February 2015 Archives
Endless incarceration, extrajudicial killing, pervasive surveillance, drone strikes in defiance of national boundaries, torture on demand, and immunity for all of the above:
Washington, more than any other power, created the modern international community of laws and treaties, yet it now reserves the right to defy those same laws with impunity. A sovereign ruler should, said [Nazi Germany's chief jurist Carl] Schmitt, discard laws in times of national emergency. So the United States, as the planet's last superpower or, in Schmitt's terms, its global sovereign, has in these years repeatedly ignored international law, following instead its own unwritten rules of the road for the exercise of world power...
From Torture to Drones: U.S. Gave Itself a Global Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Card
Since the beginning of February the "ISRAEL'S WAR CRIMES: YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK" ad (left) has been appearing on the sides of buses along some of the popular bus routes in San Francisco. The photo is from the Israeli invasion of Gaza in 2014 that killed more than 2000 Palestinians, mostly noncombatants, and displaced nearly 10% of the population.
NoTaxDollarsToIsrael.com works to end the use of taxpayer funding to Israel, including tax exemption to projects in Israel that support the abuse of human rights.
photo by Phil Pasquini
Government leaders and corporations fiddle like Nero while the Earth burns, pointing the finger at each other and criminally condemning the planet to sure destruction...
John Kiriakou is the only CIA employee to go to prison in connection with the agency's torture program. Not because he tortured anyone, but because he revealed information on torture to a reporter.
In a wide-ranging phone interview with The Intercept, Kiriakou, 50, shared his thoughts on the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA interrogation techniques, on his incarceration, and on his future after prison.
Kiriakou began his final 'Letter from Loretto' by expressing gratitude to all the people who supported him throughout his time in prison. He mentions a few of the friends he made while imprisoned. He then declares, "By the time you read this, I'll be home. Now the real work can begin--the struggle for human rights, civil liberties and prison reform. I can guarantee you that I am unbowed, unbroken, uninstitutionalized and ready to fight."
painting by Robert Shetterley
