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Torture and torment in 2007 AD
by David Halpin
On this the 59th anniversary of the International Declaration of Human Rights by the UN one can hear the thuds, splutters and screams in a good many of those united nations.
When did man first start applying physical and mental pain to his fellows? I doubt those artists and masons who made the beautiful cave paintings at Lascaux 20,000 years ago did this to neighbouring peoples.
No, this expression of the worst in homo 'sapiens' came with political power and religious belief. It has been used more for confession and subjugation perhaps than the extraction of supposed information.
To inflict severe pain or mental suffering, especially as a punishment or to extract information: Latin – tortura, torment.
The litany of method and device includes the fire, the rack,
Palestinian hanging, “water boarding”, the “banana chair” and indeed any
possible imagined perversion. But it was clearly shown in the Stanford
Prison Experiment that it took no more than five days for most people
to become sadistic in those conditions.
Since the attack on the twin
towers and the “collapse” of tower number seven there have been plenty
of excuses to turn the screws. The engine of the Project of the New
American Century was warmed ready to unleash its black imagination on
the Islamic world. A fuel distilled from the apocalyptic nonsense of
“Christian” fundamentalism was mixed with simple racism and fear – a
fear implanted by an amoral media at the behest of leaders without one
thread of principle but with respect for the Reichstag fire.
The
imperator certainly led the descent into hell; the symbol of the hooded
Iraqi man standing on a plinth with electrodes will be a more potent
symbol of US of A than the statue – '"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free''. A succession of
pseudo-legal excuses for torture in the name of “terror” gave way to
every abomination under Lucifer. Surrogates were recruited in this war
of liberation of the tongues. A Syrian born Canadian citizen was
“rendered” from JFK to his home country and into a six-by-two foot cell
for nine months. Almost all the Arab dictatorships jumped to attention.
And devout Muslims everywhere were being fingered for Uncle Sam. In
Uzbekistan they were being tortured by gradual immersion in boiling
water. When Her Majesty's ambassador, Craig Murray, reported this he
was put under the heat as well.
Perfidious Albion has stayed
outside the torture chamber and instead accepts evidence gained by
torture in other nations like Morocco. Solitary confinement of a young
Muslim citizen in Bellmarsh prison will not be labelled “torture” by
the Home Office and Ms Jackie Smith MP.
The “only democracy in
the Middle East” has imprisoned at least 600,000 Palestinians since the
ethnic cleansing of those native people started in 1948 en masse.
Remember that the population was hardly a million to start with.
Many
are arrested at dead of night in a manner similar to that taught by Ord
Wingate to the Zionist terrorist squads in the 1930s – the Special
Night Squads (The Blood Never Dried: John Newsinger). British Mandate
law is still invoked. Torture was very common and it is still practised
widely.
The mantra, “the war on terror”, was soon latched onto by
Sharon. The Supreme Court of Israel has disallowed the use of “moderate
physical pressure” but in 1999 the “ticking bomb” justification was
acknowledged. Torture continues but in a less systematic manner.
Those
wanting to stop the breaking of bodies and minds have only pens,
keyboards and their will. A letter from seven doctors is in the online
edition of the Lancet. One signatory was driven from her home in
Jerusalem with her family at the age of eight in 1948. It is entitled
“Medical ethical violations in Gaza”. It notes that Physicians for
Human Rights Israel (PHRI) have made an emergency appeal for medical
supplies for Gaza, the borders of which are virtually closed.
Forty-four patients have died since June because of delay or denial of
medical care. Eighty-five types of drugs which the World Health
Organization defines as essential are out of stock.
“The threatened
disruption of fuel and power supplies will cripple the running of
hospitals, including haemodialysis and ventilation”.
They consider
these actions to be war crimes and they have petitioned the Israeli
High Court of Justice without success. They have also highlighted how
the Israeli General Security Service has coerced sick people into
informing on relatives. These descriptions are of collective
punishment. This punishment is both torture and torment.
The
letter further notes that PHRI has spoken out on this negation of
international and moral law, whereas the Israeli Medical Association
(IMA) has stayed silent as it has also done in regard to torture
carried out by Israeli agencies. Many nations and their medical
associations are mute as well. A report entitled “Ticking bombs:
testimonies of torture victims in Israel” from the Public Committee
Against Torture in Israel 2007 needs to be studied.
What
befell one of the victims, Luwaai Ashqar, is described by the
courageous Gideon Levy.
“‘Now you are paralyzed as we promised': a
glimpse into the world of torture in Israel".
Fundamentalists worldwide
will be pleased perhaps that Luwaai spent time in Meggido Military
Prison.
The star of light, burning bright, leads the kings in
adoration to a baby folded in his mother's arms. Not many years hence
he will be crucified. With every crack and thump countless Christs are
crucified. Hearts are walled in like the place of his birth. There are
no beatitudes written in the men and the few women who hold sway.
The
powerful own the law and plan the next convulsion. For the residue of
our humanity – Stop It.
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