are kept locked up in a legal black hole with no end in sight.
If she is innocent, she is being used a propaganda tool and is caught in the middle of a diplomatic faceoff. She should be afforded all the human rights the United States denies foreign prisoners, and she deserves the fair trial that Guantanamo detainees never get.
Source : The Palestine Telegraph
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